I was so excited about this book being set in Boston Public Library but the format of it just was so hard for me to get into. A unique premise and style but not for me!

Thank you Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advanced copy of The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill.

"In every person's story, there is something to hide...
The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer."

Taking place in a beautiful library? Check. Murder mystery? Check. Finding out what really happened? Thrilling.

I enjoyed this book. I usually find stories within stories to be too convoluted, but this wasn't like that. This book actually had 3 stories going on, Freddie's book, Hannah's book, and then Hannah's rl. Needless to say, if that isn't your cup of tea, then this book isn't for you.

It was kind of clear that the person the author wanted you to think was 'the big bad' really wasn't. The real culprit was an unexpected twist and I liked it. There was a ton of details about Boston in here: restaurants, buildings, parks, different neighborhoods. I enjoyed this, and what's even better is that the author didn't go for 6 pages describing every little leaf on a tree in a park or every detail about a napkin, plate and silverware at a restaurant.

Inevitably in every story, there are at least 2 characters I can pinpoint that I can't stand. This book is no exception. Marigold and the real-life Leo are annoying. Marigold is too clingy and Leo needs to shut it about masks, the pandemic and his critical race theory bs. All of that is why I gave this book 4 stars. I don't understand why every single author just HAS to include their hot take on racial issues into their books now. Is it like part of their contracts? Will they not get published if they don't? Weird.

A murder in a library sounded right up my alley but unfortunately I could not get into this book no matter how hard I tried.

I feel it was a little lost in what it wanted to be. None of the characters had a real appeal to me and the story within the story did not work for me.

For quite a short book it took me a long time to get through.

This was an enjoyable mystery but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The mystery element fell a little short. I felt underwhelmed and even a little bored at parts. That being said, this isn’t a bad book. Just a bit lackluster

This felt weird to start out with, but I ended up enjoying The Woman in the Library. Despite the story within a story angle, which was different, this was a mid story-line. I found the killer relatively obvious early on. There were only so many options it could be, so it wasn't that hard to figure out. The outside story was just weird and didn't add anything to the storyline. That being said, I was entertained until about 50% and then hooked until the end.

Also, the MC really annoyed me. How many red flags do you need before you realize you need to let a man go?? I'm sorry, but I don't care how cute you are, I am not living on the streets with you in Boston when you're a convicted murderer and I've only known you for a month. What the heck???

So yeah. Mid, but relatively entertaining.

I found this book to drag on quite a bit and did not focus on the mystery that was at the core of it. It centers around the mysterious death of a woman in a library that happens in the very beginning of the book. Based on the book description, I believed most of the book would be spent in the library on lockdown as a group of people seated at a table together tried to solve the murder, but the vast majority of the book took place after the murder and was drawn out much longer than it needed to be. The structure of it was confusing at times (there are letters from an unknown person included between chapters and the reveal for this was not clear to me) and did not add to the story overall.

This is one of the of the best books I listened recently. The story is so unique and the characters very well crafted. I really couldn’t put it down until the last page. I would definitely recommend this book.

3.5 stars ✨ but rounded it up.

This being a story within a story threw me off at first. When I was reading the parts about Freddie and her friends, I didn’t realize that was actually a book transcript that was being written and shared.

But once I realized that I was able to differentiate between the parallel stories.

Overall, thrillers/mysteries aren’t my go to when it comes to books and I always lean more towards NA versus YA. So this was more of a preference on my end. Also, just the story within a story made it a bit confusing at times.

Overall easy ready — finished it in a day and good characters. Definitely a lot of twists to make you question who was the real killer.

I thought this audiobook was good, and I liked the fact that the narrator had an Australian accent as one of the MCs in the book was from Australia. I also really liked the premise of having four strangers meet at a library because of a murder was really cool, as well as having one of those strangers be the murderer itself. If you're a fan of murder mysteries, hidden identities and listening to an Australian accent, then I would recommend this book. I want to thank the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for giving me an audio copy of this book, in return for an honest review.

this was just fine, could have been so much more thrilling. leo's voice was annoying but those parts of the chapter were the most interesting

This is a great story-within-a-story, set in Boston (one of my favorite cities), that has it all - books, writing, murder, and mystery! I devoured this story as it got stranger and stranger, and I loved the epistolic nature of the outer story. It combined lots of fun elements and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Would definitely read another by this author!

This unique story was quite the page-turner! I was deeply involved from the first pages, and enjoyed the journey this one took me on. Great book!

This took me a little while to get into, mostly because I find books about authors/writing irritating. However, as the story went on and the purpose of the little editorial bits became apparent I enjoyed it a lot more.

The description - a mystery set in the BPL? YES PLEASE. However, I'm not sure if I'm just completely in a slump, or this was not the right book for me right now, though I had a hard time following or caring about this meta-mystery or the characters.

Appreciative of the NetGalley ARC, though setting this aside as DNF at 31%

The Woman in the Library is a convoluted novel, within a novel, within an I'm not sure what. The narrator is a woman from Australia, author who received a grant to spend time in Boston to write her next book. She's at the main branch of the Boston Public Library and while she's suffering through some writer's block she watches her table-mates and starts to make up little names and stories for each person. Then there's a woman's scream, a woman found dead, the police are called and the woman and her table mates are stuck waiting for police to finish up and start up a conversation.

The four quickly become friends, but as you find out from the description, one of them is a murderer! The Australian writer then begins to write a book using her new friends as characters in a basic locked room murder mystery all the while trying to discover the scream in the library. As she learns more about the people she just met, each one of them looks like a good suspect for the death of the screamer. Then things get screwy. story about the Australian writer and her group of friends is actually being written by someone else (it's a Russian nesting doll of a book). You find this out in interludes of correspondence between the actual writer (who is in Australia) and a fan/frustrated writer who is located in Boston.

The whole premise of the book was interesting and weird and apparently rather divisive if you go off other reviews. I was inititally confused and found it hard to keep storylines straight but once the book got into it's pattern it was easy to follow along. While I figured out who the murderer was pretty early on, it was still an interesting path to the final conclusion of the storylines.

Thanks to NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press for the free e-book.

4 strangers brought together by a scream in the Boston library. But that's not all, this is a story with in a story as well. I feel like this kind of enhanced the original mystery of the story. I think that when you get to 40% in, is when it starts to get interesting.



 My rating is 3.5 ⭐️


Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for this Ebook for an honest review.

This was an amazing and completely engaging. I was invested from the very first chapter. The characters were complex. The plot was original. Best book of 2022.

I did not enjoy this one mainly due to the writing style. I think I was just not the audience for this one.

This book was so different and alluring. It’s essentially a book within a book. The story unfolds as a group of strangers hears a gunshot in the Boston Library. They become friends and, as the story unfolds, things are learned about each character. It had me guessing until the very end and I was quite surprised by the ending.