Winifred is working on her novel under a fellowship when she (kind of) witnesses a murder at the Boston Public Library. The three other people who were with her at the time quickly become new friends as they all become involved in the case.

But that is actually the story. The story that is being written by Australian author, Hannah, who is corresponding with American Bostonian, Leo, who is advising her on her manuscript.

This is one of the most unique plots I have ever read - you are actually reading two different mystery/suspense stories that somehow diverge together. This was a fun read with a creepy ending!

I’m a sucker for a good mystery/thriller read. The premise of this book is simple: a woman’s scream breaks the silence in the Boston Public Library reading room leading a random group of strangers to become friends. One of these individuals is not who they seem. You, the reader, are tasked with uncovering the killer’s identity from the first chapter. Finding the answer and parsing reality from fiction is no simple task.

The unusual format really had me second guessing myself more than a few times. I enjoyed the writing style and look forward to reading more by this author.

I received this as an ARC from Poison Pen Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book has two storylines which is pretty unique. The way the author wove her tale was pretty amazing. It kept you guessing with all the twists and turns. The ending seemed a bit rushed hence the four stars. Overall a great read.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley for a digital copy of the book.

This book was so fun! It was suspenseful, it was a story that's never been told before. It had me flipping through the pages, eager to figure out who did it! Loved it.

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

3/5 stars

The books starts out with Leo, who lives in Boston, writing to Hannah, in Australia, offering suggestions on her novel. These letters are throughout the book. It took awhile for me to figure out that the book was the novel Hannah is writing and Leo is offering advice on. This was confusing at first.

Four strangers are in the Boston public library, all immersed in their own business, when a woman screams out. Afterwards the four strangers become friends and try to solve the mystery of why the woman who screamed was killed. If this was just the story and you left out the letter parts, I think I would have like it better. The twists it took and ohh, was it this person, no wait, is it this person. had me guessing

I was pleasantly surprised by this gem from Sulari Gentill. The Woman in the Library is a dual timeline mystery. Four people meet in the Boston Public Library after they were sitting at the same table when they hear a woman scream, later a body found, and a mystery started. The second timeline is an author in Australia writing to a man in the United States about her latest manuscript. It is more character driven than action packed (not my thing), so know that going in. That is one of the things I liked about the story.

I highly suggest reading this one as opposed to listening on audio (which I did not do, but I have seen folks struggle with keeping track of what is going on with audio).

What a fun and thrilling read. This is a novel set within the correspondence of two authors. The main protagonist, Freddie, is from Australia as is her author. However, the book is set in Boston and opens in the main reading room of the Boston public library. Freddie, is also an author so glimpses of her own novel and writing process are seen throughout the book.

When The Woman in the Library Begins Freddie is pondering the three people seated with her naming them, Handsome Guy, Freud Girl, and Heroic Chin when they hear a scream. They are ordered to clear the room so that the library can be searched and end up having coffee together. From that point they become fast friends and murder suspects.

Meanwhile, the author of this plot Hannah is stuck in Australia due to the Covid 19 lockdowns and corresponding with an author in Boston named Leo. Leo sends her information on everything from restaurants to crime scenes.

Highly recommend for people who love locked room mysteries even though this is a reverse.

Although I was ultimately able to guess the murderer, The Woman in the Library is a compelling part locked room mystery, part story within a story that Packs plenty of surprises.

Freddie is an Australian writing fellow living in Boston when she is inexplicably pushed into an unlikely friendship with three other strangers she meets in a library. The reader also learns that Freddie is the product of another author’s imagination, one who is caught up in an email exchange with a die-hard fan whose obsession with the mystery continually deepens.

A great, well-written summer beach read and a welcome change from a typical mystery novel framework. The naivity of the main character played well with the whodunnit as even she seemed to be stumped as to who was behind the murder and subsequent stalkings. The ending left a great set-up for more novels, both with the author within the story and her own fictitious mystery. Can’t wait to see what Gentill writes next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sulari Gentill, and Sourcebooks for this advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

Harriet is trying to find some well needed inspiration by writing in the Boston Public Library. Sitting with three others, Cain, White and Marigold, they are startled by a woman screaming. Soon they find themselves, immersed in an unusual friendship as they are forced to stay in the library, whilst the identity of the murderer is uncovered.
I enjoyed the alternating chapters which explore each of the four characters, whilst the book is told from Harriet’s point of view. Their stories within the story, did a times detract from the main story, which was in essence, a clever and witty murder mystery.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm so grateful to Netgalley for the chance to review this stunning work of contemporary fiction! A best selling novelist from Australia , writing about an Australian living in the U.S. on a writing scholarship, so fun! The framing device of an author sending chapters to a pen-pal for review was genius. Initially the letters from her pen-pal took me out of the main story, but halfway through I was hooked and the framing device made sense. The classic library murder mystery felt like a modern work of Agatha Christie's. While the framing device and discussions about the book while I was still reading it was unique.
Not a book to be taken overly analyzed, but an enjoyable and suspenseful read! It's perfect for book club discussions! I'm almost certain I'll give it another read in the near future.

