I loved the way this was written with the story within a story. I don’t believe I have read anything like this. I enjoyed the interactions between the characters and flipped a few times with who I believed was the killer. My only disappointment was that I thought it should be longer. Could this be book one of a multi book saga exploring these characters again?

As hard as I tried I could not finish this book. The storyline did not grab and hold my imagination plus I had trouble keeping the characters straight in the story.

The Woman in the Library by adulation Gentill tells the story of Cain, Whit, Freddie and Marigold at first strangers then become fast friends when a scream occurs at the Boston Public Library. But this is the story in the story. Between chapters of this book, there are emails from a self proclaimed author Leo the real author Hannah Tigone. What a brilliant concept!! Loved the book Hannah wrote along with the characters. I had to keep reminding myself this was a story. The emails between Hannah and Leo were great!! I could see the escalation in Leo’s emails. The FBI letter was jaw dropping!! Didn’t expect that!! I’ve been telling everyone about this book!! Thank you for allowing me to review this book

This mystery is fun, with a great group of characters to get to know. I suspected quite a few folks at one time or another…and yet, I wasn’t completely blown away when all was revealed. That didn’t deter my engagement.
One thing I did enjoy was the concept of a story within a story with the letters from a fan to the author. On the other hand, I feel like this idea could have been more elaborate..


Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Three stars for intriguing setup and narrative choices. I was easily drawn into the layers of mystery at the beginning, and had high hopes for ways that the story and the frame story might start to intersect. But the pacing was slow, and, for me, the conclusion just completely fizzled out. It wasn't as twisty and surprising as it seemed like it should be.

4.75 stars / This review will be posted on goodreads.com today.


The Woman in the Library is a book within a book. Part the beta novel of an aspiring author and part one-sided epistolary with the beta reader’s letters.

Freddie is an author who is spending a year in Boston on a writing fellowship. She doesn’t have many friends in Boston, yet. While working on her novel in the Boston Public Library one day, she notices her tablemates. Their countenances give her inspiration for writing.

Freud Girl, looks like a psych major, with tattooed arms and trendy hair. Heroic Chin wears a Harvard Law sweatshirt and reminds Freddie of a cartoon character. Handsome Man reminds Freddie of herself, could he be a writer as well? Freddie finds herself drawn to these three and crafts ideas for stories with them included.

When a scream surprises all of the library patrons, the normal library rules cease to apply. Heroic Chin is the first to speak, which gets the four talking amongst themselves. Since the spell of work has been broken, the four head to get coffee, and a friendship begins.

While Freddie works on her novel, Hannah, the author of the actual novel which includes Freddie and group, shares chapters with her beta reader Leo. After each chapter, there is a letter from Leo with suggestions for changes within Hannah’s story. While Hannah may include some elements that Leo has suggested, she ignores many, causing Leo much ire.The story within a story is compelling, in that during the chapters, you tend to forget all about Hannah, and then Leo brings her front and center again.

I loved the format and style of this novel. It was such fun to be included as part of the ‘beta reader’ parts. The mystery and how Freddie and group will try to solve it is much fun. The interaction between the characters and their quickly formed friendship allows us to learn about each of them at the same time that Freddie does. The entire novel is from Freddie’s point of view, with the exception of Leo’s letters.

Sulari Gentill has a gift for keeping a reader intrigued. I haven’t read her other novels, but if this is any indication, I believe that I would enjoy them.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press and Dreamscape Media for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this wonderful book by Sulari Gentill - 4.5 stars!

Freddie hails from Australia and is in Boston after winning a writing scholarship to continue work on her book. She has a random meeting with 3 other people at a table in the Boston Public Library when they hear a scream and soon learn a woman has died. The four soon develop a close relationship, not really knowing all they should about each other and if they too are unsafe.

This book was such fun - a whodunit story with beginnings in a library, authors writing and critiquing their work, a story in a story setting. Add in differences between American and Australian culture, the pandemic, and racial issues and it gets better and better! This is my first book by this author but I'll definitely come back for more!

