The Mystery Writer
By Sulari Gentill

This is a very interesting book. It contains murders (three to be exact), conspiracy theorists/doomsday preppers, pedophilia, crazy families, and love. What a mix!

Theodosia Benton – "Theo" to friends and family – is an Aussie law student who shows up at her brother's door in Lawrence, KS. She tells Gus that she has dropped out of law school to follow her passion to be a novelist. Her brother allows her to stay with him while she writes her book. But he tells her she must find somewhere outside his home where she can do her writing. It is during the months she is writing at Bender's Café and Bar that she meets and falls for Dan Murdoch, a famous writer living in town. When Theo finishes her book, she asks Dan if he would submit it to his agent, Veronica Cole, who works for Day Delos and Associates, "the best literary agents in the country". Dan refuses even though he tells her she is very talented. And from there the real action begins.

There is much to like here. The characters are fun – both the good guys and the bad guys. I even liked the crazy families. The overall plot hangs together pretty well. There are some things though that didn't quite hold together – like the antagonism of the local police, especially Detective Mendes, toward the protagonists right from the beginning. Also the last 40 or so pages left me with the feeling that the author was not sure exactly what the ending should look like. Either this was due to poor editing or the author feeling rushed to end it.

Over all I enjoyed the book and will go back to read earlier books by this author.

This is my first book from this author. I love a good who-done-it. This book kept me on my toes with its twists and turns. I cant wait to see how it does since its been published

Initially I thought this had a promising start, a young woman quitting law school, a path dictated by her grandfather, and striving to become a writer. However, there was a bizarre dual storyline going on here where in the background was a conspiracy theory reflective of today's culture. The connection to the mystery writer wasn't evident until much later in the story and by that time, I was lost and not interested. I wanted the characters to grow more and develop but that didn't happen much. Halfway in, I admit, I was ready to give it up. A thriller? Somewhat, but more like a mystery that can't old a candle to Agatha Christie. Many thanks to #netgalley #themysterywriter #sularigentill for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Conspiracy theories & Murder mysteries, but make it bookish.

Theo is a writer looking to get her start in the literary community. While working tirelessly on her first novel, she befriends a man at the coffee shop who becomes her mentor and develops a romantic relationship with him…that is until she finds him murdered. Naturally, Theo is taking the fall for it.

Theo is now not only trying to clear her own name, but also determine if her friend’s murder was a part of something much bigger - were all the online conspiracy theorists onto something?

Believable/realistic storyline? Maybe it was a little far fetched (or is that what they want us to think😉)

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Theo Benton quits law school, showing up on her brother's doorstep in Kansas with a half-written manuscript and a dream to become a writer. She starts working in Bender's cafe, a coffeeshop, where she meets a famous author named Dan Murdoch, who is working on a manuscript that details various conspiracy theories. The two strike up a friendship, which turns to romance, which then abruptly ends when he is found murdered.

Before she knows it, Theo is entrenched in a mystery that puts herself, her brother, Gus, and a private agent named Mac at risk. Not only are the theory conspiracists abounding, but there are doomsday preppers as well as a shady publishing agency to contend with.

Usually I am all about a mystery-writer-within-a-murder-mystery plotline, but this one didn't land with me. Theo was too damsel in distress exhaustive for my taste. While I appreciated her relationship with her brother, especially their unconditional love and protectiveness of one another, the plot got too convoluted, too weighed down by conspiracy theory meta, and didn't focus enough on building complexity in the characters. I felt disconnected from them as a result.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for my review.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this novel! I was not able to stay captive with the storyline, so I did not finish and won't be leaving a full review.

The plot of The Mystery Writer is quirky and unexpected, and for me a winner. Theodosia (Theo) Benton has dropped out of law school in Australia and shows up on her brother Augustus (Gus)'s doorstep in small town Lawrence, Kansas announcing her goal to be a writer. She finds a nice cafe/bar downtown to write in during the day, where she meets "writer in residence" Dan Murdoch, who has a string of successful novels and takes Theo under his wing. Then things start to happen quickly: Dan is murdered, Theo is a suspect and her life may be in danger from Dan's fans, which include a group of people who think he was the leader of an underground group fighting imagined threats based on crazy conspiracy theories. This book has lots of action and slightly insane plot twists, as well as interesting and likeable characters. If you're "ready for something different", give it a read!

