This is really an interesting book. The underlying premise is quite unexpected and fascinating. I was a little confused at the end with the switching back & forth between perspectives/locations (no asterisks or spaces, for example, to separate them), but I'm sure that will be fixed in the final version.

The Mystery Writer weaves conspiracy theorists, doomsday preppers, authors and an awfully lovable dog all into one in a way I could not have seen coming.

Theodosia Benton arrived in the Lawerence, Kansas by way of Australia to stay with her older brother Gus. Affectionately known as Theo, she has given up her passion to be lawyer discovering she’d much rather be an author instead. Gus is happy to have his sister stay with him, insisting she work full time on her novel. When Theo meets an established and renowned author at her favorite local hangout, she can’t imagine her luck could be any better. But, when said author is found dead, and Theo is the only suspect in sight, her luck seems to turn for the worst.

This book was so much fun to be honest with you. I’ve read some of Gentill’s previous works, but I think this is by far my favorite. I loved Theo as a main character, and her family and friends were strong and distinct, and I found myself loving all of them. The plot was interesting, and there were tons of twists and turns I never expected. There was a few stylistic choices that weren’t my favorite in the writing, and I did find some of it to feel more like filler plot than necessary to the story. But, overall, this was a solid 4 star read for me.

Theo’s character starts out as unsure of herself and almost meek, and I loved seeing her break out of that and become strong and self-assured by the end of the Nobel. Gus and Mac were both easily lovable characters, and while they had their flaws, they seemed genuine and real to me. Of course I couldn’t write this review without mentioning Horse. I’m a sucker for a dog in any book, and he was easily adored.

The plot of this book is so heavily layered and mesmerizing. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, and I enjoyed it so much. I do feel like some of the plot about Gus and Theo’s family could have been omitted as it didn’t do much to propel the story forward, but otherwise I found the book to be titillating and entertaining.

One stylistic choice that really bothered me was that Gentill continually refers to some characters constantly by their first and last names and others she does not. I think it felt a bit disjointed to not keep doing it or not do it all. There were some spots where I felt I read one characters first and last name at least 4-5 times in just a few pages. I eventually got used to it, but I’d have to say it was a bit jarring to the reading experience at first.

Overall, I’m so thankful to have gotten my hands on an ARC of this novel, and I think many people are going to love it. It’s an interesting take on the prepping community and secret societies and conspiracy theories all while sustaining an interesting whodunnit throughout.

The mystery writer
Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC of this book.

This book started off a little slow for me, I was not entirely sure where we were headed. Once I was a few chapters in I was immersed in the story and needed to keep going!

The book opens up with the FMC, Theo deciding not to do law school, but peruse her writing career. So she leaves Australia to live with her brother, Gus in the states.
She met a fellow writer Dan in a bar (Benders), who was later found murdered. Gus ends up being their prime suspect, and Theo can’t let her brother take that fall. What will she do to protect her Brother? Who killed Dan, and why?

The book takes place in present day, and has many mentions of common conspiracy’s thrown in the story. I enjoyed this part of the book!

If you are a mystery lover, and love twists and turns this book is for you!
Pub Date: March 19 2024

This book was good for about the first 75%. Not great, mind you, but interesting and enjoyable, and the pacing was pretty good. Then it completely jumped the shark in the last 25%. The timeline was completely wacky and the events did not make sense, not to mention how silly the plot was. This was an interesting overall idea but the execution missed the mark.

Theodosia abandons her schooling of becoming a lawyer and shows up on her brother Gus's doorstep. She took a chance he will not turn her away and let her stay with him - she really wants to become a writer. He encourages her to do what she wants to do. But there are many obstacles - she finds a friend and he gets her involved with his agent and then it al goes downhill. This is a very interesting, fast moving story of the literary world - what they do, can it really happen? This is a very interesting and moving story which will keep you on the edge of your seat while reading. I thoroughly enjoyed The Mystery Writer and would highly recommend it. I have read a coupe of Ms Gentill's other books and was not disappointed with any of them - in fact I just finished After She Wrote Him and was thoroughly engrossed Give Ms Gentill a try, you will not be disappointed. I definitely have to say Thank You NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me the opportunity to read this great story.

I feel there is a lot of character to start with and places, I'm not able to stay in one places at a time, I wish I didn't have to dnf this but I have to. Sorry

** A copy of The Mystery Writer was provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review **

Umm wow - this novel is a rollercoaster ride! It’s an intriguing and sometimes confusing thriller - very much like a conspiracy theory.

The writing and prose are magnificent. I got hooked right away, though my attention and enthusiasm waned toward the middle of the book. The ending however was unexpected and left me wanting more of Theo.

I loved this book. I couldn’t put it down. I’m not great at writing reviews but I will definitely recommend this book!!

I really liked the story, will definitely recommend to others.
This book does need some editing done especially towards the end of the book!

Aspiring authors. Coffee shops. Small town. Conspiracy theories. Extremists. Doomsday Preppers. Secret agencies. Murders.

If any of these keywords piques your interest, I recommend The Mystery Writer. This book packs a punch and makes you question everything you think you know.

