An excellent mystery book within a book/story within a story. I've never heard or read Sulari Gentill before but I've quickly added her Rowland Sinclair Mysteries onto my 'to be read' list.

A group of strangers sitting around a table in a quiet Boston library when the silence is broken by a woman's scream. The scream leads to a discovery of a murder - and those strangers - the four of them - are each other's alibi.

At the time, this is all being passed back and forth through letters between two writers---during a pandemic.

It's a different sort of book and writing. I've never read anything like this before and I don't know if I will ever again.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

The Woman in the Library was an enticing and engrossing book from the onslaught. Freddie and her three library friends were engaging and their instant bond interesting to read. The subplot of the story was chilling and was interesting to see the escalation within the narrative. The main mystery of the woman in the library was twisty and took unexpected but enjoyable turns.

Eh, this is a tough one.
Did it thrill me? Not especially.
Was I sitting at the end of my seat (or like, lying in bed more tensely, maybe)? Nope.
Was it a really bad book? No, not really, just also not terribly exciting, either.

There are two stories in “The Woman in the Library”, really. One is about a woman who screams in the library and causes a group of four people to start a conversation about the scream, only to later find out that an actual dead woman has been found in the library, which would make our four characters start an amateur investigation into the murder. The other one happens between the chapters, as the first story is a manuscript an author named Hannah is writing, and a man named Leo is sending her letters with comments on the chapters, and tips about Boston, as the author is in Australia and can’t scout the city for herself.

In all honesty, I liked the second story much, much better. I won’t spoil it for you, but you should know, it’s just the better story and well worth reading. If there was a way to see more of that, I’d have loved the book much more.

Story #1, though, about the woman in the library, while somewhat interesting, was just so… implausible. Our main character there is called Freddie, and like Hannah, she’s an Australian writer, but one who’s come to America on a grant. She meets Marigold, Whit and Cain in the library (a bunch of really unusual names right there) and their casual conversation turns into a friendship, which, in turn, turns into a convoluted series of seemingly coincidental connections between most of them, and, to a murder investigation. As with most thrillers, I was eager to find out what the conclusion will be, so that definitely kept me reading, but honestly… it was pretty difficult to believe, in the end. I’ve read some crime novels in my time, while not being a huge crime-novel-buff, but I’ve rarely seen a book which left me so unconvinced. Not to mention that the story kept jumping from some super naive moments where the characters are talking about boys/girls and relationships, and eating donuts and pizza, to some strange turns that just can’t be for real and seem very much out of place and much too dark for the general feel of the book. I can’t go into more detail than that, but once you get to the house with the owner gone for the winter, maybe you’ll get it, like… what are the odds of all of that ever happening, really?

Overall feeling for this book: eh.

Wow! This is a story that takes about a million twists and turns. Think Inception meets Agatha Christie. This is a story within a story that gets more convoluted with every chapter. An amazing book in every way. Now I need to keep my eyes open and find all her books. This book is a great find and an author I will absolutely follow in the future. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC. Opinions are honest and my own.

Thank you @Netgalley and @Poisonedpress for a digital arc of this book.
Pub date:- 7th June, 2022

Hannah is a mystery writer living in Australia who gets her inspiration for her next mystery story set in the Boston library , based on e-mails exchanged with a fan, Leo who lives in Boston. Due to the pandemic travel restrictions, Hannah is unable to travel to Boston for her research and relies on Leo's legwork to get the settings and descriptions of locations correct!

The mystery:
Freddie is an Australian writer, currently spending a year in Boston because she won a literary fellowship. One day, when she was at the Boston library, thinking about what to write next, there is the sound of a scream and a woman is found dead. The three other random people sitting at her table quickly bond with each other over this shared experience and they become friends. Only, eventually Freddie starts realising that maybe this particular set of people sitting at the same table was not so random after all - and one of them might be a murderer!

What I loved:- So, this is a story within a story. I loved Freddie's story and the really complicated set of people she befriends at the library that day. The mystery had me really hooked and I was suspicious of all the characters at different points in the story. And by the way, I guessed wrong about the killer's identity!

What I did not like:- The other story that is told through Hannah and Leo's e-mail's is something that I liked very much in the beginning. Even towards the middle where Leo's tone changes from 'adoring fan' to something a little more troubling. The twist towards the end gave me a real shock initially and then I found it a little excessive, and I felt that two big reveals towards the end just distracted me! It might give a lot of readers 'double the thrill' but it wasn't for me!

Thriller/Mystery

What a unique way to write a story!

Cain, Freddie, Whit, and Marigold meet and connect when they hear a blood curdling scream at the Boston Public Library. They bond over the experience especially once a body is discovered. Freddie is a writer from Australia in Boston on a merit scholarship, Cain is a well published author, Whit is in law school and Marigold is also a student. Freddie decides to use the event and the people she has just met in the novel she is writing.

