A book within a book within a book. Interesting premises that was new to me and in the beginning rather confusing but thankfully one book dropped off and just became something one of the characters was writing.

Four strangers in the Boston Public Library hear a scream and begin discussing that they heard, from which a friendship begins as they see if they can solve the mystery. The friendship continues as do the murders with lots of twists and turns. Between every chapter is an email from Leo to the author of the four strangers book, Hannah, as she's writing it with feedback which gets increasingly weird with each email.

Super quick read, characters were okay, but it was entertaining and kept me interested.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This mystery will keep you intrigued long after you finish it. The intriguing story has many unexpected turns and twists. I was captivated. as I tracked the story within a story. I highly recommend this book all mystery lovers.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3. I don't have strong feelings about this book. While I didn't hate it, picking it up was almost a chore. I was so enthralled by the description, and I love the book within a book trope, and the fact that it was set in a library? I was all in! Until I wasn't.

I found the story confusing to follow, and there were several side characters who seemed to serve no purpose and certainly didn't advance the plot.

I appreciate the idea behind the book and wish the execution had been better. THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY published June 7, 2022. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC.

I liked this book but I didn’t love it. It contains multiple stories cleverly woven together; a unique storyline. The main narrative is really a book that is being written, and you get another book being written within THAT book as well as back-and-forth dialogue between the author of the novel and a beta reader. Sounds confusing but once I made it through the first couple chapters, it came together for me.

The primary narrative is told from Freddy’s POV and focused on her new friendship with 3 others who all happened to be in a library reading room when a murder was committed. This group plays detective while also being suspicious of each other at times. The friendship between the group felt a little contrived to me- seems odd that these new acquaintances would become immediate best friends and that none of them seemed to have any other friends. If you can get past that, the dynamic between the group was interesting.

The letters between the beta reader, Leo, and the primary author, Hannah, were really cool. Leo scopes out locations and corrects words for her since she is in Australia and the book is set in America; his letters not only take a dark turn, but also explore literary themes like how much of current events should be included and whether the author needs to lay out characteristics like race when describing the players in the story. I wanted to know more about Leo, though I crafted a believable back-story on my own :)

Overall, cool concept once you figure out how it all fits together. The book felt a bit long and I enjoyed the Leo chapters more than the Freddy chapters, but overall it was an enjoyable read. I’d give it 2.5 stars, rounded up. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Terrrific read! Great story, characters and conclusion. Actually I saw the conclusion coming....,
Wonderful beach or vacation book, except you will be unable to put in down until you finish.
I am not discussing the plot but it is complex and satisfying

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill was quite a read! The book is written in several viewpoints and has quite a few twists and surprises! An author, (Freddie), who is located in Australia is writing a novel and sharing it with a colleague (Ian) in Boston. This colleague is giving Freddie facts about the city of Boston where the novel takes place. Freddie sends her work chapter by chapter to Ian who gives her tips about the city to make her work more authentic. Her story begins at the Boston Public Library where four people who are sitting at the same table hear a woman’s scream. They are detained in order to be questioned by the police and begin talking to each other. From there I will let you read the book yourself. I actually went back and re-read sections to double check my memory because I was so involved!
I will read this author’s work again and thank her, the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This would be a great book club novel with much to discuss.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley, for an advance eARC of this book.
Thank you Libro.fm for an ALC of this audio.

The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.


I enjoyed the cast of characters and felt that they were all given a sufficient back story that led to intriguing plot twists. Sometimes I would get confused by the real characters because we referenced a book inside of a book where the main character is writing a book. The characters were meant to be similar but that led to you not always being sure who the author was talking about.
I did find the book within a book to be interesting and wish we could have gotten more story out of Leo.

Easily the most annoying part about this book was Leo saying all the things Americans don't do, because we do nearly all of them. But other than that there wasn't much to not like! I was disappointed the setting wasn't really in a library, I was under the impression that the book was going to be sort of a locked in a room mystery.

This book works well for people who love thrillers and murder mysteries.

I was able to listen to an ALC of this book and found the audio to be amazing! The voice actor did a wonderful job and added positively to the story.

