I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A killer is loose in this whodunit. A novelist is communicating with a friend who is giving her advice on a new storyline. Things get sketchy fairly early on.

A compelling & brilliantly plotted whodunit set in Boston that starts with a scream inside the Boston Public Library, a murder & several potential suspects.

This is the story of Freddie a young aspiring writer hailing from Australia who is the recipient of a writing grant, and her unexpected relationships with the two young men and one young woman who were sharing a table with her at the BPL the day of the murder.....
A scream that will bond the four of them and send them into an impetuous quest for reasons, answers and the identity of the person or persons behind the murder of the Woman in the library.....

But beware Dear reader, nothing is as it seems in this captivating murder mystery and quick and superficial friendships could actually turn out to be too dangerous to really handle......

With enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat for few a hours, this menacing "story within a story" should definitely leave more than one unexpected reader totally gobsmacked by the end....

Australian author Sulari Gentill has been one of my best literary discoveries in 2021 👍👍and this terrific upcoming release really deserved to be thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish without any moderation whatsoever!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen for this terrific ARC

** Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. **

It all starts with four strangers...and a scream.

When Freddie sat down in the Boston Public Library's Reading Room to work on her latest novel, she had no idea that the three strangers at her table would become so entangled with her life. But the scream that cuts through the silence of the library binds the group together in a twisting murder mystery where nothing is as it seems.

Even the story that the reader holds in their hand isn't as it seems. In fact, it is a story within a story! The chapters end with the correspondence of Leo, a fan and beta reader (?) to the author of Freddie's tale. As Freddie's story progresses, so to does Leo's correspondence grow more obsessive.

The Woman in the Library is one of those rare books that I neither loved or nor hated. It simply...was. The jump between the novel and Leo's letters was sometimes jarring and I had a hard time switching my brain from one aspect to the other. The concept in and of itself is fantastic...I'm just not sure if it worked. I think, though, that what really killed any chance of me loving this book was mention of the pandemic. I know for some this isn't a big deal, but I just can't get behind books that mention the pandemic when we're still living through it. It's a personal thing and, it just killed my enjoyment of the book. Maybe, if I read it again a few years down the road, I will have a different view.

In all, though, The Woman in the Library, is an interesting tale that keeps the reader guessing from page one.

What a unique, intelligent book this is! An author writing about an author writing about new friends that she just met at the library researching for a book she is writing. Apparently nothing can bring a group of friends together like a harrowing scream in the middle of a quiet library. The concept may sound confusing, and it did take a little thinking at the beginning to figure out what was what, but once it was all settled in my mind I absolutely loved it! As a mystery, it is quite intriguing with a subplot that keeps you on your toes as well. I will be looking for more from this author and will highly recommend it to my friends. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

I'm sorry to say this just wasn't my cup of tea. The format didn't work for me and I quickly lost interest. I liked the premise of the story, but this is the kind of format that you'll either appreciate or find annoying. Your mileage may vary.

Four strangers seated at a table in the Boston Public Library's main reading room are united by a woman's scream. Freddie, an Australian writer staying in Boston on a fellowship, had been studying her tablemates as potential characters in her novel and she is surprised at how accurate her guesses are when the four are asked to leave the possible crime scene and adjourn to a nearby coffee shop to exchange life stories.

Friendships are quickly formed but the suspense mounts as the reader learns that everyone has something to hide and nothing is what it seems. Somehow these people are connected to the woman who screamed and whose body was later found and Freddie tries to unwind the threads and trace the connections without endangering herself.

There is a story within a story as each chapter ends with an email to the successful author of this novel from a progressively deranged fan and the tension mounts as the reader waits for another violent crime to happen.

This book draws the reader in and it has a lot of potential but the ending seems rushed as the author's focus shifts from a strong case against one character to an abrupt new direction and the second storyline is quickly and bloodlessly resolved.

Appearances can be deceiving; it’s trite because it’s so true. Four strangers at a table at the Boston Public Library: an Australian mystery writer in the United States on a scholarship, a tattooed goth psychology student, a Harvard Law student and a ridiculously handsome American author. All seem so pleasant, and they are thrown into conversation and then interrupted by a blood-curdling scream. They seem so nice, so concerned, but one is a murderer.

But we soon discover that the foursome are actually characters in a manuscript being written — and rewritten — by a popular Australian mystery writer. A story within another story. Or maybe not. I’ve never seen a format like this one, and I loved it.

While author Sulari Gentill writes a detective series, The Woman in the Library is a stand-alone novel. She laces the novel with so many surprises and twists that I can’t wait to tackle her Rowland Sinclair series. Highly, highly, highly recommended.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.

The Woman in the Library is a very clever, in a good way, mystery. There are several mysteries to solve in addition to the murder in the library, and there's a story within the story. The characters are interesting even when they are irritating! Altogether a fun romp through the BPL.