I literally couldn’t put this book down from the moment I picked it up. Think clue - four people trapped in a room tigger her and one of them is the killer. Honestly a little predictable but still a roller coaster of a ride. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I enjoyed the The Woman in the Library. I found the narrative style interesting and I definitely enjoyed the letters from Leo parts. I though the last 3ish chapters felt rushed and slightly anticlimactic. I don't know what I wanted from the book because there are only so many options but I wanted more. Would recommend.

This book was like book inception. A book about a writer corresponding with another writer about their work and the main writer is sending chapters about a book that’s about a writer talking to another writer about her book and all the books have to do with murder. Are you confused? Don’t be I promise it’s easy to follow. I finished this book in 2 days! I couldn’t put it down. The plot twists were so good! Mystery, suspense, murder and love! What more could you need? Can you guess the killer before the end?

Didn’t enjoy this one. The plot was both predictable and really messy. The character names were so bad I couldn’t stop giggling while reading.

The Woman In the Library by Sulari Gentil is a clever book, a story within a story that will keep the reader on their toes while thoroughly entertaining them. It will be difficult to say much about the plot without spoiling some of the more unique features of the book, so I will keep it to the basics. Four strangers meet in Boston Public Library's reading room when they are forced to kill time during a security assessment following terrified screams echoing through the building. Our point of view character is Winifred/Fred, a young Australian writer vising the city on scholarship while she writes a book, and it seems she has been observing the other three as inspiration for her characters. As this mystery unfolds we learn in fact that is a work in progress, a mystery being written by an established and successful Australian author, and that she has been sending her work in progress to a man named Leo for his criticism and corrections, so there we have our story within a story. As both stories unfold the reader is in for a thrill ride , there are plenty of red herrings and lots of action to keep things moving. Both stories were cleverly executed and worked well in tandem. This is easily one of the better thriller/mysteries I have read in a long time. I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Be patient with this. It's a story within a story within a story- and there's a murder. Hannah is unable to travel from Australia to the US to do the research for her next novel due to COVID restrictions so she's writing to Leo, who provides her with local color. The book within the book is Hannah's murder mystery, which involves a killing in- wait for it- the Boston Public Library. This features a group who meet while sharing a table. I don't know how to describe this, as it twists back and forth and to and fro. It can be a bit frustrating to keep straight where one is but ultimately, it works because it's clever. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

This one just didn't work for me. There were too many stories within stories and the characters are the same within each story. I just couldn't keep up. It felt like so much work to keep everything straight, and when I really, I really just want to be swept away by the story.

The structure of this book is unique and I was intrigued from the start. The premise is that four strangers are sharing a table at the Boston Public Library when they hear a scream. That experience (and the later discovery of a dead woman) bonds the four strangers and they quickly become friends. But are they now friends with a killer? A good story, but the ending was just okay.

I didn’t know what to expect from “the woman in the library” and it was nice to come into it with eyes open. It has a fascinating format, of a first person story featuring a writer…and at the end of each chapter is a note with comments on it from a reviewer! A story within a story. It’s nice because the reviewer is used to explain some things and set the scene. Speaking of the scene, it’s set in Boston, which I couldn’t help but love because I lived there in the past and recognized locations and businesses mentioned — the fact that some real places were used just made the story come alive in a really fun way. The story kept me guessing — I can’t help but try to predict who-dun-it and there were so many viable options!! And then a twist halfway through! Wow. I really liked the way this story evolved, it kept me guessing, and I was even wrong at the end for who-dun-it (partially at least)! In a very satisfying way!! Wonderful stand-alone mystery. I’m so glad I got to read an advanced copy.

This literary mystery thriller started off really strong but sort of lost steam midway through for me. Told as a story within a story, the reader is left trying to determine what is fact and fiction as we follow four strangers who meet in the reading room of the Boston Public library only to have their silence interrupted by a woman's dying scream. From the beginning we are told one of these four is the killer but the journey to uncover who is a long one. This was a twisty, entertaining ride and perfect for fans of books like Cover story or Who is Maud Dixon. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance review copies! I'll definitely be waiting eagerly for the next book by this author!

