I love reading about books in books and "The Woman in the Library" ticked all the boxes! Gentill's writing style and plot were very unique but I couldn't deny the lack of tension. It's very slow-burn and I like fast-paced books way more!

*DNF*

Copy kindly received via NetGalley for an honest review.

I tried to get into this one, but it just was not for me, so I chose to DNF.

Who you meet may not be who they are.
Four strangers begin a conversation while waiting for an all-clear from police after an incident in the Boston Public Library. Three of them inspire characters in the protagonist's draft of her novel. This leads to unexpected relationships, consequences of the initial incident, and a reader who gives initially helpful but increasingly unsolicited input. The result is a cleverly complex reading adventure.

The Woman in the Library will certainly be at the top of my 2022 favorite book list. It is a delightfully complex and unique work where the reader is transported into an author's world and allowed a peek into the development process. The complexity of the embedded story and correspondence is so skillfully blended that it led to a unique and enjoyable experience for this reader

The description of the Boston Public Library and other locations in Boston pulled me into the story; also, it was very interesting how the fictional author was learning such details from another continent. I think many writers will admire the craft of this book as well as the plot.

Sulari Gentil was one of four Australian authors who toured the U.S. in 2019, and I was fortunate to see them at Bouchercon in Dallas, Texas. Their panel was so successful that the conference bookstore ran out of copies. The series has provided welcome escapes during the pandemic, and this book will certainly lead to more American readers joining the Australian fans of her work.

Finally, I must note and compliment the book's gorgeous cover; the print edition will be a welcome addition to my collection.

I was (impatiently!) awaiting the availability of this book in the U.S. (June 2022), and therefore delighted for the opportunity to read the digital copy in exchange for a review. Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for their generosity.

Extremely slow paced and found it to be long winded and boring. Just wasn't my idea of a good readable novel.

3.5/5⭐️

In this contemporary mystery-within-a-mystery, four strangers who happen to be sitting at the same table in the Boston Public Library, bond and become unlikely friends following a murder in a nearby room. The only catch? One of them is the killer.

The “within” plot is that this murder mystery is being written in real-time by Hannah (in Australia) who is receiving written unsolicited advice/counsel on this story (and all things Boston/American) from obsessive stalker fan Leo. And I promise it’s not as confusing as I’ve made it sound.

While I did enjoy this to a certain extent and found the idea intriguing, it was entirely too long (however, I was surprised to find that it’s actually just under 300 pages…didn’t seem that way). Better editing would have helped.

So while parts were rambling and needless, otherwise I found it OK…not outstanding but OK.

My thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing the free early arc of The Woman in the Library for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

An Australian author writes a murder mystery set in Boston, about an Australian author writing a murder mystery set in Boston, about - well, we’re not entirely sure what Freddie’s book is about because she’s too busy solving a mystery… The Woman in the Library is very clever, and chock-full of bookish references and literary in-jokes. It has very polarised reviews - I guess books with a lot of buzz tend to - but I was thoroughly immersed in this and appreciated the playful and original way Gentill pulls it all together.

Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid has won a scholarship which awarded her a year in a fancy apartment to write her next book. Seeking inspiration, she settles in to the Boston Public Library and observes her fellow bookworms - but the peace is shattered by a woman’s scream. She goes for coffee with the three people at her table, beginning a friendship, a love affair, and an entanglement with a killer…
So begins Hannah Tigone’s latest novel - written from Sydney as the Covid pandemic begins to bite, she is prevented from travelling to the USA for research, so relies instead on her devoted beta-reader, Leo, himself a frustrated writer, to provide local details. Leo, however, has his own ideas about how Hannah’s book should play out…

I’ve done a bit of beta reading for a few authors I’ve befriended by email in recent years, so loved the way this was written into the story - I hope I never become as obsessed or prescriptive as Leo!! This is the second “book within a book” I’ve read recently - not enough to call it a trend, although there are definitely a lot of books about libraries/bookworms/writers coming out - not that I’m complaining!

Lately I’ve become quite critical of authors who try and pretend the pandemic hasn’t happened, so was delighted when this is dealt with - in this case I’m with Leo:
“I notice that you have not once in this novel made any reference to the global pandemic. I understand of course. We’re all sick of it and all it entails. But I think it is the responsibility of writers to bear witness to the darkness as well as the light. Without any mention of the virus, your novel risks being dated before it’s released” and then “Writing a contemporary novel without the pandemic is surely more fantasy than mystery.” The (real) author actually addresses this in the “interview” at the end - I thought this was a brilliant way of dealing with it.