One of the best mysteries I've read this year! Ms. Gentill has written an absorbing and fast-paced mystery novel with a unique, semi-epistolary structure and a story within a story that is riveting. I stayed up late last night to finish it, and I'll be frank, I rarely do that. I will admit I had to go back and re-read the ending to make sure everything has been explained and tied up accurately. While I had guessed The Whodunnit by the last fifth or so of the book, I couldn't put it down. The one thing I didn't like was Ms. Gentill's decision to write in the present tense. It's just me--I really dislike that. That is an indication of how good the book is, that I could persevere with a book whose literary style I intensely dislike. I know it's a choice used to build intensity, but I don't think her story needed that. It's so unique and compelling that I think it would have survived a more traditional verb tense just fine. But I quibble. Even if you don't like mysteries, I think you will enjoy this novel, which includes romance, redemption, and asks the bigger question of how do we know who to trust and when? Highly recommended.

A novel within a novel within letters? The conceit of the book is ok, but not used to its best advantage, and the mystery of the novel inside the letters is just ok. It felt like the author had read The Westing Game a lot as a kid and had decide to try to write an adult version, albeit with people of far more (potentially) nefarious backgrounds. While there was a lot of detail and backstory for some characters, others were just suggestions on the page. Overall, more contrived that it could have been.

Metafiction is a rare narrative technique, and often difficult to execute successfully, but The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill does so with ease, offering a clever and compelling mystery novel.

In this story within a story (within a story), Australian author Hannah Tigone is writing a murder mystery, inspired in part by her correspondence with American aspiring author and fan, Leo Johnson. In Hannah’s developing manuscript, Australian author Winifred ‘Freddie’ Kincaid, is in Massachusetts on a writers’ scholarship, when she becomes embroiled in a murder mystery that takes place in the Boston Public Library. As Hannah completes each chapter, Leo provides feedback via emails, the tone of which grow more imperious, and disturbing, as the story develops in ways he doesn’t like.

As Freddie, along with psychology student Marigold, law student Whit, and published author Cain whom she meets when a scream disturbs the quiet of the Boston Public Library Reading Room, tries to solve the murder of a young journalist, it’s testament to Gentill’s skill that I was invested in the story, and often forgot it’s place in the novel’s structure, in fact I occasionally resented the reminder when disrupted by Leo’s missives. With its air of a ‘locked room’ mystery, I was deftly led astray by Gentill’s misdirects, and found myself eager to discover who, how, and why the murder was committed.

I feel I have to mention the adroit way in which Gentill navigated the world events of 2019/2020, the years in which this book was set, with the CoVid pandemic, the BLM protests in the US, and the fires that ravaged the Eastern coast of Australia, all acknowledged in interesting ways.

Ingenious and intriguing, The Woman in the Library is a terrific read.

✨ Review ✨ The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill; Narrated by Katherine Littrell

The narrative structure of this book is utterly inexplainable until you read it, but I'll try! The book intersperses two storylines. One storyline is the content of a new novel that Australian author Hannah is writing. The second storyline is feedback to Hannah from a beta reader which comes after each chapter. The book pairs the new novel's chapters with the commentary from the reader, and the way these stories interact is so creative! This doesn't do the story's structure justice but I really loved this.

The novel within the novel was about a group of four friends that forms after they hear a scream in the Boston library. As we follow these four strangers that set out to solve a murder, all sorts of twists and turns emerge.

But this is where things get confusing. The book Hannah is writing (the novel within the novel) is about an Australian writer Freddie, and both stories feature a Leo (which is a clever storytelling mechanism but also can be a little confusing).

For me, this book some talking through after to appreciate in its fullness. It's probably not my favorite book I've read lately but that didn't stop me from marveling at its innovative approach to storytelling.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 💫
Genre: thriller, mystery, literary fiction
Location: Boston, Australia
Pub Date: Out now!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ Dual side-by-side narratives
⭕️ "Gentle" thrillers - not too much gory violence
⭕️ f/m romance storyline woven into a thriller

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, Dreamscape Media, and #netgalley for an e-copy and audio copy of this book!

Oh how I wanted to love this book. Murder in a library? That has my name written all over it, unfortunately this story was not particularly great. I actually almost DNF'd it near the star and actually having now finished it I wished I had.

I normally don't mind a story within a story but I don't feel like this was done particularly well here; I actually feel the side story with Leo might have been more interesting than the actual story had he not kept banging on about current events (covid, black lives matter etc) which I found to be really dating to the book.

I found it really bizarre how the group of characters got tied to each other so quickly after spending five minutes together in the library, was really farfetched; it also was really predictable which one would end up being the culprit.

I found I was just going through the motions of finishing for the sake of it and the ending just sealed the rating for me as it kind of went nowhere.

*Thanks to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press and Sulari Gentill for the copy of this book. All views are my own.*

I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately it was a chore to get through. The characters were difficult to invest in and never felt multi-dimensional and the book really came across as quite scattered. The two narratives had promise, but ended up taking away from the story rather than adding to it.

