The Mystery Writer is another terrific, twisty read by Australian writer Sulari Gentill. It’s a literary or psychological thriller that blends something like a cosy (but not a cosy due to themes) with fast-paced action, and just when you least expect it, there is a change of voice and pace and so it goes. It’s a case of be careful what you wish for if you’re an aspiring author like Theodosia Benton and prepare for anything and everything. This book features writers, conspiracy theorists, doomsdayers, dangerous controllers, dedicated siblings, solid friends… what’s not to love? In this story, ex-pat Aussie Theo turns up at her brother Gus’s place in the US, having thrown in university and her plans to be a lawyer like him. Against all reason, perhaps, she focuses on her dream, becoming a novelist, and befriends a successful author in her favourite bar-cum-coffee shop who turns up dead, and so do a number of others. Gus is soon the prime suspect. Theo does what seems to be the only option to protect him. And it’s up to Gus and his friend Mac to follow the trail to Theo. But those who control her are ruthless and what’s a couple more bodies?
The Mystery Writer is a twisty, surprising, literary or psychological thriller and my favourite read of this author since After She Wrote Him (originally titled Crossing the Lines). Highly recommended.

4.5 This is my first book by this author. I wasn't sure what to expect. Theo, the main character, is on track for a law degree when she decides she wants to be an author instead. This decision does not do over well with her family, but she does move in with her brother. While working on her novel, she and her family become embroiled in a real life murder mystery, possibly implicating her brother. She befriends another writer, who ultimately is murdered, with her brother looking like the main suspect. There are clues to "who dun it" left in the other writers story. Theo is determined to protect her brother and prove his innocence. So she embarks on an Agatha Christie style investigation to find out what happened. There are are lots of twists and turns along the way.

I would say this is a "quirky" mystery. Theo is an off beat, but likable, very character. This is a highly readable and enjoyable book that keep you guessing to the very end. Thanks to Net Galley for this ARC opportunity.

Conspiracy theories are one of my fav & when I read the synopsis and those 2 words were mentioned, I knew I had to request this book! I loved the idea of the literary thriller, this is the first one I have read and I can’t wait to read more!

**Contains spoilers**

This novel felt like it had a timeless quality. I kept catching myself thinking the setting was in the 90’s and then cell phones and the pandemic we’re mentioned and it snapped me back to current day. I love the descriptions of the city and seeing the characters move through the cafes and local book shops, it felt cozy.

The writing style is dense, but not overwhelming and for the majority it was easy to picture what was happening. Just enough detail without being excessive.

I was so intrigued about the underlying plot. Who were these people in the chat room? What is the labyrinth and who is the Minotaur? How deeply is Dan involved? I love when a novel gives me so many questions so soon.

I was unsure at first about Theo and Dan’s relationship, him being so much older and in a position of power being a seasoned author. I was quite surprised to find out Dan’s true identity, but I wish his background would have been fully explored. Was the allegation against him true? The whole novel after Dan’s death made him a sympathetic character. Theo was in love with this man, but also grieving what could have been. Feeling sorrow that Dan didn’t seem to have anyone that cared for him; friends nor family. Dan’s attempts to protect Theo from Day Delos. Without knowing if he did assault someone, and if he did, it sours the whole book for me.

Theo and Gus were fully formed characters that could be real people. Gus was the comic relief, but I didn’t find that he was one dimensional. I genuinely thought many quotes were funny and even laughed out loud. I wish the same could have been done for Mac and his Family, they felt like caricatures. I wanted to know more about their past and what led them to be so extreme, especially their mother.

Once Theo disappeared I started to lose interest and found the constant time jumping very random and jilting. One paragraph we are a few months after Gus is shot and the next it’s a year later. I had to read it over to make sure I hadn’t read it wrong. I understand it was supposed to show the sacrifice that Theo made and the seriousness, but it had no weight for me since it all flashed by so quickly from the reader’s perspective.

I was very disappointed in the ending explanation of everything that was going on. I was suspicious of Day Delos after Dan didn’t want to pass Theo’s manuscript and yet Veronica Cole had received it just after his Death. But, their big secret is that they intentionally find authors that have done something wrong and allow them to continue their career under the agency's thumb? How profitable could that really be? They seem to spend exorbitant amounts of money to change these people’s identities, fake their deaths, relocate them and continuously surveil them for the rest of their lives and somehow the books produced make enough sales under pen names to make the agency a profit? The silliest part is that the sullied authors are the agency’s hired goons to do all of the dirty work. Are they really supposed to be the best choice of assassins? The Minotaur and the Labyrinth ended up meaning nothing, just something Day Delos author cooked up and spread around the dark web. Why? What was the point? Maybe I missed something.

