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.

2.5 stars, rounded up. Over-the-top thriller featuring a chick whom all adult men seem to fall in love with ridiculously quickly, shifting viewpoints sporadically and with little purpose, and a writing style so simplistic the plot has to be deviously complicated to somewhat make up for it.

Wasn’t much of a fan, but I think the plot-readers might be into it.

Well this was not what I expected at all! Highly unbelievable BUT what a really fun read. This is why I enjoy fiction. Books like this allow me to get lost in a story of mystery, murder and good writing.

I was hooked after the first couple of chapters. Loved the characters and the flow. Easy to read and hard to put down. Highly recommend this one.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley! This was enjoyable and I am glad I got the chance to read and review this one.

I went through a phase of loving crime mystery years ago but after too many bad reads lost interest. However, I kept reading great reviews about award winning writer @sularigentill and I loved her backstory on becoming a writer and she’s an Australian writer and relatively local, living in the NSW Snowy Mountains. I’m all for supporting local!

‘Theo has one dream—to become a bestselling author. Determined to make her mark in the literary world, she heads to the US on a whim to stay with her brother Gus and focus on her writing. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she befriends a famous author, Dan Murdoch, at a local bar—and then he turns up dead.’ [Synopsis from @ultimopress]

Gentill’s latest novel did not disappoint.
It is a page turner and while a bit more violent than I was expecting, fulfilled my expectations and I am definitely keen to read her other books.

Thanks to @netgalley and @poisonedpenpress for the ebook in return for an honest review. 3.5⭐️

I think I might have had my expectations set too high for this book because I always hear about how much people love this author's writing. I did still really enjoy it and I thought it was fun to see how someone from another country sees Americans and the American police and justice system. I do think that there were a lot of "gun tote'n American" stereotypes that were a bit unrealistic but the cops being corrupt and shooting innocent people was spot on. I thought this book would be more of a mystery (because of the title) but it felt more thrillery at parts and more like a regular contemporary at others. While I did like the writing and do plan on reading other books from this author, I think I will need to lower my expectations for the future so I won't get disappointed like I did with this.

Having read Sulari Gentill's The Woman in the Library, I had an idea of her writing style and the intriquing mystery she creates within her books. They aren't straight forward, but instead contain many threads that at the end will line up.

Brief synopsis: 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. 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.

My thoughts: The story is set in Lawrence, Kansas and I live in Kansas! I just love a good connection. Gentill is a hard author to review as there's so much in her stories and I dont want to give any of it away.

This is the first book I have seen with a plot teaser. "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. You need to be able to accept the outrageous to really sink into the story. If you know a conspiracy theorist, or have found yourself enticed by a really well explained theory, this is the book for you. It will have you questioning everyone and everything you thought you knew. Lastly, heads up, the book blurb is dedicated to the last 20% of the book. Plus the reader jumps months and even years into the future in the last few chapters.

Sometimes a mystery isn't - but this one gives you some clues, some turns you didn't see coming, and a cast of characters that fill the story with humor, likable people, and scary situations.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this fascinating and unexpected mystery about writers, books and the power of a good story.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Redhook Books for access to an eARC in exchange for my honest review!!

what’s it about? ⬇️

When Theo made the decision to leave school in England and follow her brother to America for the chance to finish the novel she's begun writing, the last thing she's expecting is to meet someone--a famous author, no less--and to develop feelings for him. And even more than that, she never would have expected for him to visit one day and find him brutally murdered in his home. Who could have done something like this to such a well-loved author, and why? And why does she keep finding herself wondering if Dan's vehement decision to not share her finished manuscript with his publishing house has something to do with it, especially when more and more people start coming around asking her if she has the missing copy of Dan's final manuscript that he completed just before he died? Can she trust the police to do their due diligence and find the killer and bring justice for Dan's death? And when Theo herself falls deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of the publishing world's darkest secrets and drags the people she loves most along with her, can she get herself out before it's too late?

my thoughts? ⬇️

This book took me for such a crazy ride. I went in expecting a few twists and turns, for sure, but I had so much fun piecing together the different pieces of the puzzle that Sulari Gentill laid out as the narrative unfolded. The characters were all interesting to read about and had flaws while still being so easy to root for, the tragedy of falling in love and losing that love so quickly at the turning point of the story was heartbreaking and added so much more depth to the rest of the plot, and the romance sub-plot. My god, the romance sub-plot was incredible. I really believed in and rooted for this cast of main characters and loved the forum posts that were added in throughout the story to give the reader a bit more context to try and piece together what was happening alongside Theo and Gus and Mac.

