i love boston and the boston public library, so i was beyond excited to read this book, but unfortunately it didn't really work for me. i found it to have the pacing of a cozy mystery, but a lot of gore and graphic images and tough topics, not to mention social issues, that didn't fit with that. i definitely didn't hate this book but it wasn't for me!

I loved the format of this book - the book with the book and initially set in the library. Truly after a librarians heart with that! It was a bit slow, but really kept me guessing right up until the very end. I’d rate it 3.5 stars. Really good read.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.

I was REALLY looking forward to this one... a mystery set around a murder at the Boston Public Library is right up my alley. But this was a flop for me pretty much from the start, I did stick with it to see it through hoping the end would redeem the things I was having issues with, it did not.

So first off, this is a story within a story... within a story composed of letters being written by an American author (who is a racist and there are a lot of problematic things in those letters) to an Australian author giving "real time" feedback on the chapters of the book they are writing about a group of strangers who were in the reading room of the Boston Public Library when a murder happens. One of those characters is an author who uses the people in the reading room as inspiration for the book they are writing. Still with me? Yeah. I enjoy plenty of books that are a story within a story but the had just one too many layers in it. The feedback letters completely pull you out of the reading experience so the suspense is gone with each plot reveal. Who the killer is and why it happened wasn't shocking or surprising. Honestly, by that time the red herrings were so heavy handed that I wasn't invested in the mystery at all.

You win some, you lose some. This was my first highly anticipated 2022 release that didn't come close to meeting my expectations.

Got this gem from netgalley - they had me at the title / cover and I was so excited to get this!

Sulari does not disappoint and you def get a lot from one book- this is like a story in a story in a story there a a couple subplots going - the emails, the book, and then the book she is writing in the book ! I had it pieced together about 80 percent through but it still played out nicely and keep me in it and the pages turning!

I honestly loved Freddie and Cain - Marigold and Whit are a hot mess but likable … well kind of at times lol don’t take my word for it you read it and tell me who you would trust and who you would be friends with I am betting with the exception of Freddie it was change depending on the chapter!

I think Mrs Weinbaum could and should get her own spin off - I absolutely am obsessed with her and we barely know her really

There is so much to say but I also do not want to have spoilers so I guess I can say this is relatable to the recent news about Nancy Brophy the author who wrote about killing her husband and then actually was found out to have killed her husband- here I was thinking man the sub plot here is so twisted but really given recent news maybe it isn’t to far fetched for authors and screen writers …. Makes you think

I loved the way this story addresses (what I imagine) many writers struggle to address , speak to , incorporate etc and I’m sure something they have to consider constantly when starting their stories / journeys(ie the Pandemic and race )

If you like murder mystery books this is for you! If you like psychology and crime - this is for you. If you are a people watcher you will love this story! Honestly just get it already

I had the chance to review an Advanced Review Copy from #NetGalley and am glad to see this book getting some good press. The structure, which makes it difficult to determine what's the story and what's the story-within-a-story, was not something I had encountered before and kept me guessing. There is an Aussie author corresponding with an American fan named Leo while writing a novel about an Australian author on a fellowship in the US with a neighbor named Leo. If you are familiar with Boston it is also easy to picture the places and characters.

This book was just so much fun! One 0f those quick reads where you're super eager to find out what happens, but also don't want the book to end. I'm taking off one star only because I would have loved to see the author do a little bit more with the framing (letters from Leo to Helen) -- I found myself wanting more, whereas I thought the main story-within-a-story had just the right amount of ambiguity.

I think fans of Anthony Horowitz, Peter Swanson, and Alex Pavesi's the Eighth Detective will really enjoy this one.

I could not put this book down! The Woman in the Library immediately drew me in with vibrant characters and cliff-hanging chapters. The "story within a story" framework added a fun extra layer that made me feel like I was reading two different novels at the same time...and a third one, in which I was wondering if and how they were going to intertwine! I was left guessing all the way until the last scenes and was sad to see this engaging story end. This would be a great book for lovers of classic mystery novels, but its fast-paced and immersive style also broaden its appeal to almost any reader.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC through NetGalley!