Theodosia ‘Theo’ Benton leaves Australia and her spot in law school to move in with her older brother Gus in Kansas while writing her first novel. While in town, she meets a fellow author named Dan and quickly develops a close relationship with him.. until Dan is murdered in cold blood.

Things start closing in on Theo as she begins questioning those around her, who she can trust, and why the evidence has begun to pile up against her and Gus.

I really enjoyed the way this book used chat room conspiracy theorists to make you question everything. The author uses right-wing extremists in this book in a way that I initially thought would cause readers to RIOT, but by the end of the book, I found them to be oddly endearing. The book took some time to gain momentum, followed by a time jump and then a few chapters of excessive action, which all felt a little jarring, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you to Sulari Gentill, Poisoned Pen Press, Sourcebooks Inc, and NetGalley for my advanced reader copy.

The build up of this was great. Great character development, intriguing story about a woman who leaves her life behind to become a writer and befriends a mysterious older man who turns out to be a famous author himself. And then he turns up dead. It twisted and turned from there and I got lost a bit and felt it started to rush. But overall it was an interesting read and I enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

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

This was a good, fun little mystery. I liked the characters and the twists and turns were fun.

This book is the author’s latest after the excellent “Woman in the Library”. Unfortunately it does not live up to that novel. It’s a rather silly premise with an annoying main character, Theo. The premise could be fun but Theo brings it down. An okay read but I’ll look for better from the author.

The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill is about an Australian woman--Theodosia Benton--who is in law school and suddenly abandons it, fleeing to live with her brother, who is an established partner in a law firm in Lawrence, Kansas. Theo has dreams of being a writer, and soon becomes known to locals in the coffee shop/bar that she chooses to write in (Benders), and she meets another writer named Dan Murdoch whom she befriends. They become lovers, a relationship that is quickly severed a day later when Dan Murdoch is murdered.


This book was so so good . I finished it in one sitting. I was intrigued from page one . The ending coul have been better. Still it was good.
I'd definitely recommend it.
MUST READ!!!

A huge thank you to the publisher for this ARC. I started loving this book after the first 20%. The way the story picked up from there is worth every minute spent reading it.

This was one of a kind. A unique mystery book. I didn't think I would finish it in two sittings, but yeah, I did. Overall, I am satisfied by how this turned out.

I thoroughly enjoyed the author's first book and was looking forward to reading her second.

Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed, the first half of the book was engaging and quite compelling but the second half of the book just became confusing, and wildly over the top, conspiracy theories abounded and the story became ridiculous, I don't mind suspending belief for a good story but this was too much.

Also the timeline, a good two-thirds of the story was in the present and then the last 10% seemed to go a few years in the future!

I am sure I will be a minority when I say I finished the book, but it wasn't for me at all

The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill is about an Australian woman--Theodosia Benton--who is in law school and suddenly abandons it, fleeing to live with her brother, who is an established partner in a law firm in Lawrence, Kansas. Theo has dreams of being a writer, and soon becomes known to locals in the coffee shop/bar that she chooses to write in (Benders), and she meets another writer named Dan Murdoch whom she befriends. They become lovers, a relationship that is quickly severed a day later when Dan Murdoch is murdered.

This above is basically what I expected from Gentill, as I also read her book The Woman in the Library and quite liked it. This book, however, continues on and leans heavily on conspiracy theories for the plot base. There was the briefest line of that in the synopsis, so I suppose I was expecting something entirely different than what this novel turned out to be.

This book also out of necessity for the above-mentioned conspiracy theories plays into stereotypes of Americans. The main character is astonished and frightened that there are no gun signs on cafes and how often she runs into people who are polite and friendly but carrying guns. She is warned not to just wander into people's homes, because she may be shot (that just seems like good advice in general to me). One character, Mac, has an entire doomsday prepper family, who are happy to chatter about evil Democrats and are believers in basically every whacko theory you can imagine. I think that this portrayal may rankle some people--actually I know it has judging by some of the other reviews--and I admit it got under my feathers a bit as well because it seemed like there were more crazy people to represent America than just sane, regular folks.

The novel also devolves a bit at the end into a conclusion that is over-the-top and frankly incredible in an unbelievable way. I won't give away the plot here, but it's definitely something. Also near the end it went back and forth between Theo and Mac and her brother Gus without any breaks or anything, and when I first started to read it, I got confused until I worked out that it was jumping back and forth.

All that to say that I still like her style a lot. I didn't know she'd written a previous book (other than Library) which I'll have to check out, and even though this one didn't hit the same sweet spot for me as her Library book, I would still be thrilled to check out future productions from her. I just think this book might have people immediately turned off by the premise, dependent on their sensitivities or political affiliations.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Supremely Satisfying..
Another cleverly woven and wonderfully constructed mystery of many threads from this very talented author who never, ever fails to please. A mystery within a mystery within a mystery as our protagonist Theo determines to solve a murder, but does not fully appreciate the complications that lie way too close to home, in the bookish world of writing and novelists. Masterfully done, perfectly presented and supremely satisfying.

So good! I couldn't put this book down. Totally odd wrap up of the story and maybe a little farfetched but I really needed to get to the end to find out how it would all come together.