Australian law student Theo Benton has left law school to move to the United States to live with her protective older brother, Gus, and to write her debut novel. She writes at a bar/café called Benders where she meets and falls for bestselling novelist Dan Murdoch. Having completed a novel in record time, Theo presents her manuscript to Dan to pass along to his literary agent who works for Day Delos and Associates, a shadowy agency that doesn’t only represent writers but takes over control of their lives.

Dan declines her request, warning Theo that Day Delos isn’t for her, but when Theo finds Dan dead and his agent comes knocking to potentially offer representation, she is both confused and flattered and doesn’t see any big red flags in this setup. Add to this a subplot of online conspiracy theorists and the newly minted writer’s ambitions collide with a quasi-political world that threatens her and Gus’s lives.

The Mystery Writer features a cast of mostly likable characters, including Gus, Horse the dog, and Mac, the wealthy private eye who seems much better off financially than Gus the law partner, which still feels weird and forced to me.

I was excited to watch Dan Murdoch’s murder investigation unfold and curious how Theo would untangle herself from the suspect pool, but if every main character must have strengths, I can’t come up with one for Theo who is constantly being rescued by Gus, Mac, and even Horse.

Enter a lot of guns, and Mac’s doomsday prepper family members, and the mystery devolves into something of a convoluted mess that is contrived at best and insulting at worst. It is a writer’s responsibility to consider the nuances of cultures outside of their own. The author perpetuates a harmful stereotype of Americans as gun-toting, trigger-happy citizens who wouldn’t hesitate to shoot a neighbor for walking into one of our homes for a cup of sugar if the front door is unlocked. This is more or less stated when Gus chastises Theo for walking into Dan Murdoch’s house unannounced and without warning.

Americans are a diverse population, and there are plenty of anti-firearm Americans, though you won’t see them in this book, and I’m sure there are educated preppers. Still, the author chooses to lean on a redneck trope that furthers the weak conspiracy theorist narrative. In a world where we’re employing sensitivity readers to ensure fair representation, I cannot believe that a publisher selling this novel in the US didn’t think that this would pose a potential issue.

I could overlook the tropes if they served the plot better, but The Mystery Writer is a miss for me after the first forty percent during which I was genuinely hooked. Like The Woman in the Library, which also let me down, I was looking for author growth requesting this ARC. Unfortunately, it cements her as someone whose work I won’t read a third time. There’s an interesting hook buried deep within this novel about the cost of personal mistakes in cancel culture but it’s wildly underdeveloped. The Mystery Writer is cautiously recommended for fans of shadowy agencies and conspiracy theories with the caveat that a reader must suspend disbelief throughout. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill might be seen as a scathing denouncement of the publishing industry if one were a cynic. Whatever the message, it was an excellent mystery, full of murder, threats, veiled or otherwise, and intrigue. It was comprised of a group of misfits lurking on the Internet to a young writer, hoping to publish her first work. Theodosia Benton, (Theo) had left law school in Australia and arrived on her brother’s doorstep without a real plan. She knew she didn’t want to return to law school. She and her brother were part aborigine, Australia. Their parents were vagabonds but wanted the best for their children. Gus was a lawyer, in Lawrence, Kansas. Theo would never be a lawyer. She took to spending her days in what was a cafe by day and a bar by night, writing. There were others writers there although they didn’t interact much. Until one day one did. Dan Murdoch. They became friends, then they made love, then he was murdered.

What a good story this was, if a little overboard, but most fictional murders are, aren’t they? Theo’s problems stemmed from immaturity, until they didn’t and she handled something, if not well, better. She trusted her publisher. Why wouldn’t she? They had published Dan’s books. They wanted what was best for her, didn’t they? What a good character. Her brother Gus, was as well. Both pretty clean cut young adults. Her parents were odd, but? The plot was improbable but interesting and well-thought-out. It kept me wondering. I figured out a little of it early on but hardly to the full extent. The only issue I have with the fabulous book is that the ending seemed a little rushed. It was like she didn’t really know how to end it and had a word limit. That didn’t negate the quality of the whole, however. Thanks, Sulari Gentill!