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, Netgalley and the author for an Advance Copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I read this book in 2 sittings - I had to go to sleep before I could finish the last third and dreamt about it while I was sleeping. The start is innocent enough - two writers corresponding with each other. One is in Australia and writing a novel about a murder in Boston and the other lives in Boston - the Australian writer gets help from the writer in Boston to assist with dialect and places, and we read the chapters and the feedback alternately.

Both the mystery in the book and the correspondence between the two authors is utterly riveting, and the story becomes more chilling progressively. It's so well written and original that this may be my favourite mystery/thriller of the year. I loved the Australian-isms, the characters and the twists and turns. An absolute 5 star read for me.

The story opens with a letter between an Australian writer Hannah Tigone and her Beta-reader Leo. Hannah cannot travel due to Covid, and she would like to have someone local, such as Leo, do some research for her book.

Chapter one begins with Freddie, an Australian mystery writer who has come to the Boston Library hoping to get some writing done. In the quiet, she is interrupted by a scream. A woman has been murdered.

The three strangers, seated at the same table with Freddie in the library, are all becoming part of her story. The plot thickens as they are bonded; now, they need each other as alibis.

Do you see the story-within-the-story building? Hannah is writing the story of Freddie, who is, in turn, writing the story of the murder in the library. It’s not as simple as it seems, but the two “stories” are woven together seamlessly.

I love books that have authors discussing their writing process, and 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲 also has a bit of humor and a mixed bag of personalities. This may not be a new concept, but it was executed quite cleverly.

Thank you @poisonedpenpress for the gifted ebook and @dreamscape_media for the audiobook.

Four strangers sitting at the same table in the Boston Public Library meet after they hear a woman scream. They almost immediately become friends and when a body is discovered they become involved in the investigation. And one of them is a murderer.

I read this in less than a day. I could not stop reading. It was clever and unexpected. The Woman In The Library by Sulari Gentill is a story within a story. After each chapter we read emails from Leo to the author. I really enjoyed reading them and disagreeing with everything he said.

I made so many notes while reading because I had a lot of wild theories. I was wrong about everything but my belief in a character's innocence. The characters are charming and feel real.

I've never read a mystery quite like this. There are several things a reader may find to talk about with this one. It was SO good. If you love mysteries then you need to read this!

Thank you so much to the publisher for the ARC! The Woman In The Library will be published June 7th.

I loved it!
Honestly I was a bit confused at first about the story within the story getting this as an e copy from NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press.. I thought I was reading notes from the editor at first 😂 good thing I didn’t skip over them. It definitely makes you question a lot in the story & helps to build the suspense.
It took me longer than usual to get through this one. Life gets in the way of reading & it is a bit slow around the middle.
Overall I definitely recommend this one!! 4/5⭐️

[Pre release review for Net Galley] I was unsure at first how this story would unfold with a sub plot playing out after each chapter, but it was so good! It kind of allows for 2 separate stories at once that keeps you hooked throughout the whole storyline!

Honestly, I didn’t know who to suspect and even at the end I didn’t know who had really killed who! That’s the best kind of thriller and murder mystery!

The only really I gave it 4 stars was because I wished that the author developed a little more of the subplot storyline when you realize the real life murderer has entered into Australian during a pandemic to find the true author! Would have been nice to have more of the background there as well!

A definite must read! Coming out June 7!

Winifred is writing a novel but not just any novel— she is penning the story of herself and her three new friends who happened to be sitting together at the Boston Public Library when a scream rings out. The next day they learn that Caroline Palfrey, a writer for a student paper, has been found dead. The foursome is hesitant to let the murder go and they begin to discuss what possible connections there might be. As Winifred’s novel unfolds, so too does Hannah’s, the creator of Winifred and the scream that is The Woman in the Library. Hannah, an Aussie, is sharing pages with Leo, an American who just happens to know the city of Boston inside and out and who is more than happy to provide feedback and background for one of his favorite authors.