4.5 stars

United States Publication Date: June 7, 2022

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this advanced reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.

Wow. What a great idea for a story and a great execution of that idea. I'm one of those readers that reads it all, acknowledgments, etc and the author explains at the back of the book that she got the idea through a real life email exchange.

Hannah is a famous (we find out throughout the course of the book) author working on her newest mystery/thriller. She and a fan-turned-friend, Leo, have email exchanges in which she shares rough draft chapters and he, a fellow writer, offers feedback. In this particular instance, he is also offering on the ground research as he lives in Boston, the city her newest novel is set in. So the book we are reading contains two storylines. The one between Hannah and Leo and then the story Hannah is actually writing. The story she is writing is about a writer who was awarded a year-long grant to write a novel in Boston. Our author, Freddie (short for Winifred), hails from Australia and is stateside for a year. She's working on a mystery and is short on inspiration. One day she heads to the Boston Public Library and finds herself sitting in a cluster with three other people. The other three, Freud Girl, Heroic Chin, and Handsome Man, become Freddie's friends after a scream from a woman in the library bonds them. She assigns her new friends these monikers as they have inspired her to start writing - she will give them names later. But between her new friends and the actual scream from a woman then found dead in the library, Freddie has found her inspiration. She begins to write and spends more and more time with the three. They decide to "solve" the mystery of the woman in the library because some strange coincidences are popping up. So between writing her book and trying to solve the actual mystery, Freddie is quite busy! The question is, will Freddie's version of the story and the real life version meet up and become one or converge from each other? She gets to decide. In the meantime, Hannah and Leo's email exchanges are taking a turn for the weird. He may be a little too invested in her story.

I loved this book. I couldn't put it down and the one time I did I couldn't stop thinking about it until I picked it back up. It was a really delicious (yep, that's what I said and I'm sticking with it) read. Super clever and just so delicious! It didn't earn a full 5 stars from me because I felt like the Hannah and Leo part of the story ended too abruptly. I would have liked to have seen it rounded out a bit more. But that's really so minor in the big picture of this book. Fantastic.

TL;DR: This book had nothing wrong with it, but at the same time it didn't hit the right spots for me. The story had so much potential and it was delivered competently, but in overall it didn't do anything for me.

I'm not sure how to feel about this book and the story, so I'll start by saying that I understand the title choice, but I don't agree with it. In "The Woman in the Library" we meet Freddie, an author, that is in a library trying to push a new book to be born. She's taking inspiration from her surrounding and pinpoints three potential characters in the people sitting in the same table. A scream ensues and the four people start talking because of this situation.

What follows is a tale of fast friendships with strong bonds, romance and Freddie writing her novel while trying to separate the characters from the people she's come to meet. I liked it, felt simple, interesting. But on top of it, we have Hannah, the portion of meta of this book, that is actually writing about Freddie writing a book, and corresponding with Leo, a colleague that lives in the US, in the vicinity of where the book is taking place and giving her tips. This is where things reached the potential of being great or very bad - and where this book just delivered. It made it work, but there was no flavor for me.

I'd have liked this book more if the interludes, the emails between Hannah and Leo, were kept just like that. It added a layer to the story, but the mystery that develops in that relationship complicated the narrative too much. It felt like reading two books in one, but neither got deeply explored.

The book started to pick up pace at around 45%, when we're presented with the new (new) layer of mystery. Like a matryoshka, every chapter revealed a new problem, a new consideration. The ending felt rushed and like neither of the stories got solved in the level they deserved.

It's not that I disliked the book, it's just that I'll remember this premise for more time than I'll remember the story itself. In any way, I'd pick up books by Sulari Gentill again in the future, as I enjoyed the writing style.

Thanks to Net Galley and Poisoned Pen for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press.

I was intrigued by this book because I live in Boston! A murder somehow brings four strangers together. There was no shortage of mystery here. I loved the premise and the idea of the book! I had some questions, but overall, I really enjoyed this read.