One of the most interesting and original books that I have read for ages.
We follow a mystery writer who is writing a mystery whilst living the scenario. A highly entertaining read and I would certainly look out for this author in the future.

This one was very hard to put down, especially toward the end. I loved the framing for it: a mystery writer is writing a book about a mystery writer who’s writing a mystery (my brain exploded for a while over that), and between each chapter, there’s a letter from a fan. The fan seems to be a regular correspondent of the writer’s, and he’s giving writing feedback and insider information on Boston, since the Australian writer’s research trip has been postponed by the pandemic. There are no letters by the author included in the narrative, but she is clearly corresponding and sending chapters for feedback, based on what the fan is writing. It’s a clever way to make the setting current without Covid taking over everything about the plot (the fan and the author disagree over whether or not it should be included in the plot of her book). I don’t want to give too much away with more details. I will say, at 91%, I was sure I had figured out the murderer in the novel within the novel (and not that proud of myself since it was so close to the end)…and I was wrong!

Worthwhile notes and a nice interview at the end—I recommend reading them all! I’ll definitely push this once it’s out, and I’m eager to check out the author’s other work.

This is a very clever story about four strangers in the Boston Public Library who meet and bond over hearing a woman’s scream. This is the first book I’ve read by this author and it definitely won’t be the last. The story is easy to follow, despite its being a story within a story. Recommended.

3 Stars

WOW, What a ride!

This book was definitely interesting. I thought that the book inside a book trope would be off-putting or that I'd be interested in one story more than the other, but that wasn't the case at all.
The book is written as chapters from a novel that's currently being written alternating with letters between the author of the novel and an aspiring author, who also happens to be a fan of her books.

<em><b>"And then there is a scream. Ragged and terrified. A beat of silence even after it stops, until we all seem to realize that the Reading Room Rules no longer apply."</b></em>

The novel that the author is writing is about four people who meet at the Boston Public Library, and become friends after they hear a woman's scream in a nearby room. Next day, they find out that a woman was murdered in the library the night before and the murderer was actually one of them. And that's how their friendship starts.

The novel was so good and the pace was fine. To be honest I didn't like how Leo, the author's correspondent commented on her novel as if it were his own.
Throughout the novel there were some weird comments about race. These comments just irked me. for example:

"People who have assumed these people were white may feel betrayed and tricked if they realise that the people they've invested in could be Black. Some folks only want to read about people of their own kind, and even the idea that a character could be black, means he's not white enough."

Really???!!! What does that even supposed to mean?

Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book. A new, twisty spin on your usual whodunnit, but done so well that I honestly forgot the bad guy was going to be one of the central characters!

It is sort of a “story within a story” which was a little confusing at first but once you get what’s going on, it’s not hard to follow.

The outermost story is one-sided epistolary and I really enjoyed it. My only complaint was that the “author’s” pen pal, Leo, declares quite a few of her details as being either American or Not American, as she is writing a book set in the states while she lives in Australia… I disagreed with quite a few things he said, which made him a little questionable as the authority on Americanisms. We do, in fact, refer to cold weather knit hats as “beanies.”

All in all, one of the better ones I’ve read this year. I’ll be keeping an eye for this author’s work in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an advanced copy of this book.

Great idea for the main plot but did not care for the dual story line. Two stories in one took away from the main storyline for me. Switching back and forth complicated the reading enough that I did not enjoy the book as much as I thought I would from reading the synopsis. If you are into dual storylines, this would be a great read for you. If you are into a smoother single plot then skip this one.

I loved the story-within-a-story aspect of this book. I often found myself thinking the author was writing about herself.. The idea of an Australian writer setting her book in Boston, with a sub-plot of a stalker/editor helping was just so wonderfully convoluted! I really liked this book and couldn't wait to get back to it every day.

The Woman in the Library was set up interestingly, with chapters alternating between the mystery story, and emails from a man to the author of the story- giving her feedback on the characters, how to make it more US sounding (the author being Australian), etc.

I can't tell if it cheapened the mystery, having it be an actual story in the novel's universe. But both the emails and the story kept me engaged, and I flew through it so I guess it worked for me. But the story within a story genre still isn't my favorite.

And what the heck was that ending??

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review!

A scream brings four strangers together and begins a mystery within another story. Mystery writer Hannah is sending drafts of her book to Leo, a reader in Boston, to check for accuracy and give details about the location and terminology because she can't travel to Boston herself due to the pandemic.
The mystery is about a writer named Freddie who is staying in Boston on a fellowship to write her book. She goes to the BPL to write and there she meets 3 others. But are these others really strangers? Where the four of them coincidently there at the time of the scream? Is Leo, another fellowship writer living in the same building, really as kind and considerate as she thinks?
Two mysteries and some letter writing make this a fun to read mystery.

"No...a story is about leading a reader to meaning. The revelation is theirs, but we show them the way. I suppose the morality of the writer influences whether you can trust what they are showing you."

The beauty of writing book reviews is its enabling power bestowed upon the reader to voice out her thoughts and feelings about the book. One may say that a review is subjective much as beauty depends on the eye of the beholder but not one can ignore the inevitable fact that one of the reader's responsibilities is to share her thoughts, feelings, and guarded opinions about a tome. And so, here it is!

I am fond of books that narrate stories involving libraries, tomes, and writers. While other books that have "bookish stories"may seem boring and tied loosely at the end, this book is not. It exceeded beyond expectations.
My mind and my bookish heart were satisfied reading a story within a story.

