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.

The premise of this one is absolutely amazing. A murder occurring in a crowded library? YES PLEASE. However, this one just wasn’t my favorite! It was really slow paced and the alternate story line of the story within the story just didn’t hold my attention! The author is clearly a very talented writer, though. I think many will really enjoy this one! 3 stars from me. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review!

This was a great mystery. I loved that it was a book about a woman writing a book. The mystery that Hannah is writing is intriguing. and the Leo emails to Hannah in between chapters are extremely creepy and unsettling. I really loved this book and can’t wait to read more from Sulari Gentill.

DNF at 13%

I did not love this book. It is the book within a book format, and that wasn't specified in the description. I think that I am usually quite annoyed with this format and cannot think of a book I have truly enjoyed with that setup.

I thought that the premise was an interesting one: there are 4 people in the reading room at the BPL and they hear a scream. A woman is later found dead. It could be the setup for something really fun, but at this point neither storyline was moving and they were both just talking about writing. It was almost a book within a book within a book. I attempted to push through and I felt myself starting to slump, so I will not be continuing.

That being said, I don't think that if you enjoy this type of trope that you will necessarily have a bad time with this book. It just really didn't work for me personally, but I have heard other glowing, early reviews.

3.5 stars, raised to 4

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill tells the story of 4 people, brought together by a scream in the Boston Public Library. Told in an interesting way, the novel goes back and forth between letters to the Hannah, the author of the story within the story, from Leo, a fan. Hannah, based in Australia, sends Leo chapters of her manuscripts as she writes them. Leo serves as a man-on-the-ground, helping Hannah with descriptions of specific places and American turns-of-phrase. Hannah's manuscript is a novel about 4 people who meet in the Boston Public Library and become friends after connecting with one another during a police investigation of a woman's death.

The 'woman in the library' screams and sets the stage for the developing friendship of Winnie, Marigold, Cain and Whit. As we learn more about these characters, we realize that they are unlikely friends with a lot of skeletons in the closet. Without revealing too much, we are led in one direction by the fictional author, Hannah, only to encounter some twists and turns along the way. The ending of the woman in the library story was somewhat predictable, if a little abrupt.

The overarching story is one between Hannah and her penpal, Leo. As we are given more insight into Leo and his motivations, we realize that there is another mystery happening at this level. Again, I don't want to give anything away, but this piece of the story was definitely different from the fictional story within it.

The structure of the book is a different take on the storylines of exchanged letters. The reader is aware from the beginning that Hannah and Leo are outside of the manuscript, so the reader is drawn into the writing process and the developments surrounding Hannah and Leo.

Overall, the structure of the book was interesting. The story-within-the-story was a bit predictable with it feeling too much like a story that doesn't draw the reader in.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #PoisenedPenPress for an ARC of #TheWomanInTheLibrary

Thank you to Net Galley, the publisher, and author for providing me a copy of this book for my honest review. This is a very interesting and unique take on a locked room mystery. It is for book lovers, library connoisseurs, and those who enjoy locked room mysteries. This will keep you guessing with its twists and turns. I absolutely adored this book. It was so clever and kept me guessing! I highly recommend it.

Sulari Gentill's The Woman in the Library is a slick piece of metafiction, in which an Australian mystery writer (Hannah Tigone) is writing a book about a mystery writer (Winifred "Freddie" Kincade) who is writing a mystery in the Boston Public Library in which the characters are her tablemates (Freud Girl, Heroic Chin and Handsome Man). The bulk of the novel is based on the mystery in which Freddie and her tablemates find themselves after a woman screams in the library and is later found dead. Are the characters who they claim to be or is one of them a killer? This tale is surrounded by a larger frame tale in the form of email correspondence between Hannah Tigone and a hapless psychopathic writer, Wil Saunders a/k/a Leo Johnson, who is not only a character in Freddie's story, but who also appears to be committing freelance murders on his own. The nests of stories are entertaining, but the questions raised by the novel also take it to another level. Is it important to know the race of the characters in a mystery novel, particularly given the racially charged relationship between police officers and alleged suspects in the United States? And what role should the pandemic play in any novel set in present time? 4 out of 5 stars. Highly recommended.
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Thanks to NetGalley, Sourcebooks and the Poisoned Pen Press for gifting me an advanced reader's copy of this novel. Any opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

A story within a story, (within another story?) About a murder that happens often scene in the library, where aspiring author Winifred meets the new friends. Is one of them the murderer?!

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fascinating premise! I love a good mystery and the narrator did a great job. The names of the strangers turned friends are also hilarious to me. If you want a book that'll pull you in, give this one a try!