This book ended up being extremely difficult to like. The premise was great— a group of new friends united by a mysterious scream. As well, the way the story was presented, as if an author was sharing a draft with another author for feedback, moved the story along quite nicely. However, the mystery that anchored the entire story was flimsy at best, the writer and her sounding board wildly casting suspicion on each character in turn with very little to back up their assertions. A sudden plot twist in the middle of the book the throws things off kilter as it felt very much like an afterthought meant to liven up the subplot of the two writers exchanging feedback. Finally, though this is indeed an uncorrected proof, there seemed to have been next no editing done on this ARC which often made it difficult to wade through sentences with missing words or added words that did not belong. I was, in the end, rather disappointed in this novel.

I received an ARC of The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill. The book starts off with a letter from a beta reader who is helping the author with her book. The story within a story starts with our four main characters in the library when they hear a woman scream. They didn't know each other previously, but are bonded by the mystery of the scream. When they later find out a woman was found dead in the library, they are curious and try to find out more.

At first, I felt like the framing device (letters from the beta reader) was unnecessary but it eventually became apparent why the author chose this. I did like the letters quite a lot as they helped build a sense of dread. The mystery of who killed the woman in the library was intriguing but there were several moments that I just didn't find believable. For example, a character falls in love with someone whom she's known for less than a month, when she finds out a big secret, she doesn't immediately tell the police or her friends, and some pieces of the story were just not wrapped up. The conclusion was fast and chaotic. For these reasons, I gave the 3 stars. Overall enjoyable but likely not memorable.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy. The book comes out June 7, 2022

"I am a bricklayer without drawings, laying words in sentences, sentences into paragraphs, allowing my walls to twist and turn on a whim. There is no framework, just bricks interlocked to support each other into a story."

Freddie, an Australian writer with a fellowship in Boston, is chilling in the Boston Public Library one nondescript afternoon. She's silently judging three peeps sitting by her - Heroic Chin, Handsome Man, and Freud Girl, as she's dubbed them for use as her literary inspiration - when out of nowhere a terrified scream rattles the library guests. Bonded by the mystery of the scream, the unlikely foursome form a fast friendship... which is firmly solidified when it's revealed that a body was found in the library post-scream. Was it the screamer who was killed? If so, why?

Who was killed in the library is exactly what Leo is wondering as he reads the first draft of his penpal Hannah's latest murder mystery. Since Hannah lives in Australia and Leo lives in Boston, he's her inside scoop to gather intel on Bostonian life such that she can write a realistic book. But as Leo keeps reading Hannah's chapters, his email replies with "helpful suggestions" become more and more...interesting.

I liked the idea of bookception that was used in The Woman in the Library a lot - Sulari Gentill writing about Hannah who is writing about Freddie who is writing her own book. I've seen it done before, but it's not a common trope so it felt like an imaginative concept to deploy. I also found the primary mystery of who killed the woman in the library to be a fun and enjoyable read. I didn't figure out who dunnit until all the cards were laid out at the end.

But while I found the story to be fun and entertaining, I also found it to be a little campy and over the top. If you're looking for a book to distract you from the doldrums that are everyday life, this charming little book is the one for you! But if you're looking for something that'll move you - something that you'll remember for years to come - I'd pass.

Also - unrelated side note - every time I read the nickname Heroic Chin my brain automatically flipped it to Heroin Chic.

Source: DRC via NetGalley (Poisoned Pen Press)
Pub. Date: June 7, 2022
Post date on Angry Angel Books (angryangelbooks.com): June 2, 2022
Synopsis: Goodreads

Why did I choose to read this book?

I don’t read a lot of bottle episode-type books, so the description of this one grabbed me because (1) they are stuck in a library and (2) it’s a murder mystery. I’m trying to lean into my new love of thrillers/mysteries.

What is this book about?

It turns out that they are not stuck in the library until the murderer is uncovered. Four people meet in the Reading Room of the Boston Public Library after a blood-curdling scream interrupts the silence. They get to talking, become friends, and then slowly each of them is targeted by the unknown murderer of the woman in the library whose scream brought them together.