The issue of character race was also addressed using the same device, as Leo writes: “I just defaulted to white because no one mentioned they were Black. I know you’re not white, so maybe your characters aren’t either, and it is only my inherent bias that makes me see them as white unless you tell me otherwise.” (I confess I’m as guilty of this with fiction as Leo.) He comes back to this point again later, getting quite frustrated that Hannah refuses to address it - it’s definitely something I’ve noticed is much more of an issue in the USA than here in Australasia, and the way Gentill handles it (as a woman of colour herself) would make an interesting book club discussion topic.

The mystery part was very well done - even though we’re given only a limited pool of suspects, I didn’t guess whodunnit until the final reveal. I’d never heard of Knox’s Ten Commandments (google it if you haven’t either - it’s amazing how they’ve stood the test of time) but this book manages to follow them while still bamboozling the reader with subtle red herrings. I’ll be looking out for more from this author. 4.5 rounded down for the present tense narration and rather abrupt ending.
Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC. I am posting this honest review voluntarily. The Woman in the Library is published on June 7th.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The reading room at the Boston Public Library is silent, until that is shattered by a woman's scream and all patrons are told to stay where they are while security investigates. Four strangers sitting at the same table begin talking and form an unlikely friendship. We don't know why they were in the library that day, but we do know that one of them is a murderer.

This book has multiple layers because in the story, the main character is also a writer, and the fictional author writing this story is receiving feedback from someone across the globe. It's easier to read for yourself than it is to explain, but it ends up adding something original and interesting. I'd definitely recommend this to others if you like a mystery but want something with a different approach.

CW: murder, physical violence, gun violence, gaslighting

a fun and clever mystery that kept my eyes glued to my screen. even though i wasn't necessarily blown away by the reveal, it was enjoyable nonetheless. the "story within a story" concept was very entertaining

I was pretty excited for this book. I thought it was more thriller and that was my own mistake. Its more of like a cozy mystery. Not a bad thing at all. I loved the writing and style and just how good this was. Stunning!

To me this was an amazing concept having a story within a story. Even if it was disrupted by the person reviewing the book while she is writing it! It was hard for me to suspect who did the murder, yes there is definitely a murder. The ending was remarkable to me andI know I want to read this author again..Thank
you NetGalley for the ARK.

Thank you NetGalley and all for an ARC in return for an honest review.
It's a book within a book.. within a book!?! Loved it! The writing style was easy with a medium-fast pace throughout. There was the perfect amount of suspense without being overly tense. The only downside for me is that the ending came to a conclusion rather quickly. Definitely will be looking for more from this author.

What a sublime piece of work.

I've never had the pleasure of reading Sulari Gentill's work but boy was I surprised. I picked this up on a whim, and I'm not particularly much of a thriller or mystery reader, but this book captivated me from the first page, with its interesting plot lines and the secondary story line of a writer writing the mystery novel which she was sharing with a friend. I felt I was engrossed in a game of Cluedo waiting for Colonel Mustard to finally pick up the candlestick and begin to bludgeon our main character to death. Most chapters ended on a spine-chilling cliffhanger, and I consumed the entire novel over a few hours.

Again, a big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this copy and a job well done for an excellent read that I would recommend to others.

This book is kind of like throwing a baseball toward a little kid and they miss hitting it and you just want to pat them on the head and say "nice try".

Essentially, we have a character called Hannah who is Australian and is writing a mystery novel set in Boston. She corresponds with "Leo" who is an American since she cannot visit Boston due to the pandemic.

While we read the emails exchanged between Leo and Hannah, we are also reading Hannah's mystery: so the format is kind of like Hannah's mystery, then an email, next chapter (same format), rinse and repeat.

The idea of a book within a book is good. I'll even say the twist with the letters to Leo was good, although it was hardly fleshed-out. This really irked me since it was a cool plot twist and would have made the actual book considerably more entertaining.

If only we could be that lucky...

Probably 75% of this novel is spent reading Hannah's drab manuscript. I mean I just wanted to scream the whole time I was reading it. It was predictable to a fault, stupid, and just aggravating. Seriously we're going to name characters things like "Marigold" or "Whit"?? Or make Cain's original name Abel Manners?? I mean this is so beneath reality that it's unbelievable.

One could argue that the actual narrative that Hannah is working on is more of a device to showcase the interactions between her and Leo in real life- but the simple fact is that anyone reading this book has to get through the grotesquely boring mystery manuscript portion of the novel. If it was simply intended to be a device to drive the overarching story- then it needed to be less prevalent.

I mean the idea behind the holistic story is pretty cool, but it isn't fleshed out. We have mentions of the pandemic. Mentions of racism in Boston particularly. There's the big twist that's literally halfway through the book (which I'm not going to spoil) but that would have been MUCH COOLER if it had actually been written more elaborately and with just a touch of grace.

