I loved this story! It plays very much like a locked-room who dunnit of old thrillers and has an air of nostalgia from the very start. With a compelling story (hello, murder and intrigue!), it will draw you in from the very start.

This was good! I was interested to figure out who did what, and the added “real life” letters playing out between the “author” and a friend added a fun ✨something extra✨. *I received an advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

As a librarian myself, I'm a sucker for any book that has to do with the wonderful and magical place we call the library. Gentill's mystery was unique, compelling, fun, and a quick read! If you're a fan of cozy mysteries, I'd recommend giving this one a go.

What a dud. Started the ARC after seeing it was a June Library Reads pick but what a huge struggle to make it to the end. Was left feeling like maybe I had missed something because I really didn’t like it.

The dual plot lines wound up being less than compelling. Plot A - Hannah’s draft of a story about murder in the Boston Public Library - was a hard sell because Hannah’s writing just dragged the four cardboard characters around in some odd co-dependent dance. Award for the least interesting romance between two main characters of all time. I felt like Plot B - Leo’s letters to Hannah - was really going to take the story somewhere but I hated the references to the pandemic and how it wrapped up.

I have tired several times to read this book now and each time I end up putting it down. The style that the book is written just isn't for me.

I found this story to be an interesting one. While I feel like I have now read about every woman in every possible location, this one stood out slightly among the rest. I truly enjoyed the alternating timelines, but I did struggle a lot with the main character's decisions surrounding her love interest. For someone who was written so intelligently, I found most of her logic around the situation to be incredibly flawed.

Not a bad read overall, but nothing that really came across as something new and exciting.

I should have DNFed this but I kept going thinking that things will make sense as we go on. The format was very confusing at first but it seemed to eventually click but that didn't really help make the book better for me. The concept was interesting but it felt like it was poorly executed. I could not connect to any of the characters at all and the twist at the end felt rushed.

Mystery | Adult
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In chatting about it with a friend, I referred to this book as being “pretty meta” – by that, I meant it was self-referential, a mystery about writing a mystery. I wasn’t sure I’d like it at first, but gave it my 50-page rule (as a reader with a huge TBR pile, I commit to 50 pages; as an author you have an obligation to hook me in by then) and am glad I did. I ended up loving the twists and turns and the Agatha Christie-worthy red herrings, though the unveiling of the murderer and motive was a bit of a disappointment. So let’s back up: Australian author Hannah Tigone is writing a mystery; she is in correspondence with Leo, another author, located in Boston, who is eagerly providing background on the location she has chosen for the novel’s setting, since the pandemic prevents her from travelling there herself. In the mystery she is writing, four strangers share a table in the Boston Public Library’s Reading Room when a woman’s scream shatters the silence. Security guards order them to stay in place until the police arrive and interview them; once done, the four tablemates meet up to debrief, and quickly become a close-knit group of friends. One of the four is an Australian mystery writer; one of the four is a murderer. So there are several layers here – the murder mystery itself, the characters, and the “real-life” author who is writing the mystery. Hannah’s correspondence with Leo is an interesting device. It adds a creepiness that lifts the correspondence out of metareference into a plot twist, but it is startling to be continuously yanked out of a fictional mystery into a fictional “real life,” if that makes any sense. Gentill does leverage it into a criticism of racism as well as an interesting window into the writing process. I was also quite fearful of Hannah’s safety as a result! And at the 90% mark, I still had no idea how the novel would end; that’s usually a great sign. But the resolution, as I stated earlier, disappointed me. It’s kind of fun watching these characters make bad decision after bad decision, but the motive for the homicide makes little sense. Overall, an enjoyable story with an original premise, flawed and even over-the-top characters and a well-developed sense of place, marred by an unrealistic ending. My thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for the reading copy provided digitally through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Grand Forks & District (B.C.) Public Library has a copy in its adult mystery collection.
More discussion and reviews of this novel: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58804928

The Woman in the Library, had a lot going on. The story is from an aspiring authors perspective, which has interludes in form of letters written to a published author who is penning the story we are reading.... It is as convulated as it sounds, atleast for first half of the book.



It does have an intriguing mystery in the story and interlude part which was executed beautifully... I was impressed with how everything turned out, the twists were actually unexpected and surprising and that element is what made this story stand out.





