Shortly after I started this book, I realized it was not for me. The cover intrigued me but I only got to 20% before throwing in the towel. I did not connect with any of the characters at all. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The premise was great but the execution wasn’t. I overall was not interested in the characters or the mystery. I also did not enjoy the story within a story. Overall it was somewhat entertaining but missing that something extra. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Woman in the LIbrary
by Sulari Gentill
Pub Date: June 7, 2022
Sourcebooks
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I was drawn to request this book because I love mysteries and I am a librarian so anything library-related seems to get my attention. Suli was formerly a corporate attorney and felt there was something else drawing her in. Sulari became the author of the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries: thus far, ten historical crime novels chronicling the life and adventures of her 1930s Australian gentleman artist, the Hero Trilogy, based on the myths and epics of the ancient world, and the Ned Kelly Award-winning Crossing the Lines. This is the first book by this author for me and you can make sure I will be checking out her other work.
This book is written in a unique, unconventional, twisty, intelligent style. This book is a great murder mystery, well-plotted, greatly executed, and is getting 4 exciting stars from me. I recommend.
4 stars

As she did to excellent effect in After She Wrote Him, the author once again simultaneously tells a story and a parallel story about writing. This nesting doll of a novel by an Australian woman crime writer (Sulari) features an Australian woman crime writer (Hannah) whose work-in-progress stars an Australian woman crime writer (Winifred) visiting Boston on a fellowship to write a novel. For all we know, it could continue for even more nested crime-writer levels like some terrifying Aussie turducken.

It's delightful to be introduced early on to characters with charm and wit—initially developed as products of Winifred's creative musings about three people sitting near her in the Boston Public Library. (Her process reminded me of Paul Simon’s lyric "playing games with the faces--she said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy”). When an unexpected scream breaks the silence and creates a bonding moment, Winifred discovers that the neighbors she had amusingly nicknamed Heroic Chin, Handsome Man, and Freud Girl are clever and friendly people. She gets to know them and enjoys spending time with her new gang while working on her novel. Meanwhile, as Hannah’s story about Winifred’s novel-writing unfolds, Hannah herself receives writing feedback from American aspiring novelist Leo, who offers advice on the manuscript, American English usage, and fact-checking tidbits about Boston.

The author clearly had fun with character names, some evocative of familiar stories. When we first meet these people, especially before we know exactly what kind of story this will be, it’s hard not to imagine possible crime-novel scenarios suggested by these names (Could Cain be involved in a murder? Is Boo going to be falsely accused? Will we find out that our heroine goes by “Han" Tigone and has a brother “Paulie" whose dead body the authorities won’t release for burial?).

Both levels of the novel are engaging, even when initial charm turns out to hide dark secrets, various forms of social ineptitude, and increasing creepiness. The dialogue feels real, the Boston sights are featured just enough, and the twisty suspense is compelling. The ending is satisfying on multiple fronts, nicely wrapping up multiple storylines.

Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a digital advance review copy.

Hannah Tigone is writing a book. Leo, through letters, is helping her. The only prose we get from Tigone is what she's written of a draft of a mystery book through the lens of Freddie.

While it sounds overly complicated, it's not. It's actually a fun, interesting read. I can see some people not liking the story within a story within a story.. but I found myself involved in the mystery and fascinated by the writing process. I was still able to get lost in the story within the story within the story AND the story within the story.

While Tigone's characters (NOT Gentill's) are not the most subtle, I still enjoyed Freddie's perspective.. and I wanted to know about the dead woman in the library!

Sulari Gentill takes you on a wild ride in The Woman In The Library.
She opens the story with an email to Hannah from Leo, about her newest novel. Then you jump into chapter 1 of Hannah's newest novel, which is set in Boston and starts at the Boston Public Library. You are introduced to Whit, Marigold and Cain thru the eyes of our Storyteller Winifred (Freddie) in the Reading Room of the BPL, when they here a scream. Which leads to them finding out someone had been murdered. Freddie is an author herself and is working on her novel.
The story follows these 4 young adults as they get to know one another and try to figure out who killed Caroline. In between chapters of Hannah's novel you get emails from Leo. He is reading her novel chapter by chapter and offering his insight.
Gentill had me guessing all the way up until the end. I was on the edge of my set from 50% till the very end. This gets five stars from me.

This thrilling read had an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship and shows us that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all. 5 enthusiastic stars, a total delight.

So... a murder in a library already had me sold by page one, but the way the story is written (different from everything i have seen), adding to the atmosphere that was creates and the twists were what got me fascinated by this book. Usually I give some feedback about the carachters and the storyline but I would genuinely recommend you going blind for this one, trust me, it's worth the read.