I suppose the whole novel felt extremely rushed and not fully-formed. I hate that. There was certainly some potential, but the author cannot seem to form something coherent and interesting whatsoever. The prose itself also seemed terribly rushed. The characters in the "manuscript" were not well-formed. Neither Hannah or Leo was well formed either; it was simply drab and ridiculous.

Overall I hated this. I almost did not finish it but I didn't want to do that. You can see it took me forever to read...why? Because it was hardly readable.

(This review was also published here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4685580779)

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press & Netgalley for the chance to read this in return for my honest review.

Sadly, this book wasn't worth all of the hype for me. I found the story slow and predictable. I thought the Leo chapters didn't add anything to the story.

However, I do think the whole meta story inside a story inside a story concept was cool. It is something different. I thought that would turn out to be a really cool twist at the end and so maybe I was over thinking things and should have just tried to enjoy what it was.

I

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill I found this a very enjoyable read for multiple reasons. First, because I lived in the Boston area for 30 years and alas now I do not so it was good to back at least by this story. Secondly, Ms. Gentill put this story together in a unique way. It is a novel being written within the telling of this story. By this I mean the key character, Freddie, is a beginning struggling novelist who decides to write a story about her three new friends she meets at the Boston Public Library. They are Cain, Whit and Marigold. The story of the book and the book within the book begins with a women’s scream somewhere in the library. No body is found until many hours later. How can this be? And Freddie and her three friends attempt to play detectives all the while finding out that they themselves have interesting and disturbing back stories. Besides, the amateur detective work, the four friends are often hungry so we are invited to some very off the beaten path places in the Boston area. I think when I get back to Boston, I might have to try to find some of these places. Ms. Gentill has written many books and has written a series about a detective. This book unlike Freddie’s is written by an experienced skilled writer. I certainly recommend this book as it is a pleasurably read and I must confess I did not know who the killer was until the end.

Freddie (Winifred) is sitting in the Reading Room of the Boston Public Library working on her newest novel, drawing inspiration from the library patrons sitting near her whom she has nicknamed Handsome Man, Freud Girl, and Heroic Chin. As she dreams up personalities and pasts for these people, a sudden scream rings out through the library. As the events unfold and the police ask all the patrons to remain where they are for now, Freddie begins to chat with her "characters" and somehow they become acquaintances, and eventually friends.

As they get to know one another better and discover that the woman who screamed was murdered, things start to unravel. When one of them is attacked, the other three start digging and pretty soon it's apparent that everyone has secrets to hide.

At the end of each chapter we get a story within the story - a letter addressed to the author of Freddie's story named Hannah Tigone. Hannah lives in Australia and somehow knows an American named Leo who lives in Boston. It's not clear how they know each other because Hannah doesn't know Leo's address or what he looks like, but Leo is happy to be her research assistant since Hannah's story is set in Boston.

I enjoyed the characters and felt like the plot was perfectly paced. Things kept moving along and the tension increased. I did eventually figure out who the murderer was, but I went through several guesses before settling on the right one. Overall, this was a fun, suspenseful read that I didn't want to put down. highly recommended!

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Dear Sulari,
I absolutely loved the format of this book. A book within a book, but with a beta reader inserting emails at the end of each chapter was something I had not seen before and I loved it! I started this book on a break from work and finished before I went to bed that night. I devoured it.

And yes, it's a tad slow at the start while I figured out just WTF was going on. Once I did however, I was sucked in to a fast-paced, twisty-turny murder mystery with some of the weirdest food choices I have ever seen. I feel like I need to find an Oh My Cod! restaurant immediately.
Well done,
Kim

Special thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review the digital ARC of The Woman in the Library.

As a total book addict - the word library in a title alone catches my interest! Then add murder and mystery - I'm sold. In this book a murder takes place in a crowded Boston Library! This book while I wanted to Love it was a like - it was slow paced, with an alternate story line which didn't always hold my attention. The writing is well done and the story it good but didn't knock my socks off

A mystery of four possible killers in fiction and a real-life drama being played out as well. This book within a book format is intriguing and excellently written. The fictional characters are interesting and the individual characters are so well realised. The fictional plot is exciting, many-layered and full of satisfying twists. Secrets are revealed and the plot builds most satisfactorily.

The real-life exchange of letters between the author Hannah and her correspondent Leo are a bit awkward at first but they gain rhythm and intrigue. The issue of writing a pandemic is covered deftly and an insightful side-thread of policing and race in America is well handled.

I found both denouements satisfying and I highly recommend.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #PoisenedPenPress for an eARC of #TheWomanInTheLibrary.

The premise of this book sounded fantastic, A murder occurring in a crowded library. However, the story within a story was confusing for me. It was really slow paced until about 60% into it.
I did enjoy the twists and turns at the end of the book and did not see that end coming! But I have sooo many unanswered questions.

3/5

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.