In a nutshell, 4 strangers in a library minding their own business, a scream interrupts their day and the incident brings them together. At first they are all casually hanging out, sometimes discussing the library incident but otherwise normal and unassuming. Until our and her new friend are targeted and things are no longer just black and white anymore.
Past is unveiled, present is threatened as Noone know who to trust and there's killer amongst them.

On the other hand the interludes we deal with a very annoying character, (the author nailed psychopathic character) who gets shadier with every chapter.



Thoughts

* The opening page was really hard to get through for me, it took me 4 attempts to till today to actually proceed beyond that. It had a lot of description and the internal monologue wasn't very interesting to read unfortunately.

* The interludes overall was a cool thing and there was a mystery going on in email form, I enjoyed it although I did skim through the first few because I'd believed it had nothing to with the story.

* The whole combo of story within a story within a story....made the book seem a little dense, it had a lot going on for 1 novel in my opinion.
However, the crime-mystery of the interludes escalates slowly till all of sudden you see things getting a little disturbing, but as a reader you think oh it's for a crime writer, then you see that something is actually not right and sinister. I loved how the letters exchanged, albeit not as intriguing as the story itself, it still manages to capture your attention and by unconsciously seeding doubts.

It was impressive.

*Personally, the book cover doesn't do the story justice, it's a pretty cover but doesn't capture the essence of the book.

*As much as I'd loved the execution of the mystery, I wasn't fan of the writing style and I'd a hard time connecting to any of the characters.


*We have the 4 characters including our MC and unfortunately I wasn't able to connect with any of them, I feel the penpal (from the interludes) acting as a story critics really distracted from the flow of the story and it was confusing to read at the beginning.


* I'd have like an epilogue which showed them meeting up in the aftermath (maybe back in the library).



All in all, a impressively constructed crime & mystery novel, its unpredictable and keeps you on your toes. I just wasn't able to connect with characters and the format of the story was a little distracting although clever and original but I wasn't expecting it and took me a while to realize why it was this way.

Thanks to netgalley for the arc.

Library, murders, mystery? Seeing the Woman in the Library on netgalley was an instant "SIGN ME UP" moment.

But although there was an interesting mystery and an unusual structure, the story didn't shine as well as its synopsis. The idea of interspersing a novel with letters from a (beta) reader is intriguing and definitely different, but often it interrupted the flow of the main narrative. I'm not sure how else this second story could have been woven in that would have been any better, however.

A few times I had to remind myself to suspend my disbelief to keep reading (so I could enjoy the main character and the mystery). These moments were usually because of the relationships. Maybe it's because I don't typically read romance but I found it hard to believe how quickly the relationship/s between characters developed because the timeframe of the book seemed quite short.

So, the BEST bits?
- Reading about the MC's writing process! The bus is a fantastic analogy and works so well to weave writing into a narrative.
- The MC, despite her down the rabbit hole relationship, was fresh and interesting.
- Unique structure idea.

A novel within a novel, this book was inventive and interesting. It has a slower start but as the pace picked up, my intrigue kicked in and I wanted to see who the murderer was and what happened with the writing pen pal. It’s a good read to finish over a relaxing weekend.

What a marvellous murder mystery! I'm not sure there's anything I didn't like about this novel. The one-sided epistolary framing, the structure, the plot...I loved it all. It's tight, suspenseful, the framing addresses so many things that the reader might be thinking as the plot thickens, and keeps the reader entranced chapter by chapter. I'm going to be recommending this book widely.

This magical, wonderful, clever book works so well because the characters are so uniquely drawn. I loved the Boston Public Library setting--and it functions almost as a "locked room" mystery. Gentill keeps you guessing all the way to the end for a truly satisfying reveal. I love Sulari Gentill's storytelling and look forward to her next book with great anticipation!

"𝑊𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚. 𝐴 𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚."

What immediately drew me to the book was its title. The title alone was pretty intriguing, and I was hoping against hope that I'd get approved for it to find out what it stands for.

Likes:

✨A book inside a book. Awesome, right?
It's actually pretty interesting.