Plus, while the story was obviously sensationalized quite a bit, it had so many important things to say about the publishing industry, other media conglomerates, and the world we live in as a whole and how the things we do and say can and will haunt us for the rest of our lives...unless, of course, we stop living. I would recommend this one for the plot twist alone, seriously. I figured it out a little early just from putting things together and spent the rest of the time until the reveal desperate to see if I was right. I highly recommend going into this one knowing as little as possible about how everything shakes out in the end for the best experience!

trigger warnings ⬇️

death, murder, blood, gun violence, sexual assault, pedophilia, grief, police brutality, alcohol, child abuse, stalking, violence, gaslighting.

The premise of the story is why I wanted to read this but I struggled to finish. The characters didn’t really interest me. The sudden time jump in the middle with just explanations of what happened rather than actually reading about it all I didn’t like. A hint at romance but not really developed. An unusual ending.

Theodosia Benton leaves law school in Australia for her brother Gus’s place in Lawrence, Kansas to write a book. She meets author Dan Murdoch shortly after arriving in town and he becomes a mentor of sorts. Then Theo finds Dan dead at his home, in a pool of blood. Things get twistier and twistier, and Theo doesn’t know who to trust.

I was drawn into this story almost immediately. The characters were full of life and the story was engaging. I have read other books by this author, and thoroughly enjoyed them. This book did not disappoint. It was twisty and turny and full of mystery.

I really liked Sulari Gentill's first book, but this one did not work for me. I found it difficult to get my footing in the story. The timeframe was unclear and inconsistent and took a pretty big leap at one point with a whole lot of telling and not much showing. Additionally, the book is mostly told from the perspective of Theo, a young woman who has dropped out of law school in Australia and shows up at her lawyer brother's house in Kansas so she can write a novel. But then sometimes that perspective shifts for a sentence or two to one of the other two primary characters.

There was a bit of romance here and there but nothing well developed. I didn't care that much about the characters, and one more gripe. The Kansas setting seemed out of left field... I'm all for books set in Kansas but it didn't make a lot of sense to me why an Australian guy would land in Kansas where most people in America have not been. That could have been fleshed out more.

I really think a few more edits and this story might have been a compelling mystery.

Thank you very much @netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of They Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill. This was the story of a brother and sister, she comes to live with him in Kansas after dropping out of law school. She wants to be a writer, and finds a cafe where other writers go to write. She meets a successful novelist, sleeps with him, and then things go off the rails. The novelist is murdered, as are many others. The publishing company seems shady, as we find out later. I found this hard to follow by the middle of the book. I did finish it, but not sure why. #themysterywriter #sularigentill #bookstagram #novel #fictionreader #lovetoread #readersofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #readallday #readallthebooks

I ended up listening to the audiobook after publishing, and I was a bit disappointed. The premise started off strong - I mean, who doesn't love books about books and authors?! However, I found the storyline to be a confusing roller coaster rather than an entertaining one. I enjoyed the end, but it wasn't enough to make up for my confusion during the middle!

I wanted to like this. I really did. But I found it a little disjointed and inconsistent. Some characters were well developed. Others - insufficiently so for their role in the book. It had a fresh premise, at least for me. I just expected more.

I loved the first quarter of this book! After that I still enjoyed it but it didn't hold up as I had hoped.
Theo Benton has left the University she has been attending, and shown up on her brother's doorstep with two suitcases and an unfinished novel.
She decides to finish her book at a local cafe where she comes across a highly successful "writer in residence"-
Dan Murdoch.
He shows her an online world of conspiracy theorists and explains how he uses these theories to get ideas for his writing.
He is then brutally murdered.
Does his death have anything to do with the conspiracy theories he has been researching?
The mystery of working this out was fun but it just ended up jumping ahead in timelines far too much towards the end of the book... it was outlandish and just too rushed.
Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable read but it could have had 100 pages less and something else done with the reveal to make it more succinct.