Really innovative murder mystery with a look into the writer’s mind. Our author MC corresponds with a fellow writer while working through a new book. As she plays out the story on paper, another story enfolds in their correspondence. It’s a delightfully clever meta experience and a perfectly twisty murder plot! Highly enjoyable!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but what I did NOT expect was a book within a book within a book. The story is narrated by Freddie, who you soon find out is a fictional character written by someone named Hannah. And Hannah is receiving messages from someone named Leo after each chapter of her book. Leo is convinced he knows who the killer is (and I was convinced it was someone else) and I was completely wrong. No spoilers about whether Leo was.

I’ve read countless books in my life, and none were quite like this. Thus, the 5 star rating. The story itself is more like a 3-4 for me, but the format is incredibly unique and fresh.

This odd, endearing and weirdly tricky book is a meta meditation on the traditional detective story. Playing off of Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library, author Sulari Gentill yanks this classic into the present. In Christie’s Body the corpse of an apparently unknown young woman appears in the library of a private home. In Gentill’s update, four young people are sitting near each other in the Boston Public library. The main character, Freddie (or Winifred), a mystery writer, is working on a new book and she’s observed the others sitting near her, giving them nicknames as she slots them into a possible book. Freud girl, Heroic Chin and Handsome Man have all invaded her imagination, when their real iterations hear a blood-curdling scream.

The scream unites the four, and when no one can find a body in the library, they disperse – but of course a body is discovered later. The four form a loose group to try to understand what happened to the dead girl and how she got that way. The story is particularly meta as the story of Freddie and her friends – who are actually named Marigold, Whit and Cain - is a book being written by a “real” woman named Hannah. She is writing her novel in Australia and sending chapters to a beta-reader named Leo in Boston who offers critiques as well as putting her on the right path as far as American expressions and Boston locations go.

This was, for me, a framing device for what I found to be the “real” story of Freddie and her friends. Even as Freddie, who is living in Boston on a grant (which comes complete with a swanky apartment) is working on a book about Freud girl et al., she is drawn into the real life mystery of the dead girl with these people, a.k.a. characters, who have become her friends.

In true golden age style, Gentill has created an extremely tiny suspect pool. The killer could really only be one of three people, and she deftly keeps the reader guessing throughout the story. The four of them become fully developed and interesting characters who hold your attention, as do their developing relationships and tensions. While creating a tricky mystery, she also gives the readers characters that are real enough to make the reader truly feel affection for them. This, of course, gives the book some real depth and heft.

The surrounding layers – Hannah’s increasingly disturbing exchanges with Leo, the technical aspects of writing a novel as discussed by several of the characters – are merely the frame for the jewel of a story that Gentill has presented to the reader. Freddie’s increasingly almost foolish detective work illustrates her increasing desperation to discover the killer’s identity, adding to the suspense of this well written novel. If novels as ingenious as this one continue to be written, there is so much to look forward to as far as the mystery genre goes.

This was a clever way of writing this story as it sort of had to stories going on.
I really enjoyed this mystery as well as the emails describing life in Boston in 2020
I would definately read more from this author.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. A mystery set in the Boston Public Library almost a locked room mystery but not quite. I love the characters and the pace was great. The letters in the book telling another story within the story was fun. Nothing really creepy but a fun read all in all.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for and advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

A book within a book, wrapped in a mystery. This is “The Woman in the Library” by Sulari Gentill. A woman is writing a book about four strangers who are sitting in the Boston Public Library when they hear a woman scream. Later a woman is found dead and one of the four is the murderer. Meanwhile, the woman writing the book is sending early chapters to a man who might be a murderer in the real world. This book was WILD.

In this book everyone is wrapped into a murder investigation and the audience knows immediately that one of four people in the murderer. I find it so interesting how the four characters were connected and how each person could have possibly been the murderer. There was a lot going on, but the chaos aided this story well.