The narrator was Katherine Littrell who was excellent. She kept the momentum and made me want to keep listening. She was the perfect narrator for this book. Couldn’t have asked for a better one.

I was invited to read The Mystery Writer by Poisoned Pen Press and listen by Dreamscape Media. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #PoisonedPenPress #DreamscapeMedia #SulariGentill #TheMysteryWriter

3.5⭐️

When twenty-two-year-old Theodosia “Theo” Benton drops out of law school in Australia, she ends up in Lawrence, Kansas, at the home of her older brother Gus, a practicing lawyer. Theo is an aspiring writer and Gus is supportive of her goals, encouraging her to pursue her dreams. At Gus’ insistence, she finds a place to sit and write - a bar named Benders where she meets Dan Murdoch, a best-selling author whom she quickly befriends. Dan encourages Theo and from him, she begins to understand how the publishing world works. But when Dan is brutally murdered, Theo, Gus, and their friend Mac are drawn into a complex web of conspiracy, lies, deception, and murder. As the narrative progresses, Theo realizes that all was not as it seemed right in Dan’s world and that sometimes the truth can be stranger than fiction.

I was intrigued by the premise of The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill. Cleverly crafted and well-paced, with a solid mystery at its core with some interesting twists along the way, this novel surely held a lot of promise. My first problem with the novel was the fact that I wasn’t a fan of Theo, who is portrayed to be a bit too naïve for my liking. I did like the other characters and especially loved reading about their lives in Tasmania and the bond between the adult siblings even though they didn’t spend much time together growing up. The conspiracy theories and doomsday preppers added to the intrigue (and the entertainment value) in the story and I was eager to see where the characters finally landed. I also wasn’t a fan of the time jumps (yes, more than one) toward the end which made me feel like I was missing parts of the story, despite the narrative feeling a tad too lengthy. Usually, I love complicated mysteries and enjoy trying to guess the identity of the culprit and don’t mind suspending disbelief. However, the plot became too convoluted (laughably so) toward the end and way over the top for me to appreciate the direction of the story or the final revelations.

I really enjoyed The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill and was eager to read the author’s new book. While the premise of the novel is enticing, and I found some of the characters and plot twists definitely interesting, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as I had hoped.

I paired my reading with the audiobook narrated by Katherine Littrell. The excellent narration breathes life into the story and the characters and makes for an engaging immersion reading experience. The audio narration definitely enhanced my overall experience with this novel.

Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for the digital review copy and Dreamscape Media for the ALC via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

In The Mystery Writer, nothing is as it seems. Theo decides she wants to forgo her studies to be a lawyer, and write a novel instead. In doing so, she meets a famous writer and forms an alliance with him. When their meeting finally turns to romance, she is shocked to find her lover dead a day later. From there on, things get very murky.

Maybe I'm just not smart enough to follow the threads of this book, but I found the plot very convoluted, and I am not a fan of conspiracy theories, so this aspect of the story just annoyed me. On the plus side, the writing itself is good. It just wasn't a story line I enjoyed.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Poison Pen for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely loved this novel. It was a refreshing thriller that wasnt a beating over my head with the narrative thank you netgalley

A fantastically plotted mystery sure to delight book lovers.

The Woman in the Library was a favorite of 2022 for me so I knew I would most likely love The Mystery Writer and it did not disappoint.

After dropping out of law school, Theo goes to stay with her brother while she tries to finish her novel. She finds a coffee shop where she can work and as luck would have it, there's another mystery writer who frequents the shop. After he takes Theo under her wing, Dan is murdered and Theo gets pulled deep into a web of conspiracy, which she can make neither heads nor tails of. Twisty and full of surprises, The Mystery Writer is a compelling story. My one complaint would be that the story moves around in the timeline a bit much for my taste, which made the ending feel a bit abrupt. I think fans of Gentill's previous work will find this installment a worthwhile read.

BOOK REPORT
Received a complimentary copy of The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill from Poisoned Pen Press/NetGalley, for which I am appreciative, in exchange for a fair and honest review. Scroll past the BOOK REPORT section for a cut-and-paste of the DESCRIPTION of it from them if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of that summary.