Reading the Author interview in the back of the book, Gentill describes her writing process and how she doesn’t really have a plan and just lets the writing lead the way. Unfortunately, this is very noticeable. It was such a strong idea and set up beautifully at the beginning, but fell apart right before the finish line. I wish more planning had been put into a solid beginning, middle, and end before the novel was started, to have a more cohesive and believable plot.

Very slow and predictable. The writing was good. I enjoyed reading it while I was reading it but it was easy to put down and forget about.

If you like conspiracy theories and murder mysteries, The Mystery Writer is the book for you! I liked this book although I wish it had a little more zing in the beginning. It took me a bit to get into, but I really enjoyed it once I did!

I enjoyed this book, although there was a section where I got confused. When Mac & Gus got to Dallas to find Theo, she was trying to escape the hotel. However, the sequence of events seemed to be out of order.. I'm wondering if it was just my download of the book. I had to reread it a couple of times to figure out the action. It was very different.

Sulari Gentill is quickly becoming a favorite mystery author of mine!

The Mystery Writer grabs you right from the beginning. It was incredibly fast paced and there were so many misdirection's, that any time I thought I had an idea what was going on, I was completely and utterly wrong. It was very hard to put the story down, I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

I would happily recommend this book to any mystery fan!

After completing, I enjoyed the book. At times it was hard to get through and I almost DNF. Multiple times this was started and put down. Good story line. Sometimes things were so far out there it could be believable.

What could be an exciting mystery of a writer who dies and another writer who is suspected of killing him becomes a weird, almost farcical, tale filled with conspiracy theorists and preppers and evil corporations. It could have been normal, but it wasn't and, in this case, not great. The whole book went too far and was so outlandish that it wasn't interesting or fun.

The Mystery Writer
Sulari Gentill
Mar 19, 2024
Poisoned pen Press
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Murder and mystery without the gore. I was a bit underwhelmed by this one and also confused.
Not a book I can recommend.
4 stars

Theo Benton is expected to become a lawyer to uphold the family tradition but drops out of college in order to become a writer. She moves from Australia to the US and in with her older brother Gus, then begins writing in a local dive bar and meets fellow writer Dan. This is where things begin to go south both for Theo and me as the reader. Among the numerous typos and grammatical errors, the plot just gets so muddy in really trying to keep my attention. It took me a long time to get through it, it was really predictable, and not even that fun to get to where I knew it was going.


Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an eARC copy of The Mystery Writer in exchange for an honest review.

t was interesting to read this so close to when I read Janice Hallett’s Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels because they both center heavily on a conspiracy. But anyway. I enjoyed this so much more than I did Gentil’s previous book, which was interesting enough but was mid for me. This one was so engaging, action-packed, intriguing, mysterious. Theo - short for Theodosia - is an Australian woman who drops out of law school to be a writer, and absconds to Lawrence, Kansas to stay with her older brother who is an attorney there. While working on a book there, she meets a man called Dan who is a fellow, published, well-loved writer and starts a relationship with him. Shortly after they start their romantic relationship, she is going over to his house, and discovers the door slightly open. When she enters, she discovers Dan, brutally murdered. Unfortunately the way she discovered this was by slipping and falling in a pool of blood, so it definitely looks pretty suspicious.

As news begins to spread about Dan and about Theo and about her finding him, reporters start hounding her, including one called Mary who then ends up dead as well. Gus helps her as much as he can within his role as an attorney, but really ends up handing over much of Theo’s protection to the “investigator” for his firm, Mac.

Things escalate, leading to the indication that Gus may have killed Dan in some sort of brotherly rage, and he is shot by the cops. Theo finally realizes she’s in over her head, and Dan’s publishers agree to help her by protecting her brother if she agrees to confess to the murders of Dan and Mary and then be disappeared by them, to write in secret for them with little security as a creative in IP.

Very twisty and turny and engaging. I found the skips in time disjointed and convenient without a particularly compelling explanation, and I thought the “romance” between Theo and Mac was pretty contrived, underdeveloped, and unnecessary to the story. But otherwise, I had a great time with this one.

This book MESSED ME UP in a good way. I was thrown for a loop at multiple points and I loved it. I could see this book being very popular when it is published.