Turns out this story and the characters are all part of a book being written by an Australian woman named Hannah. Hannah has been sending chapters of her book (the story about Whit, Cain, Marigold and Freddie) to a super fan named Leo. The chapters are interspersed between the book Hannah is writing and her correspondence with Leo. Leo is an American from Boston who offers up insights in his letters to Hannah about Boston, America, murders, the pandemic, word choices, plot lines, etc. You name it and Leo has an opinion on it.

Both storylines are very engrossing.

This book came so close to being absolutely superb, but it just missed somehow. I am not sure exactly where it missed. Maybe it's because Hannah isn't really known to us or the story within the story wasn't quite as suspenseful as I would have wished for. I am still very glad that I read it and want to thank NetGalley and the Publisher for my ARC of this novel.

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year. It was not at all what I was expecting, and I’m excited to talk about it!

The Woman in the Library is a story within a story. In one part of the story, it follows Hannah, an Australian mystery writer who is in the process of writing her latest novel. Her book takes place in Boston and she is sending chapters of her book to Leo, a man from Boston, so that he can tell her whether the book accurately represents Americans and the Boston area. These sections of the book are told almost entirely through the feedback that Leo emails to Hannah. But the majority of The Woman in the Library actually covers the mystery novel that Hannah is writing. Hannah’s book follows a woman named Winifred who bonds with three strangers when they all hear a woman’s scream in the Boston Public Library. They later discover that the scream came from a woman who was later found murdered. Shortly after the discovery of her body, they each start to be threatened, attacked, and stalked by an unknown person. The group of friends decide to come together to solve the mystery of who murdered the woman in the library, and who could be out to get them.

I really liked the story that followed Winifred and the three people she met in the library. I thought every character was lovable and interesting, and I was rooting for all of them. I was invested in all of their relationships with each other, and in Winifred’s relationship with her friendly neighbor, Leo. The fact that I cared about the characters made this book an easy, enjoyable read. I never felt like I had to force myself to get through any part of this story. It was also just a good, solid, well thought out mystery. It had clues that were nicely lain out, a perfect amount of red herrings, and a good reveal at the end.

Unfortunately I really really disliked like the part of the book that follows Hannah and Leo. I thought it was unnecessary and didn’t have enough information or a satisfying conclusion. It was a shell of a story that didn’t really contribute to the overall book in my opinion. I’m not really able to say much about Hannah and Leo’s story without spoiling the book, but I’ll just say that Leo’s letters change as the book progresses, and we watch as Hannah and Leo’s dynamic shifts. Eventually I just wanted to skip through Leo’s letters so I could get back to Winifred’s story. I was only able to enjoy this book as much as I did because fortunately the Hannah/Leo plot line didn’t take up much of the book.

If you’re looking for a good mystery novel I definitely recommend this one! I know I only gave it 3 stars, but it’s pretty close to being a 4 star book for me. I just hated the way the Hannah/Leo story was handled so much that I had to remove a star. Like I said, it doesn’t take up much of the story, so I don’t think you should be deterred from reading this book just because of it. Again, I enjoyed this book, and I do recommend it!

I am honestly having a terrible time getting into the book. I have put it down multiple times and read things in between. I think I may need to pick this up at another time. The switching between the letters and the story keep tripping me up.

4.5 stars. A very fun and unique mystery. A book within a book within a book that is a reverse locked room mystery (see if you can figure that one out). This one was very well plotted with great character development. I really did not know how this one would end until the very end. The very last line leaves me thinking, and I would totally love to discuss this one with someone. If you are a mystery lover, then definitely pick this one up!

3.5 stars. The Woman in the Library is a pretty unique take on a closed-door mystery, of sorts. It focuses on Hannah, a mystery writer, working from home in Australia because the pandemic prevented her from traveling to Boston for her research. Hannah’s work-in-progress is about Freddie (Winifred Kincaid), who works along with three other persons she meets one evening in the Boston Public Library to solve the mystery of who killed Caroline Palfrey in the library. One of these four is the murderer. Interspersed throughout this mystery is correspondence from Leo, a huge fan of Hannah’s, who lives in Boston and who becomes Hannah’s “eyes and ears” in Boston since her trip had to be postponed.

This is a very cleverly written novel, and it definitely has its share of twists which will keep you reading. However, the interjection of the Leo-Hannah correspondence (the “story within the story”) really did not work for me and seemed to take away from the mystery at hand. I nonetheless applaud the author's creativity in using this unique format. All in all, I did enjoy this read.

This was such a fun murder mystery read! There were so many points where I thought I knew who the killer was but then something would happen that would make me think it was someone else. Also the “story within a story” aspect was a cool addition to it. I recommend this if you’re looking for something pretty fast paced and attention grabbing

First let me shout out a big thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Second I don't understand the mixed reviews. I loved the book. I have never read anything by this author, but when I read it was about a murder in a library, I had to read it and was so excited to get a free copy!