I have a love/hate feeling towards this book. Had it just told the story of the four main characters I would have loved it. However, I found the letters from Leo to Hannah to be very disruptive and did not add value. There were also too many connections between Cain and the other characters that didn't make sense given the location of his adolescent crime and that they are all now in Boston. I also wasn't a fan of the pandemic being mentioned half way through the book. It detracted from the story and I felt like it was just added in at the last minute.

Really enjoyed the interesting format of the book- a writer (with a mysterious "colleague") working on a book about a writer working on a book and solving a mystery. The suspense was good and kept me reading to the end. I also thought the way it was written, it could be marketed as YA or regular adult mystery. Would recommend!

I just lost interest as time went on. The fan angle annoyed me, and it felt annoying to have a library setting, only because i’m A librarian. Murders do obviously happen in libraries. One did at my college library long before I went thee, but I just can’t be bothered.

Unique, Quirky, Clever…
Unique, quirky and clever storytelling once again from the pen of this very talented author. The peace and serenity of the Boston Public Library is about to be shattered, and amongst those inside sits a murderer. Perfectly paced and superbly told this is a compelling and immersive read from start to finish.

This is a very creative story within a story of four strangers in the Boston Public Library when they hear a woman scream. One of the people at the table is the murderer of that woman. One of the women at the table is writing that story and getting feedback from a fan and that is the other story which is even more chilling. Confused? I was too at first but it starts coming together and making for an enjoyable reading experience. The Woman in the Library is a quick read with no graphic or gruesome descriptions but the characters and interesting and the setting is well described.

This is a very entertaining, interesting, and fun mystery/thriller. I think that the cover, description, and premise of the book are instantly attention grabbing and the story itself was no slouch when it came to keeping my interest, but after finishing the book I have to say that the overall execution of some of the ideas the book is working with stumbled enough times to give me pause.

The hurdle for me was the story-in-a-story sections that pop up around every chapter, and to the novel's credit while I was repelled by them at first they did start to grab my attention midway through. Unfortunately, I feel that by the end the drama going on around the story semi-overshadowed the story itself, and not in a way that really worked for me. I'm not sure if it needed to go harder in that direction, with a lot more story choices being clearly or subtly chosen by the in-text author's ultimate goal at that stage in the book (and this did happen towards the late middle of the book, maybe it needed to happen earlier?) or if it needed to back away or even be taken out for me to just enjoy the mystery of the woman in the library by itself.

I will say that I really enjoyed the central concept and friendship between the characters, and that while this book didn't knock it out of the park for me at the end that I definitely enjoyed my time with it and would recommend it to anyone looking for an entertaining and somewhat different mystery/thriller.

An interesting embedded narrative. Australian author Hannah corresponds by email with American author Leo. She develops a story about four people in the Boston library who are at the same table when they hear a scream. Hannah sends chapters by email to Leo, who comments and makes suggestions. But what about the four people (in Hannah's story) who hear the cry, the ones sitting at the library table, and later learn about the death of a young woman? Is one of them a murderer? A clever technique for a mystery--a frame story, a story within a story. read in October

NetGalley/Poisoned Pen Press; Mystery/Thriller. May 10, 2022.

Wow! This was such a fun read. There’s so much I want to talk about but can’t without giving away spoilers. I can hardly wait for my friends amd coworkers to read it so we can talk about it.

The mystery had me constantly second guessing myself for a good portion of the book, and the thriller built up to a level of true creepiness in a gradual and unexpected way. I will definitely be recommending this book for my library book club.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#NetGalley

Very clever, very original, and very entertaining! I truly enjoyed Gentill's story, most especially in that she presented the murder mystery to us as a literal story within the novel itself. Reading "drafts" of her murder mystery through the eyes of Leo, a self-claimed fan and fellow author, whose feedback becomes increasingly more and more bizarre, served to only raise the suspense level overall. Thank you to NetGalley, and to Poisoned Pen Press, for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for review.

Okay, so I'll sum it up pretty quick.
The book contains a book in itself, you see Hannah, an Australian author, who writes a mystery novel featuring 4 main characters, Freddie, Cain, Whit and Marigold, and she sends the chapters she writes to Leo, her American "friend" who kind of helps her in the details regarding setting her novel in the US.
The problem, it felt like i was reading a first draft, which is kind of understandable considering the author was in the process of writing the book, but for me that wasn't enough for the mediocrity of it.
The story itself wasn't that thrilling, it was a combination of many cliches stitched into one story.
Long story short, i wasn't a fan.
* I received an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review via netgalley and the publisher*

This is one murder mystery that I could not put down! I thought I had the killer pegged and boy was I totally wrong! This is such an incredible book. The friendship that the 4 main characters share is amazing!

This was an enjoyable read. There were moments in the first half when it felt slow and/or I didn't feel really connected to the main character, but it was fun to see the letters from the author's fan/beta reader become increasingly unhinged and to imagine her side of the whole story. I'll be recommending to anyone who likes mysteries and/or is interested in the idea of a story within a story, where both the 'author' and the characters have to deal with potentially life-threatening situations.