Imagine dropping everything and working on a novel. Imagine hanging out at a coffee shop, drafting your book, and running into your favorite author. And the author is happy to talk to you about publishing! A dream come true. Then it all comes crashing down. The popular author is found dead in their home and you have to help solve the murder. It’s an engaging, if unlikely, plot but it’s fun to read.

This was a fun, twisty read. Gentill is one of the authors that can really surprise me with where her books go. This is about Theo, an Australian who drops out of law school to live with her brother in the US and write. She meets a famous writer, they become friends, and he is killed. A crazy conspiracy surrounds Theo and her brother, and their friend Gus, and the book touches on a lot of modern themes, but does so with a bit of craziness. The book has a dark humor, and I really enjoyed the characters. The social commentary is also thought-provoking.

The thing I didn't like was that Theo seemed too naive. That could be because she's Australian, but it was a little hard to buy of someone in their 20's. I'm specifically thinking of her trust in her agent, and a few other people, that aren't in keeping with her situation.

Anyway, this is a really great book in a similar vein as 'The Woman in the Library.' I highly recommend.

Theo comes from Australia to the US to start her career in writing. She goes to her brother's house to stay. He looks out for his little sister. Theo meets another author that's older but they start up a relationship.
There are lots of twists and turns.
Thanks to publisher Poisoned Pen Press and to NetGalley for the ARC.

This author has such a fun way of playing with genre and tropes. Adored the main trio! The pacing of the first half is the book was perfect & interesting. By the last quarter, everything felt hurried, disjointed, and a little too..explanatory. That said, will absolutely continue to read and recommend every book she writes. This is still a fun read!

After reading Sulari Gentile's The Woman in the Library, I was excited to get a chance to read The Mystery Writer. A few pages in, I realized that the book is set in Lawrence, Kansas, a town I have some familiarity with. It took me a bit to get into the tale, but once I did I was hooked. Theodora Benton leaves her home country of Australia to live with her brother Gus in America. Her reasons for leaving are unclear, but Gus welcomes her into his life. Her attempt to write a novel leads to her involvement with a seasoned author. The story takes many twists and turns and makes the reader think it is going in a variety of directions. I won't say much else to prevent spoilers, but know that this is a fun read. Gentill creates likable characters and situates them in middle America. If you are looking for realistic fiction, you may need to let that go a bit, but jump in and enjoy this entertaining tale.

I love books about writers, and The Mystery Writer was no exception! A slow burn mystery, Theo was a great protagonist with depth and intrigue. This book has many layers, and great character development. The story really picked up for me towards the end as everything starts to be revealed, and I could not read fast enough.

This book definatley started off strong for me, and I was massively intrigued. However, I did feel like the last half or so of this book felt a little off. It went a bit too quickly, and personally didn't work well for me. I still enjoyed reading it though.

I liked most things about this thriller. I liked the main character and her relationship with her brother. I like the relationship between Thea and Mac. Mac's family seemed forced into the story and, yes, they served a purpose, but it just didn't really make sense within the context of the story as a whole. I guessed what happened with the literary agent and figured out the ending, but overall this was a good read.

Theodosia “Theo” Benton drops out of law school in Australia with aspirations to become a writer. She hides out from her parents at her brother's place in Kansas while she figures out her next steps. Unfortunately, a new friendship ends in murder and conspiracy, with her being the primary suspect.

I really loved The Woman in the Library, so I requested this one without spending a lot of time reading through the summary. I found that I didn’t like this one anywhere close to The Woman in the Library. Theo finds herself in the middle of some kind of literary conspiracy, but this is really hard to follow and didn’t make a great deal of sense to me. The story was probably longer than it needed to be and Theo just kept making a lot of questionable decisions for someone whom everyone already thought was a murderer. Plus, there were a handful of red flags that she blatantly chose to ignore. She is young, however, with her being a law student, you'd assume she'd have some level of logical reasoning. Her brother Gus and his associate Mac were the best characters in the book (Mac's prepper/survivalist family included) however, the pacing and repetition of Theo getting herself into trouble and the other two having to rescue her, overshadowed the brilliance of Gus and Mac. As for the ending, there are a few time jumps that were jarring and felt unnecessary. It took me longer than usual to get through the book because I could just not see where the story was going and ended up not being all the interested in the reveal.

THE MYSTERY WRITER is my first book from Sulari Gentill and it won’t be the last! This book was intriguing and had a lot of layers. The narrative has a lot of drama and was very engaging. The last quarter of the book felt a little slow, but had a great ending!