✨Leo giving his input on Hannah's book, saying exactly what's on my mind, correcting her on the U.S terms, places, eateries. Personally, I like that.

✨The writing style was pretty addictive, fast paced and building suspense. I loved it.

✨Plot twists within plot twists within plot twists. Makes no sense, right? That's the point.

Dislikes:

✨Saying "if this were a book..", that's a personal pet peeve.

✨One of the characters confiding in a possible suspect. That was just dumb.

✨Mentions of the fires in Australia and then worldwide pandemic repeatedly. I mean I'm reading to escape, not to be reminded of current real life events.

✨Leo trying to push Hannah to write about the virus.

"𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑚𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑎 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑟𝑢𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑟𝑡, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒."

ℝ𝔸𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔾: ⭐⭐⭐.5/5

I'll certainly be looking out for more books by the author!

Thank you @netgalley & @poisonedpenpress for this ARC in exchange for an honest review💕

A murder mystery within a story within an email correspondence – The Woman in the Library builds suspense masterfully on many levels.

The Woman in the Library is much better if you go in blind, so I won’t be giving any of the story away, but I will say that I was hooked from the beginning. Well, to be honest, in the beginning, I thought there was something wrong with my eARC as it starts with an email from an early reader to an author. But, trust me, there isn’t something wrong with your book – it will all make sense very soon.

I love to claim that a book is predictable, so it pains me to say that I changed my mind about the murder mystery aspect at least three times. I eventually figured it out, but it took me much longer than I’m proud to admit. Nevertheless, both elements of the narrative twisted together wonderfully to build suspense and intrigue.

Unique and difficult to put down, I would highly recommend The Woman in the Library.

I am not a super big fan of "story within a story" . It felt a little bit like Clue and who done it, which was nostalgic. The plot was decent. It kept me interested but I felt like the story within a story kind of disrupted the flow of the book. It takes the reader out of moments that could really build and be tense. I finished because I wanted to know who did it.

As an Australian, there is so much about this book that I appreciated immensely. I loved how the cultural differences and referential differences were highlighted, as it’s always something I notice as a reader!

I enjoyed that there were in a sense two narratives, one playing out traditionally and the other by way of an exchange of letters.

I think this book was incredibly creative and I know many murder mystery fans will enjoy it! Congratulations to the author.

This was interesting premise. A mystery writer writing about a mystery writer who gets involved in a murder investigation. (A murder in the library?! Sign me up!)

I enjoyed this one, but it took a while for me to get into it. I read an ARC, so I'm wondering if some of the disconnect was due to formatting. I had a hard time figuring out the "story within a story" pieces at first (is this really happening? Or is this the book?). If the confusion was by intentional design, I wasn't a fan of that aspect. I am interested enough to check out the physical copy when it's available to test my hypothesis. :) Something as simple as chapter headings would have helped a lot.

Even with my slight confusion at times, I thought it was worth the read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing an advanced readers copy.

This is one of the unique books I have read which is 'a story within a story'. Two plotlines that converge. It has a library, a murder, writers and manuscripts - everything a reader wants in a book.

Hannah Tigone is an Australian mystery writer who is writing a book set in Boston. In her book four strangers bond when they hear a woman scream and later her body is found in the Boston Public Library. Friendships are formed but who can they trust? Everyone has their own reasons to be in the library that day. One of them is also a murderer.

Hannah has Leo Johnson as a beta reader who reads the chapters of her novel as she completes them and he emails his critiques back to her. Only as the chapters progress his emails become more dark and obsessive.

The Woman in the Library was a smart and clever mystery which kept me entertained. I just had to know who did it!! It was fun to play the guessing game. I could not guess the killer though. I enjoyed the cast of characters, getting to know their motivations, suspicions and their unease. They were not at all what they seemed.

Highly recommend this captivating and original locked room mystery.

The book is out now. I am super late to post this review though. Thank you @poisonedpress and @netgalley for the digital ARC.

I really thought I would enjoy this more after reading the description and seeing rave reviews for this. I expected this to be a locked room mystery set inside a library, but it proved to be much more than that. I did find the ending to be pretty surprising as I did not see it coming, but found myself wanting this to move along a bit quicker. The characters were pretty interesting but did lack some development so I wasn't overly attached to any of them or their stories. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.