This was a great mystery/novel. The author was able to move from character to character, situation to situation with such clear writing. The book had plenty of twist interns to hold my interest throughout. .
The characters were well developed, interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I will look forward to more books by this author thank you for my advance copy .

‘This is my life, not just a story, …’

Madeleine D’Leon is a successful writer: her crime fiction series featuring Veronica Killwilly series is very successful. But Madeleine is drawn to a different story. She creates a new character, Edward McGinnity, a writer of literary fiction, and as she begins to imagine his life, becomes drawn into it.

Metafiction, or mystery? Or both …

Edward is in danger, but so is Madeleine. As she becomes caught up in Edward’s world, she retreats into it, spending less time with her husband Hugh. In Madeleine’s story about Edward, he is accused of murder. In Madeleine’s ‘real world’ her husband is increasingly concerned about her wellbeing.

‘Yes, it’s just imagination if you can stop. Delusion has a life of its own.’

First published in Australia as ‘Crossing the Lines’ in 2017, this novel is imaginative and intriguing. It’s also very different from Ms Gentill’s Rowland Sinclair series. I kept reading, wanting to know whether (and how) Ms Gentill would bring her characters under control. Was Edward guilty of murder? Could Madeleine break free from her creation or, had Edward been made real, free to walk off the pages and exert his own influence quite independent from Madeleine? Some characters are like that.

I enjoyed this novel. Be warned: you’ll need to concentrate, in order to keep track.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Firstly, a big thanks to NetGalley for giving me access to this brilliant novel so far in advance of publication.

I have only recently discovered Sulari Gentill's novels, through her 1930s Rowland Sinclair detective stories (and I will definitely be reading more of them!), so was delighted to find that she is comfortable crossing time periods if not genres.

"What if you wrote of someone writing you? In the end which of you would be real?" The novel opens with Madeleine D'Leon deciding to write a novel focusing on a new character, Edward McGinnity, who has appeared (almost fully formed) in her mind. Then we are in Edward's world, where he is suddenly struck by inspiration to write a novel about a woman called Madeleine D'Leon.

You can see where I am going with this. After She Wrote Him was a delight to read, a genuinely clever, twisty well-written who-dunnit (well actually, TWO who-dunnits). It was remarkably easy to keep track of whose story you were in, even when Madeleine and Edward started to influence each other's stories and impinge on each other's worlds.

The only niggle for me was the setting, which was apparently somewhere in Australia. However, the odd waft of gum leaf and a traffic incident with a kangaroo does not Australia make (I should know, I lived there for nine years). It felt almost intrusive when a random Australian reference was thrown in; I think Gentill could have kept the location more neutral.

After She Wrote Him is a wonderful exploration of the process of creation, what it means to be a writer and how writing can consume someone, blinding them to what is happening outside of the world they have created.

Would definitely recommend this novel.

I received an advance copy of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. After She Wrote Him is about a writer who begins writing a new novel, and the main character of the novel is also a writer. The line between real and fictional characters becomes blurred, but the blurring appears to be intentional. There was some brilliance in this book. The plot was slow at first, but the sheer poetry of the writing kept me reading. Aspiring writers will also appreciate this book, because the protagonists are also writers and speak a lot about why writers do what they do. There are a lot of writing tips. When the book eventually became a murder mystery, I was hooked. Both the writer and protagonist were engulfed in mysteries in their lives which caught my attention.

However, the ending was disappointing. Neither mystery is completely solved, and you are left to try and decide what really happened. You are never sure who is the writer and who is the protagonist, and both them are are rendered incapable of finishing the story. The ending in my opinion was unfinished and was a betrayal to the reader. Maybe it was a warning as to what can happen when a writer gets too involved with their main character, but it wasn't enough for me. I wanted a completed story. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2990364202?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

I loved this book! It's like a creative writing class and an amazing read all rolled into one. As I was reading the quote "Wibbly Wobbly Timey Whimey" came to mind, but that's just not an adequate enough description. It's 2, or maybe 3 stories all perfectly woven into one. The author seamless moves between worlds (worlds, plots, stories, I don't know what to call them). It's a challenge for the brain to keep everything straight but written in such a way that you enjoy the challenge. I felt like I was in a carnival fun-house looking into a mirror that was reflecting the mirror back to infinity. There is so much to love about this book.!

Geez, started this and had the worst case of Deju Vu. It seemed so familiar and I just couldn't shake the feeling. Finally figured out I had read this but it was previously titled Crossing the Lines and I'd read it back in 2017. As I recall I thoroughly enjoyed the story as well as all the twists and turns.