I think this book had great potential, but ended up quite dull and not very memorable.

2.5 stars

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out quite as well as I wanted or was hoping. I was honestly expecting a locked room mystery with the characters being trapped in the library with the killer.
This was not the case. Instead, it was a story within a story. I’ve only ever read one like this before, and this was (I admit), cleverly written. It has you questioning what’s real and what’s not.

What didn’t work for me:

- The insta friendship. I understand connecting with people easily and becoming fast friends. But I just had trouble believing this one.

- I was bored. This was a bit of a slog to get through.

- I guessed whodunnit early on.

What I enjoyed:

- I liked the story within a story angle.

- I liked Leo’s letters to Hannah. I like how it came at the end of each chapter. But I also felt like there were times it took away from a bit of the story.

- I enjoyed the characters in Hannah’s book.

Overall. I was a bit disappointed with this one. I was hoping to like it like so many others.

Despite the fact that The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill was a good read, I was not able to obtain as much enjoyment from it as I had hoped. It starts strong but ends slowly.

I absolutely LOVED this book, which features a mystery within a mystery as the book is written as a story, with inserted "critiques" by an acquaintance of the fictional author who is writing the fictional story. The story mystery revolves around four strangers who meet in the Boston Public Library as they bond over the screams they heard and the murder that likely occurred after those witnessed screams. Their new friendships are plagued by secrets, insecurities and assumptions as they all try to figure out who they can trust and who they cannot. Meanwhile the fictional author of the fictional story begins to question how well she knows the "friend" who is sending feedback of this story in progress--is he just an eccentric fellow author or a creepy criminal? The story progressed at a solid pace and kept me interested with detailed writing and characters. I enjoyed the conclusive ending until the mysterious line at the very end about the elevator.... WHAT? I don't like details left hanging, but some readers might enjoy that bit! Looking forward to reading more by this author!

The Woman in the Library
Sulari Gentill

If you, like me, enjoy books that have a bookish theme, I’m sure you will love The Woman in the Library. This is a twisty thriller with some surprises in store for you. In this story, four strangers are sitting at a table in the Boston Public Library when they hear a loud scream. They begin talking and really hit it off. There has been a woman murdered, but the catch is that one of the four is the murderer. The four agree to work together to try to figure out who the murderer is. Meanwhile, Hannah, our main character is writing her newest murder mystery. The writing in this book is well done, the characters have multilayered facets and the text is complex without being confusing. I really enjoyed the parts of the book the explored Hannah’s writing process. I’m sure you will love this one!

#goodreads

While this was way different than I thought it was going to be going into it, I still really enjoyed it! I was under the impression that it was going to be a locked room mystery, so I was surprised to find that wasn't really what it was. However, I really enjoyed my reading experience, and this is such a unique book. I loved seeing how the "notes" given back to the author progressed. That story line got surprisingly creepy and I liked that! I feel like the end felt super rushed and I just kind of felt jolted a bit with how it all ended. I feel like it should've gone a little longer to explain a little bit more. Overall though, I had a good time reading and I will be picking up more from this author in the future!

"It's a bit like a locked room mystery in reverse."

This one was SO much fun! I loved it! So it starts with a scream in a library and gets 4 unlikely people talking - what do they do? Do they go investigate? Do they leave? Ignore the scream? Their chatting gets them connected. Maybe at that point there is already a bit of attraction and some smiles - maybe that's what gets them meeting up agian later. Your MC is Freddie. She's Austrailian and is in the US on a grant.

But that isn't actually how your book starts. It starts with coorespondence between two authors. Your nearly silent MC is the Australian author sending chapters to an American author. The part you read is what comes back from the US author after each chapter. It was so clever, this added sense of friendship but also anticipation. It kept me fliping the pages, curious of the current mystery within the chapters but also dying to know what was at the end, what new note from Leo would he include. The tension and suspense was killer added layer and I loved it!

At the end, there was also an added guide to help bookclubs with questions. Running book clubs is not always easy to I appreciate it when anyone takes the added time to give thoughtful questions. I also appreciated the author's notes at the end and the dilema to add or not to add the pandemic and masks into the commentary. It's a tough decision right now and I appreciated how the author added in the letters but not the story, keeping the story focused on the mystery and the players and not the real world.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

You follow along the main character as she writes a book and interacts with a fan who is giving her feedback. This book had me second guessing myself the whole time! I truly enjoyed it and couldn’t put it down! I have already recommended it to many friends!