In the end, this book earned 4 stars from me. It was twisty and wild, but I felt like there were moments that it was trying to do too much. I loved the premise, but the mystery wrapped in a mystery made me want to know more about the man the author was writing with than the story she was writing. Overall, though, it was a very interesting premise.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Four people come together at the Boston Public Library after hearing a woman scream. They develop an unusual friendship when the scream they all heard emanates from a woman apparently murdered in the library. Being an eclectic mix of college students and rising writers they decide to investigate as well as put everything in literary form. Sound interesting yet? Oh keep reading, it gets better.

A subplot of letters written by a creepy , shall I say unhinged, budding writer to a well known Australian author whose manuscript he is beta reading rounds out each chapter. I kept saying to myself, what is going on here? What is real and what is fiction?

Keep reading because everything becomes clearer at the end and what an ending it is! Plus, I don’t think it’s over with yet.

A story within a story that features a murder in a famous public library?!? Count me in!

I was drawn to this book because of its setting in the iconic Boston Public Library - a beautiful library I visited five years ago. The format of this book is 'story within a story' which is an interesting concept but despite the library setting and murder mystery, this story didn't quite work for me.

The premise is this: Australian author Hannah Tigone is writing a murder mystery and as she writes she emails back and forth with her beta reader Leo. Due to Covid restrictions, Hannah is unable to come to Boston so Leo, who lives in that city, becomes her sounding board for all things Boston. We get to read their communications which becomes increasingly darker.

The other part of this book focuses on the story Hannah is writing about four strangers who are sitting in Boston Public Library's beautiful Reading Room when they hear a woman scream. A body is later found, and these four people's lives become entwined. The four strangers are: Winifred "Freddie" - a writer-in-residence; Marigold - a psychology major at Harvard; Whit - who is hoping to fail out of Harvard Law and not follow in his family's legal footsteps; and Cain - a published author. This group creates incredibly (unbelievably?) fast friendships as they try to solve the murder.

The story within a story is an interesting idea but often felt confusing to me and the bonds between the four characters felt contrived and forced. Hannah and Leo's emails distracted me from the mystery and although their inclusion becomes clear later, I couldn't shake the feeling as I read that I wasn't quite grasping all that the author was laying out.

This story has an interesting concept and I appreciated getting a look into authors' writing processes and the tidbits of social commentary. Unfortunately, this book didn't meet my expectations, but it is getting rave reviews from others so take this review with a grain of salt.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for this complimentary advanced copy of this book provided in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars

This was a whirlwind of a mystery! With so many important details and essentially two storylines, I really had to take my time reading this, but it was so worth it.

This story is told through two POVs: Freddie, a fictional Australian character written by Hannah Tigone, and Leo, an aspiring writer who is critiquing Hannah’s manuscript via emails. But there is also a character named Leo written into the story who plays the role of Freddie’s neighbor. At times I found that a bit confusing, but also really creative as the story progressed.

Freddie gets caught up in a murder mystery after befriending three strangers at the Boston Public Library. They are all present when a scream is heard throughout the library, and they quickly become engrossed in the details of what led to the young woman’s murder. But as they get closer, they discover secrets about one another and suddenly they aren’t sure who to trust. A budding relationship blurs the lines for Freddie and now she must decide between following her heart and trusting what her her new friends believe to be the truth.

Overall, I thought this was a captivating story, and it was so difficult to put down. Since Leo was reading Hannah’s story, I thought I knew who the murderer was because he kept alluding to the suspect, but Freddie, on the other hand, still wasn’t convinced and she pushed through until the very end to prove his innocence. I definitely didn’t see the big reveal coming, so that was a nice surprise. However, I’m still a little confused by the very last scene. I have my theories, but I guess in this case, the reader will never know.

Highly recommend!

*Thank you to NetGalley and the Sourcebooks for providing a copy of this book to review.*

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4510219929

Thank you Poison Pen Press and NetGalley for this Arc.

I don't read too many thrillers, due to being a complete wuss and getting too scared. I'll admit this book had a few occasions of inducing scared goosebumps. I loved how this was conceptualised, having both the actual book as POV and a reader POV, allowed me to basically have a buddy read within a book. In the beginning switching between these two POV was a bit confusing for me, but as I got used to it I started looking forward to what Leo had to say. 👀I found the characters well written and pacing great! Really enjoyed it!