Once again, the main thing I find myself having to say about a book is, “Better in concept than in execution.”

I mean, I loved the conspiracy theory and prepper stuff, and was a big fan of the private investigator character. But, honestly? I was truly shocked to find out that this was not a debut novel—it had that everything-and-the-kitchens-sink jumbled up feel to it. (No offense to the kajillions of excellent debut novels out there.)

Also, parts of it were just so implausible as to beggar ALL freakin’ belief.

So, if that ending meant that this is the first in a planned series, count me out if and when it comes reading any more.

DESCRIPTION
A mischievous twist on mystery novels and the people who write them." ―Benjamin Stevenson, author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

"Stunningly original and thoroughly captivating, Sulari Gentill’s The Mystery Writer perfectly captures the pulse of our time." —Andrew Child

There's nothing easier to dismiss than a conspiracy theory—until it turns out to be true

When Theodosia Benton abandons her career path as an attorney and shows up on her brother's doorstep with two suitcases and an unfinished novel, she expects to face a few challenges. Will her brother support her ambition or send her back to finish her degree? What will her parents say when they learn of her decision? Does she even have what it takes to be a successful writer?

What Theo never expects is to be drawn into a hidden literary world in which identity is something that can be lost and remade for the sake of an audience. When her mentor, a highly successful author, is brutally murdered, Theo wants the killer to be found and justice to be served. Then the police begin looking at her brother, Gus, as their prime suspect, and Theo does the unthinkable in order to protect him. But the writer has left a trail, a thread out of the labyrinth in the form of a story. Gus finds that thread and follows it, and in his attempt to save his sister he inadvertently threatens the foundations of the labyrinth itself. To protect the carefully constructed narrative, Theo Benton, and everyone looking for her, will have to die.

USA Today bestselling author Sulari Gentill takes readers on a rollercoaster ride in The Mystery Writer, a literary thriller that turns the world of books and authors upside down and where a writer's voice is a thing to be controlled and weaponized, to the peril of everyone who loves a good story.
________________________________________
ADVANCE PRAISE
“Some mysteries need a crime writer to solve. Clever, twisty, and surprisingly unexpected.”
—Michael Robotham, two-time winner of the CWA Gold Dagger Award

Sulari Gentill's book, Woman in the Library was one of my favorite reads of 2023. When I saw her newest book, The Mystery Writer, was available on NetGalley, I jumped at the opportunity to request it. I was thrilled when my request was approved.

I was engrossed in this captivating narrative that had me eagerly flipping through the pages. Despite its extended length, the complex storyline and unexpected turns captivated my interest from beginning to end. This literary adventure is a compelling, mysterious journey that will leave you guessing until the final pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced e-reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn't get into this one. I thought it was slow going at the beginning and while the blurb made it sound exciting, I didn't find that to be the case with this book. I didn't like the FMC, I found to be ridiculous at times. The ending had me confused as all get out.

Parts of it also reminded me of the author's first novel:
1) Australian woman moves to the U.S., (acts like she moved from Mars to Earth)
2) There are coffee shops
3) Friends made along the way

Definitely not for me.

Theo decides to drop out of law school to pursue her dream of being a writer, and in the process moves in with her brother, and meets his best friend Mac. But the murder of Theo’s mentor, a fellow writer, sets off a wild chain of events, featuring conspiracies, disappearing writers, and more murder.

Here’s the thing with this book. I loved the three main characters, and the book started really intriguingly with a strong-sounding mystery. But then the story went off the rails, and just kept going, at least in my opinion. You can definitely give this book a go, it just didn’t end up working for me.

Sulari Gentill is a master of the literary thriller game. She has this extraordinary talent to take the concept for a thriller and build it out in a complicated and daring plot that is unpredictable at each step and somehow lands at the finish with a standing-ovation-worthy ending! In her latest novel, The Mystery Writer, an aspiring writer finds the murdered body of her writing mentor, and it turns out that is only the beginning of her journey to the truth…

About the Book | The Mystery Writer

Theodosia “Theo” Benton has dropped out of law school in Australia to pursue a career in writing. She arrives unannounced at her brother Gus’s door in Lawrence, Kansas (and finds him at a slightly compromising moment) to ask if she can stay with him while she works on her writing. Gus is an attorney himself, but offers her a place to stay and support, though he encourages her to leave the apartment each day to write.