This book is also a bit about craft. After each chapter there is a letter of correspondence between a person named Leo (Winifred’s neighbor in the actual novel) and the author of the novel, Hannah. Leo is based in Boston and the author is based in Australia (as is the main character Winnifred in the novel parts). Leo seems to be a reader who gives feedback and location research/info, but also includes correspondence about their own “opus” and its inability to find an agent. They are also a huge fan of this author, and say so multiple times. We are led to believe that the author trusts this person enough to send them their pages for review.

You’re reading a novel AND someone’s opinion of the novel side by side (or rather, back and forth), and things eventually get kind of stalker-y.

What is notable about the story?

Everything about this novel is strangely convenient. From Winnifred’s scholarship to her new group of friends bumping into each other to begin with and then being together/bumping into each other WAY TOO MUCH – you would be hard pressed to not be like How? or What? or No Way That’s Not Believable.

Also everyone is always ready to “come right over” to support each other. I think a couple of times Marigold (the tattooed psychology major) is already outside Winnifred’s building basically fighting the doorman for access. Plus Winnifred is WAY too willing to let people just sleep over in her apartment. It’s wild. Get out of my house, I’ll call you an Uber. It’s Boston, just throw them on the Green line. And visa versa, Americans would be very unlikely to stay in the apartment of a person we just met, and call an Uber for ourselves at the end of the night.

Was anything not so great?

I hate to say it but this book wasn’t exactly thrilling. I think I reached almost 50% of my way through this one and just started rooting for them all to be the murderer so they could just all murder each other and be done with it. What killed it for me was actually also what was so notable about the book: the amount of coincidence. Every interaction was “oh! I didn’t expect to see you here!” like Boston isn’t a gigantic city and these 4 people that met randomly at a library would just be constantly bumping into each other everywhere they went.

What’s the verdict?

I’ll give it 3 stars because it was good enough to keep me reading until the end, but I think this book may suffer from culture ignorance. These interactions are not believable in Americans. A lot of this book was unbelievable or too convenient, and that took away from the suspense and mystery.

I think the synopsis for The Woman in the Library is misleading. I went into this expecting a locked room mystery, so it was pretty disorienting to realize that's not at all what this is! In the end though, I fell in love with this story within a story and thought the direction it went in was quite brilliant. This is going to be a difficult book to describe because I want to give my audience the right expectations but I also don't want to give anything away! Knowing that the main storyline is actual a novel allowed me to suspend my disbelief and to just go along with it.

Wow! What a read! I was prepared to like the book from the opening scene, because it was set in the Boston Public Library. Now, I have never visited the BPL, but I have visited enough wonderful old libraries to be excited about visiting again--and this author has the rare ability to put the reader into the scene. I could smell the old books and hear the rustling of pages as the other patrons tried to be quiet--until the shocking scream that kicked off the action.

. . . and it just got better from there! The characters were well developed, the dialogue pitch-perfect, and oh, the plot! I give up quickly when a book is hard to follow, and too many authors--I suppose in an attempt to introduce twists and surprises--lose me in their labyrinths. Not this one! I stayed just off balance enough to be caught up in the story, but not enough to have to go back and try to find where I got lost. It's been a while since I enjoyed a book this much.

I really liked the premise of this book, but ultimately it was a little too unfocused for my taste. It also probably does not help that I work in the Back Bay, across Copley Square from the BPL. It was hard to forgive the fake author for her mistakes and fabrications. This book is definitely entertaining, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it to locals. And the lack of focus might not be everyone's cup of tea.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this one as much as I was expecting to. The plot started out fine, but we were instantly introduced to some correspondence between two authors that didn't add anything to the story - it wasn't mysterious nor creepy, it just felt like some filler to the plot. The characters of the main story were very unappealing and I honestly couldn't care less about them or their current or background story, specially when they constantly made questionable and stereotyped comments about other people.

As for who the killer was, I can't really say I figured out who it was before it was reveled, but I can't really say that I was surprised either.