Member Reviews

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.

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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***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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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!)

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The crappy part about this one is that it started out strong and I was really engaged with the story. But it went completely off the rails after the main character's brother was shot (this is not a spoiler) - and not a good off the rails kind of thing. The big reveals were absolutely ridiculous and required massive amounts of suspension of belief. It was bad. So, so bad. After only sort of liking The Woman in the Library, I will not be reading any more of this author's books.

I really enjoyed the first half-ish. Theo is an aspiring writer, who has quit law school and moves in with her brother to work on her novel. She writes at a cafe/bar every day and becomes close with an older author who is doing the same. He shares some of his work with Theo, but not much and after he is murdered, she realizes how little she really knew about him.

Chaos ensues, in a really bad way once the reveals start coming. Theo is so stupid, she is lucky she was not killed at several points throughout the book. She consistently made the worst choice possible in any given situation, and bumbled through it, somehow. I don't understand how this is possible, because as I noted above, she was in law school. You would assume one has to be intelligent enough to gain admission to law school. But that is the least concern of all the dumb things that happen in this book.

The murder ends up being the least of Theo's problems as the story does a complete about-face and becomes this weird conspiracy theory thriller in real time, completely devoid of sense or any basis in reality.

In the author's note, she talked about not writing from an outline or planning and boy, did everything make sense after that. At least, it made sense why it was so absurd. The author said she just let the story take her wherever it wanted, so off the cliff we all went.

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I was super excited to read this after absolutely loving the first book I’ve read from this author called A Woman in the Library, which I highly recommend. Unfortunately, while I liked the setup of this one, I couldn’t fully get into this book. I will say that I am a mood reader that hasn’t been in the mystery mood lately, so that could be why.

I think this author is very talented & I would be interested to read another of their work.

Massive thanks to NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press for the gifted copy, which I voluntarily read & reviewed.

Because of my lower rating, I will not be sharing this anywhere else.

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This really wasn’t my cup of tea, but maybe ok for someone else. I felt like the plot was slow in some parts and rushed in others and not quite developed enough for the length. Not a must read.

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This book started strong but then seemed to lose its purpose and drive. It’s an interesting premise but the summary provided is a little misleading as the manuscript isn’t a factor for most of the book. A little too long for what it needed to be.

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I typically love a good conspiracy mystery, however this one fell flat for me .

I had seen so many great things about this author and was excited to read this one .

For me The Mystery Writer was a very slooooow burn and felt blocky , and jumped all over the place, so I kept having to reread what the pages , so it took me forever to get through .

I could find no connection with the characters which also made this book hard to digest .

I am sorry I did not find a connection with this one and sorry I am not able to write a glowing review .

I am very thankful for the opportunity and wishing this book all the success in the world with the tight readers :-)

Respectfully Another Read by Angie

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I adored The Woman in the Library, and it pains me to say this follow-up volume did not meet the high expectations set by the original.

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