It is a story about a writer, Freddie, who resonates another writer, Hannah, a famous author who corresponded with a serial killer and the author of Freddie's story. Ironically, Hannah writes mysteries. As chapter after chapter unfolded before her and as Freddie unfolds the mystery behind the woman killed in the library, Hannah sends each chapter to Leo, a self-proclaimed writer with a dark personality. Hannah receives constructive criticims and tips from Leo together with photos and stories of crimes he committed for the sake of 'helping' his writer-friend. It is a riddle you, as a reader, should solve.

Secrets unfolded. Lies confronted. Truth revealed. Freddie was able to solve the crime and protect her beloved friends from the real killer. But will Hannah evade Leo as he sets forth to Australia to meet her and show her unimaginable things?

To those who wants to read another out-of-the-box story, here's the right book for you. Brace yourself and let not your curiosity get the best out of you lest you will finish the book in less than an hour. But it will be a less than an hour of time well spent.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. It was put on my radar by the publisher and I certainly am glad! The initial premise of a murder mystery in a library was very intriguing. Then you throw in that the 4 strangers get to know each other and find out they have ties that they didn't even know about. THEN the meta moment when Hannah's friend Leo is corresponding to her in real-time, but then is also in her novel. It was so great! The only thing that I did not like was the slow development of the characters and the twists, but i understand to make it a good mystery it needed to be vague and slow. Lastly, I definitely think the title does not do this novel justice. If i was going based off the title alone, i probably would not pick it up thinking it was a mystery. The title comes off as historical fiction.

This novel was very slow moving from the start. It picked up about half way through and then the murder mystery took off. There are plenty of red herrings and I must admit that I didn’t correctly identify the murderer, taking one of the false hints at face value. I found the correspondence with Leo to be interesting, especially how it worked its way into the narrative of the murder mystery. Overall, I felt this was an okay, if different, mystery, but nothing outstanding.

This story is written so cleverly! It’s a story within a story and it’s fantastic! I loved all the layers. This story is full of mystery and intrigue. It held me captive from the start, and I couldn’t wait to get to the bottom of everything that was happening. Great twists and turns that leave the reader feeling excited.

There were a number of clever, enjoyable elements to this book, but the characters just fell flat for me. The story we are reading is presented as chapters sent to a beta reader named Leo. Leo's letters and observations allow Sulari to address some things that might be bothering the reader--like the fact that the characters are barely given a physical description. While I appreciated the self-awareness of some of the story's flaws, it didn't keep me from feeling like I was reading a draft that could still use some polishing, The protagonist--who is also supposed to be writing a book based on the characters that we meet in The Woman in the Library--dubs these characters Handsome Man, Freud Girl, and Heroic Chin. And, for me, they never progressed to much greater depth than that.

When the silence of the reading room at the Boston Public Library is shattered by a woman's scream, it serves as an introduction between four strangers sharing a table: Freddie (Winifred), an Australian writer spending a year in Boston on a scholarship; Cain, a published author working on his second book; psych student Marigold; and Whit, a law student trying to flunk out so he doesn't have to join the family firm. While they wait for the library guards to let them leave, these four young people get to know one another and a friendship begins. When the body of a young woman is discovered in an adjoining room, they realize they all have an alibi since they were together when they heard the scream. But things may not be so straightforward, and danger and suspicion follow them from the library. The writing style of this book is different: each chapter is presented as a chapter in a novel being written by an Australian who has not been to Boston, and concludes with an email response from a fan and "helper" who lives in Boston and provides the author with insights and advice. The emails become a subplot that some may find distracting from the main story, but for me it added an extra dimension of mystery. The book is well written, the characters are engaging, and the plot is twisty and current.

THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY by Sulari Gentill is my first time reading this author's works, so I can't speak to anything other than this novel, which I found odd.

Four people at a table at the Boston Public Library hear a woman scream--that brings them together into a friendship. I don't know why.

These four people have NOTHING in common, and maybe they would meet for a coffee, but to become besties is not in the realm of reality.

One would think a murder in the BPL would make for a fascinating puzzle mystery. It didn't. I guessed the killer 1/3 through despite intense efforts to make the reader believe otherwise.

Thanks to Net Galley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC.

First off, I'm a sucker for an epistolary novel and an unreliable narrator.

The slow-burn of the frame was wickedly delightful.

Sequel bait at the end? I kid. Maybe.

The Woman in the Library – A whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie! When four strangers are seated together in the reading room at Boston Public Library, they have no idea how intertwined their lives will become after a murder occurs while they are all there – kind of a reverse “locked room” mystery! I’m sure they would have never guessed that one of them would end up the murderer! After talking to the police, they decide to get together again to talk over what has happened and discover all of them are established authors.. The narrator is Freddie, who decides to write a book with the four of them as characters. (There is also a weird writer named Leo who keeps sending her advice on her book, not sure of the purpose but creepy!) and the other three friends are all so believable it is hard to figure out which one is the killer!! Well done and a fun read, Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for my copy of this intriguing mystery.

Wow! This book is one fast paced mystery that keeps you guessing who the muderer is until the very end.

I loved that the murder took place in a library as that seems highly unlikely. Four people share a table not realizing that one of them is a murderer. How creepy is that-Yikes! I enjoyed that this had a story within a story.

The book had a slow start. Despite what could have been a good ending to the first chapter and having an amazing hook, the pace was so slow so as to render it dragging.

I also found the book to be littered with mistakes