I LOVED The Woman in the Library. Sometimes that’s the kiss of death for the next one. I wanted another one like that and this one was fine. The characters was not super likable (which is not always off putting for me.) There just wasn’t enough here to keep me coming back.

Wow. I really wanted to like this book. It started out really good. I liked the parts of the online group’s chats. But then it all got way too complicated with WAY too many characters. It could’ve been pretty good if it wouldn’t have been such a complicated story line.

3.5
The majority of this book was bingable and intriguing though I thought it suffered from a few pacing issues in the last quarter or so with some time and location shifts, and some wild and a *bit* out of the blue reveals. Overall though as quite an easy read I enjoyed it.

This was a great slow burn literary thriller. The characters were well developed and I enjoyed the plot. The ending tied everything up really nicely.

I was really into "The Mystery Writer" by Sulari Gentill because the plot sounded so cool and I was hoping for a well-crafted mystery with some unexpected twists. Unfortunately, I found the main character, Theo, to be kind of overly naive and hard to connect with.

On the upside, I thought the side characters were interesting, especially the dynamic between the adult siblings even though they didn't grow up together. I also liked how the story was set in Tasmania and how the conspiracy theories and preppers added some extra spice to the story.

But, there were a few things that didn't work for me. The time jumps near the end made it a bit confusing and disorienting making it hard to follow the story. The book was already pretty long, but the plot got super complicated and over-the-top towards the end - pertaining to my own taste, making it hard for me to appreciate about the final reveals. Overall, I'd give "The Mystery Writer" three stars for its cool premise and likable side characters, but I just couldn't get over the implausible plot and too many details.

The Mystery Writer follows Theodosia Benton as she leaves law school in Australia to pursue writing while living with her brother, Gus, in Kansas. She becomes entangled in a conspiracy when her new friend and renowned writer, Dan Murdoch, is murdered after reading her manuscript.

The premise of the novel is compelling and I loved Sulari Gentill’s unique cross-cultural blend of Australian characters in an American setting. I was able to enjoy a different, sometimes humorous, perspective on what is considered “normal” in American life, even during the book’s darker moments. The conspiracy setup is intricate and has enough potential to kick off a multi-book series if Gentill wanted.

Theo, while endearing, is sooooo naive from beginning to end. Her unwavering belief in the goodness of others, even when faced with clear danger, detracts from her character development, (view spoiler). Thank goodness for Gus and Mac (Gus’ PI friend), whose well-developed, more serious characters provided a bit of sense and safety where Theo saw none.

While the overarching plot twist is predictable, the smaller twists and turns maintained my interest and suspense. Additionally, I paired this read with the audiobook and the narration by Katherine Littrell is captivating. She does a great job bringing the characters to life throughout the book!

What happens when an aspiring writer shares her manuscript with a best-selling author and that author ends up dead? How did Theo, the writer, get involved, and how can her lawyer-brother help? This storyline has many twists and secrets are uncovered as the mystery around the author deepens. I liked the premised of this book and some of the events were shocking.

Last year I read Sulari Gentill's The Woman in the Library, which I absolutely loved! It started with a murder in the Boston Public Library, and I couldn't turn the pages quickly enough to find out what happened!

This book deals with Theo, a law school dropout who moves from Australia to Lawrence, Kansas to stay with her brother Gus, a lawyer. She decides to focus on writing a novel instead and immerses herself in the literary community. There's a murder, actually several murders, of people she has come in contact with.

The plot is fast-paced, but I didn't think it was nearly as compelling as the previous book. I really couldn't identify with Theo. She was very impulsive and made a lot of poor choices and decisions. Luckily Gus and his co-worker Mac were there to keep bailing her out of trouble, and I loved their camaraderie. The story surrounds conspiracy theories and also focuses quite a bit on guns, gun ownership and gun violence. My suggestion would be to read The Woman in the Library instead.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this advanced reader copy.

This book was different than I expected but definitely worth the read.

I liked Theodosia’s character. She is an aspiring writer who ends up in the middle of a murder investigation. And her brother gets dragged into it also. I was completely invested in the story and needed to know what truly happened to Theo’s mentor.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for my ARC of this book.

It's quite a fussy book. It feels unnecessarily complicated in places and the mixed media parts aren't always easy to read on an ebook. Parts of the story were well written, other parts felt rushed. I'll not be rushing to grab their next book, this was a disappointment.