I just finished this book and I've got to say it was definitely different than anything I've ever read I terms if how this mystery played out.

Theo gave up her life in Australia and law school to follow her dreams of being an author. Moving to a small town in Kansas to live with her brother, little did she know she got more than she bargained for. People start dying around her and her brother and his friend Mac get pulled into the drama.

It started out strong, ended pretty strong, but about 75% of the way through I did get a bit lost because things seemed to be a bit jumbled up. There was a time jump. Normally that doesn't bother me, but it just it just felt a bit messy.

If you like conspiracy, a bit of mystery, and some interesting characters, I'd check this out.

I haven't read anything else by this author, but I will definitely pick up another book from her. Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

The plot line of this book is so crazy it’s almost believable. Theo, a law school dropout and aspiring author, meets and becomes friends with published author Dan. Dan’s experience and insight has Theo well on the path to finishing her book and getting published when Theo finds Dan, dead. Now Theo, her roommate lawyer brother, and “researcher” Mac (with his odd family) must find out who the real killer is when everyone is too eager to look at the trio.
I enjoyed how the book shows how the manipulation of one person’s story can change an entire narrative.
Reading about the story in Lawrence was surreal and cool as someone who has lived there; the depiction was pretty spot on and I liked how the author contrasted leftist lawrence with the far right conspiracy theorists.
The depiction of ideology was humorous and ominous but also I felt like it could have been really cool to show it even more from an insider perspective to almost convince the reader and “radicalize” them.
I was definitely bouncing between character to character to see who the murderer was. Any good mystery book should have you paranoid to the culprit and the author successfully accomplished this!
Sometimes the characters seemed a bit dumb and gullible but in some ways it was enjoyable because it was a classic moment where the audience is shouting at the fictional characters “don’t trust them!!!” However, Theo in particular was too trusting and naïve to me considering her friend had just been murdered.
The outsider Australian perspective on guns and the far right was funny to me. Furthermore, the inclusion of cults was so interesting (Mac’s family, theo’s parents, and minotaur).
At the end, would have been nice to have more closure or have a more fleshed out conclusion. I’m not sure if I enjoyed the romance, as it felt somewhat like an afterthought. If there was more leading up to it I would have enjoyed it more, but otherwise it felt a little goofy for the instant bonding—although of course there is a trauma bond to consider.
The police was so useless which was so irritating, while I know the police might not be that effective in real life it seemed unbelievable just how useless they were! But again, this helps to add to the plot and build the tension of the storyline.
I enjoyed this murder mystery, and I would definitely be interested in reading more books by the author!

After really enjoying The Woman in the Library, I was very excited to pick up this next book by Gentill. I was not disappointed! It was a fantastic mix of murder mystery and thriller, while steering clear of anything gory or disturbing. The plot kept me guessing and I could not wait to figure out how all the threads connected in the end. A fantastic read for getting swept up in a story and distracted from your own problems!

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for an eARC of this title via NetGalley!

Sulari Gentill has added yet another superb book to her excellent repertoire. The Mystery Writer is full of murder, mystery, and everything you could wish from the genre.

When Theodosia Benton, quits her law degree, and shows up on her brother's doorstep, planning to become an author, little does she know, she herself is about to become embroiled in a conspiracy theory so bizarre, it almost defies belief.

After a brutal murder sets in motion, an ever increasingly deadly chain of events, Theo, her brother Gus, and all those around them, find themselves equally accused of murder, and at threat of themselves being murdered. Only everything isn't quite as it seems. Will Theo end up dead before she can solve the mystery, and what will happen to her dreams of being an author?

I really enjoyed how the whole murder mystery unfolded, and how the theme of conspiracy theory was used to brilliant effect to enhance the story plot and intensity. Sulari Gentill is very skilled at introducing plot twists and turns that feel unexpected, and completely real and believable.

Theo, Gus, and the whole cast of characters are also so rich and layered, and it is fascinating to watch each of their stories unfold, and then add to the story. I also couldn’t help but think that this would make an excellent film.

This book is definitely one worth pre-ordering. I look forward to everything Sulari Gentill writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this eARC in exchange for an unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have to say that I really did enjoy this book.
I like the characters and the writing style. The way the online chats were included tied in perfectly.
There was definitely a lot of mystery and although I had an idea where the story was going, there was still suspense and surprise.
I think this was a really good read and definitely recommended checking it out!

This is a solid mystery! It’s the kind of book that has you stopping and researching to find out if something might be happening in real life. Compelling story and interesting characters.