The premise of this book intrigued me but the pacing wasn’t that great and had me bored by the halfway point.

#netgalley
Thank you @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

Theodosia Benson has dropped out of law school and moved from Tasmania to the United States. She moves in with her brother, an up-and-coming attorney. She wants to become a mystery writer. During her writing sessions at a local pub, she meets another writer. But this one is famous. And he likes her. Following a one night stand, things look promising. Until he turns up dead. And Theo is the prime suspect.

Working with her brother and his private investigator friend, Theo sets out to find the murderer. But instead of finding a solution, they just keep coming up with more bodies.

I loved the characters in this novel. The plot was crisp and invigorating. The solution was unexpected. I highly recommend this book to readers of...well...mystery writers.

The title is perfect and fits the story very well.

The mystery starts almost immediately and does not end until the very last page. This is a well rounded storyline and leaves you flipping the pages to find out what is going on?!

Deep and dark mystery. Clues and forbidden romance. Some language and open door romance.

Theo has abandoned her study of the law to pursue being an author. Shows up at her older brother's doorstep to crash at his place while she writes. She finds a cafe to become one of their regulars along with other writers. She falls in with a few of them but one catches her eye and part of her heart. When he is killed it also captures her nosy interest in while he was dead. The book really picked up my interest as she researches the why. So many twists and turns was so interesting. This was a good story!

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The story took an unexpected path, and the 'mystery writer' turned out to be someone I didn’t anticipate. About three-quarters of the way through, the pacing sped up too much as the plot rushed to the next point, which left me wishing it had taken its time—I would have enjoyed reading more. I especially loved the brother's relationship with his sister and would have liked more insight into their family dynamics. The perspective of living in the U.S. as an outsider was fascinating, particularly from the viewpoint of one character who was a lawyer.

Loved it! Brilliantly written story. Something totally different then anything I read so far. Great characters, so full of life. I enjoyed the book from start to end.

The Mystery Writer was an excellent thriller. The premise seemed so unique, I definitely haven't read anything like it before. It started off as more of a slow burn, but then it took off, and I couldn't put it down.

I definitely want to avoid any spoilers. You definitely want to go into this book not knowing much about it.

But, I'll say this book had a little bit of everything, conspiracy theories, m$rder, mystery, intrigue. I did have some strong suspicions of what exactly was happening, but I didn't know exactly how things would unfold. There were big jumps forward in time in the book, but they were necessary to make the plot believable.

At times, there were aspects of the story that seemed very out there for me, but others might not find it so. But, it didn't matter for me because that's what added to the intrigue of the story.

Overall, this book was just thrilling rollercoaster of ups and downs, and I'd recommend for anyone who is looking for a unique thriller.

Unfortunately, after multiple attempts I have been unable to get into this. I have chosen to DNF. I apologize.

Some books deserve a second chance, and this is one of them. So, if you initially are not sure about "The Mystery Writer", resist the urge to not finish. When I first started reading the book, I couldn't get into it and found it somewhat "loony." So, I set it aside and came back to it months later. The second time around, I persisted with it, and found the storyline improved, and that it was a decent book, despite some obvious holes in the plot.

The story focuses a lot on conspiracies, some of which are so wild that they make it easier for people to dismiss more plausible conspiracies. There are plenty of surprises in the story. The characters are well developed and entertaining.

I enjoyed reading this book, full of thrill and suspense.It is a story within a story. Where we see an upcoming writer being entangled in a murder mystery that takes her friends and family by storm, she is then forced to go underground and accepting the crime only to resurface as a writer under a different name but all is not well.

I was intrigued by the premise and curious about the outcome throughout, but parts really stretched credibility

While the subject matter (deep state conspiracies and righ-wing reaction to those) where not for me, especially in our current time the author handles material well and pulls the reader into the story and leaves them needing to find out how things will be resolved. While the story does require some suspension of belief it is still a well developed and executed plot.

I really enjoyed this story and blew through it. Only problem is, I felt it got a little ridiculous at the end. It turned from a wonderful plot line that was unique and kept me guessing to being convoluted and thrown together a little too quickly at the end.

***advance review copy received from NetGalley in return for an honest review***

A narrative with all the component parts of being a thriller, but not quite enough of the pace.
The underlying plot does feel original, but for me it wasn’t executed in the best way - there are a few side plots pretending to be the real plot (to be expected in this genre) but whilst they are included to an extent to obscure the real conspiracy, they also need to serve some purpose outside of that - and for me, that renders these unnecessary filler.
Another disappointment is that the “reveal” of the real villains and their reasoning essentially happens off screen.
Granted there’s enough in the plot that I could comfortably guess at who and what, which means it’s well written enough to make sense, but having figured out the basic clues it doesn’t feel like a good thriller to keep me in for another 100+ pages only to have it all just explained by one the characters.
Thrillers thrive on their action and this narrative hasn’t - for me - deployed that in the most effective way to keep me interested as a reader. I felt I finished the pages out of duty - when really I’d finished the actual plot a good while before that.

I had high hopes for this one, and the synopsis sounded really interesting, particularly on the heels of The Woman in the Library, but this one was just missing something for me. The plot seemed to be all over the place for me, and was hard to really feel invested. In addition, I struggled to related to the FMC, and felt that she was a bit annoying at times. I think there was a lot of potential for the story, but it was just a miss for me. Thank you so much to Sulari Gentill, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this e-arc.

Interesting plot, I felt like the idea was good but I really couldn’t bring myself to like it. Too many conspiracy theories and too far fetched for me.

I had heard really good things about Woman in the Library and the premise sounded interesting on this so I decided to check it out. Theo decides to drop out of college in Sydney and shows up on her brother's door in Kansas to become a writer. She goes to a local bar to work on her writing and befriends an established writer Dan, who ends up dead shortly after. Dan was in the middle of a new book and was researching doomsday, conspiracy theorists. Are they part of the murder or do have a theory that someone wants to keep quiet. I had a hard time relating to Theo and her decisions and found the story a bit over the top. This was a bit out of my wheelhouse as I prefer more thriller type mysteries. This one would be good for those who enjoy more towards the cosy mystery type stories.

Read this in two sittings. This was really, really good! I would highly recommend this story. It kept me enthralled all the time

Some good twists and turns in this one and generally very likeable characters. I was curious about Mac's family and whether they would play even more of a role-- I'd read a sequel with these characters! It was outlandish in a good way.

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars
Theodosia Benton decides to abandon her parents' wishes that she become an attorney, and she pursues a career as a writer. At a cafe, she meets another author, and they become close. After he reads her manuscript, she asks to be represented by his agent, and he declines to recommend her. He is found murdered the next day. She finds him, and strangely, the police focus on Theo's brother, Gus.
To save Gus, Theo makes a critical decision - which causes her to be caught in a sinister plot. She disappears, thought dead, but Gus won't believe it. Then, her manuscript, or something close to it, shows up as a published book, and Gus renews his search for his sister. Everything leads to a conspiracy, but could that be true?
Complex, and a scary look at the publishing world. (fictitious, hopefully!)