I found it so exciting. I loved how the murder plot flowed so seemlessly. The story within the story was a big plus. The characters, setting, and plot were superb. Recommend. Five stars!

This book is for a younger crowd, the four characters are way too liberal for me, or my enjoyment. The pov of the main character will deal with motivation, or causes of behavior, then why doesn't our heroine deal with the psychological problems of the girl with all the body ink? What caused a sweet, well brought up young lady to destroy every inch of skin with ink? Surely that is as important as one of the male main characters problem of rebelling against his well off family of lawyers, they all have issues, which makes us human, the only problem is, you can't identify one as having unresolved emotional issues and not the others. The murder was interesting, I just wished the characters had been likeable.
I recommend for liberal young people. Thank you #Netgalley
carolintallahassee

The Woman in the Library was a really exciting read! It had just about everything from mystery to romance. I was hooked from the beginning and I couldn’t put it down!

My favourite book in quite a while - I loved it! Part thriller, part romance, a little comedy thrown in. I read a lot of thrillers, and this one stands out as something different.

Freddie, Handsome Man, Heroic Chin and Freud Girl - four strangers meeting for the first time in the Boston Public Library. They hear a scream. There is a dead body. And then there is Leo. Leo is what makes this story unique - he is a story within a story. Strangely helpful, friendly, but disturbing in equal measures... very disturbing...

I received a free review copy from the publisher, via Netgalley - thank you!

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to be an early reader of this novel within a novel. I enjoyed this tautly written mystery about Winifred, an author on a scholarship trip to the US who meets and bonds with Cain, Whit, and Marigold over their shared experience of hearing a woman being murdered. The foursome quickly become detectives to determine who killed Caroline. Many twists and turns before the surprise ending.

This title of this book doesn't even describe how amazing this writer is.. It takes place in Boston library but it comes in from from there it leaves all over the place. Actually 2 stories going on in this book That makes it such an amazing book because she has 2 platforms going on in a destruction novel that's pretty hard to do but she pulls it off like a champ. FR ADD I EMA RIGOLD comes in for I'll be comes in from Australia on a scholarship because she wrote a book and she is trying to write another book doing researchers at the library Based on something murder.. Then she meets a guy named Calvin Turns out to be tolling somebody else but you'll friend Margaret Also in the library that day was Walt Ann Margaret. A woman was murdered in the library named Caroline Caroline. It's really interesting how they went around different parts of Boston and a lot of where things happen. Well it turns out to be somebody you really wouldn't want to know. Margaret seems to be innocent but you'll find out later she really is not. So Calvin and Freddie I'm pretty start going around talking and stuff like that.. And there's like I ermine likes Freddie a lot but she doesn't really relate to him. It's like a murder mystery as well. The letter part of it is when you're reading a to a person called Hannah in Australia. And he explains what's going on after the chapters. You read the thing and read the story and then there's a letter at the end of the chapter and explains what's really going on. Everybody has to say in this book. I love the twist in the terms and you realize that the really the bad guy is not the original guy. Calvin had a lot of problems in life and you'll find this out but he really is a good soul. I think Freddie is amazing too because she actually believed in him and we go along with them. When this book is published to the to the public please buy it. So well written. I've not read about this good in such a long time

4.5 stars
Thanks to #netgalley and #poisonpenpublishing for the advance copy of #thewomaninthelibrary
What an unusual treatment. It's a story within a story in a way I haven't read before. One story is correspondence based between an Australian author writing a mystery set in Boston and an American living in Boston. The second story is the novel she's writing which is being told in the first person so at first I was confused about what was real. But I quickly settled into the flow and it was done so well - the man in Boston corresponding with "helpful" commentary on the progression of the novel and the actual novel.

The mystery is a closed room ala Agatha Christie - a scream is heard in the Boston library and 4 people sharing a table in the library become suspects - which one is a killer? Of course, twists and misdirections abound. Good characters, unusual friendships, a peek into an author's thought processes. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend you pick it up when it's out in July!

Thrilling mystery will take you for a ride! There is so much going on here. Strangers bond after a murder in the library. But, are they truly strangers? Was there really even a murder when they heard a scream? Is one of them responsible? And Leo. Oh boy. Writing too much will give too much away.

The author does a great job of bringing you into the story. It was extremely difficult to put down as I was trying to figure out whodunnit, why etc. Amy thoughts kept changing with each new development. We are presented that this is fiction, but there is also the correspondence between the fictional writer and a research assistant that takes the story into Eden more amazing places. Excellent read! I’ve never read anything like this.

I'm not so sure about this book. The concept of a novel in a novel was a bit distracting for me. I would focus on the novel being written and then we'd switch to the letters discussing it. I just wanted to stay in one story. Also, I'm a bit confused on how both stories ended. Overall, this is a unique concept but I just wasn't a fan of the style.

**Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an advanced copy of this book and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion. I am posting this review to my Goodreads account immediately and will post it to my Amazon & Instagram accounts upon publication.