It is on one of these excursions that Theo happens to meet a famous writer named Dan Murdoch. Even more unexpected, the two have a wonderful conversation and over the following months Murdoch becomes a mentor to Theo on her writing. Despite their age difference, Dan and Theo share an intimate night together. When Gus learns that Theo has more than a casual relationship with Dan, he asks to meet him. However, when Theo arrives at Dan’s apartment she discovers he has been murdered.

In the wake of this terrible crime, things begin to get much more complicated. Theo is approached by Dan’s former literary agent who has expressed interest in her work, which she got from Dan. The publishing agency is known as one of the best in the world, but that comes with a rather strict contract should Theo sign with them. Meanwhile, the police are questioning how Theo came to be at Dan’s apartment and whether she knows more about his murder than she lets on.

Several strange occurrences seem to link to Dan’s murder, but Theo isn’t sure how. A neighbor drops off a letter that was mistakenly delivered to his house. The letter is from Dan to Theo and must have been sent before his death. Meanwhile Dan was involved in an anonymous underground conspiracy community that he says he was using for research, but they seem to know his real identity and that his unpublished manuscript may be the key to what they are searching for. Gus worries that Theo’s life may be in danger and asks his friend Mac, a private investigator, to keep an eye out when another murder happens that appears to tie into the web of mysteries surrounding Dan’s death. And that is only the beginning of what Theo will have to go through to understand what is really going on…

Review | The Mystery Writer

This is an intricately plotted story. I can’t even begin to describe how many different threads pull in that seem to distract from what really happened, until the end when everything is expertly laid out to show that not a single thread was extraneous to the conclusion. I don’t think this book will be for everyone—for those familiar with Gentill’s writing, she is an expert at an outlandish literary plot. Nothing about this is a straight forward murder mystery. But don’t forget the title—this is at its core a story about a mystery writer and all will eventually tie into that when the mystery comes together.

Theo is an infuriatingly naïve character and that leads Gus and eventually his friend Mac to be a bit over protective of her. But based on some things that happen, it seems they may not have been protective enough! Gus is an intelligent and funny person, and the backstory that you’ll learn about him and Theo and why they are living in different countries adds quite a bit of texture to the story.

As the plot teaser says, there’s nothing easier to dismiss than a conspiracy theory—until it turns out to be true. And this story has a lot of fascinating plot lines that surround conspiracies. The question is if and how they are related?

Dan Murdoch was deeply embedded in an online conspiracy group that he claims was for research. However, his murder only adds more questions about this group. Are they behind it? Is the conspiracy they believe in not-so-far-fetched after all? Or is Dan’s murder unrelated? Mirroring the shadowy online conspiracy group are the very public conspiracists that largely include Mac’s direct family. These characters were such a bizarre delight in the story, and they may just serve a purpose after all. It turns out that being a dooms day prepper means you have solutions, tools, and a social network in place to solve a lot of unexpected occurrences…

I loved this novel! I was fascinated by the direction the plot went in after Dan’s death and the investigation gets moving. At some point it switches perspectives and jumps in time. Gentill has a way of crafting her stories that always make the reader feel slightly off-kilter, which adds to experiencing the story. After all, her stories are twisted and feeling off-kilter matches what the characters are experiencing. The ending is intense and I suspect it may be polarizing for some readers! I’ve seen a few reviewers that thought this story went too far off the rails, but I felt the opposite. The story is a high-speed ride with no seatbelt on and I loved every minute of it!

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for my copy. Opinions are my own.

I ended up not being able to finish this book. The dialogue really felt unreal to me which is weird because I have liked other works by this author in the past. Not for me but I hope to keep reading things from this author.

This was my first time reading this author. As I looked as a couple of the reviews, I think I should have started somewhere else. This book was hard to get into at first. Then it got confusing and head shaking. From a technical standpoint it is well written and edited. It might have been that I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories. I just couldn’t connect with this one.