I am brand new to this author but oh oh boy was I impressed. The writing style is brilliant and draws you in instantly. The intrigue and suspense throughout the story keeps you guessing with so many plot twists you might get whiplash figuring out this whodunit. This was a hit.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc

“The mystery writers, the historical novelists, the political thriller writers, the science fiction writers… everybody but the people who write instruction manuals, is writing romance. We dress our stories up with murders, and discussions about morality and society, but really we just care about relationships.”
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Welcome to The Woman In The Library: A story about an author writing a book about an author writing a book. It is infused with murder and suspense at every level, where you will doubt each character over and over again in a loop until the last reveal. Everyone is suspicious (in both senses that they are questionable, and that they are distrustful of each other.)

Although the ending felt a bit rushed and the plot-twist not all-too shocking, it was the ride up until that point that was really the pleasure of this book. I loved that I was forced to change my mind about the culprit at the end of each chapter, while watching the tensions and the creepy-factor rise bit by bit.
A very enjoyable mystery/thriller for sure, particularly with the double-layered narration.

I was in a little slump when I started this book and thankfully this book helped get me out of it. The approach the author takes to writing the story is unique and kept me guessing throughout. The characters that were pulled together in the story all have their own issues and leave you reason to suspect each of them as being guilty of the murder. Plus the subplot - genius addition to the story!

Thanks to NetGalley for the read!

A thriller/mystery set inside a library? A dead body inside a library? Sign me up!

Winifred known as Freddie is an aspiring novelist trying to write her novel inside Boston Public Library. While in the library, she meets Cain, Marigold and Whit, three fellow novelists and while they were getting to know each other, they heard a woman screaming. Few minutes later, they find out that a woman was murdered and the woman's name is Caroline. The police suspect Cain as the murderer as he had a prison record and that Caroline's father was the judge at his hearing. Freddie who is in love with Cain is the only one who believes in innocence while the rest of them thinks Cain is capable of murder.

To my huge utter suprise--I actually enjoyed reading this book and this book is actually quite unputdownable! From start to finish, I actually was literally hooked into the story. The writing was spot on, with those twist and thrills that you wouldn't even expect. And as the story progresses, you actually wonder--is Cain the real murderer or is someone framing him? Or is Freddie that naive? Really love the thrill concept of this novel!

I do like the setting and the plot of the story. I also like the fact that Freddie is an Australian and is getting used to the American accent--something which I can also relate with Freddie during my own stay in the United States (I had a British accent when I spoke in English that time). I really also think this was a unique sort of story which I actually enjoyed very much and I like how one meeting could really bring the people together, creating lifelong friend (or enemy)

I also wonder--maybe it's just me the letters addressed to Hannah written by Leo at the end of each chapter--truly I am slightly confused but then towards the middle I kind of beginning to start those letters. Overall, I enjoyed this book so much that I couldn't even put the book down!

If you like a book based inside a library with a thriller setting, this book is one for you--worth four stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

The Woman in the Library was two stories in one. It was hard to figure out which is the story. In spite of this I was determined to read it and find out what was happening.. I was confused about Leo who wrote letters to Freddie who seemed to be the main character in this story. The story had so many twists and turns to the plot. The story starts with 4 people who meet in the Boston Library hear a scream. The story takes off from there to the exciting end. The surprise is the ending with the appearance of Leo,

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC.

The way this book was written, with the other letters at the end of each chapter was so unique. I love love loved that format. While initially I was like: blah blah blah, how long are we going to do this - it absolutely TOOK MY BREATH AWAY when the plot twist in this storyline happened and then I was fully invested.
Now, the main storyline: I reflect on this read and wonder whether that storyline was kind of meh - because what kept me flipping was this other storyline. I felt like there was so much eating and drinking and just general hanging around that I'm not sure much happened until it all came together.
Now, the ending: I found this pretty weak and the motives pretty meh. I don't like that all of a sudden there was this HUGE villain of a character that you'd never seen before - it kind of came out of nowhere.
I do give this 4 stars because the format was something. And despite there being pandemic references, it is not so in-your-face that for those triggered it will upset the masses.

Thanks to Netgalley for giving this ARC

The Woman in the library revolves around strangers meeting. they sit on the same table being total strangers.

It is a very simple and medium pace story, more like a who-dun-it type a way.


Very simple I fear i extend my review I will definitely give spoilers and that is not allowed! If you need something

light and simple you can definitely pickup this book.

DNF. Maybe this was too meta for me, but I wasn't feeling the writing style or the change from story to reading an author's attempt at a novel.

I really liked the story framework of this book. There's an Australian author Hannah, who is writing a book about four strangers who meet one day in the Boston Public Library. They hear a woman screaming and this mystery sparks a bond of friendship between them. Hannah sends each chapter, as she completes it, to one of her beta readers, a guy called Leo, who stays in Boston and who does most of the legwork and other research for Hannah. At the end of every chapter Leo then sends his feedback to Hannah via email. The interesting part is out of the four strangers, two are authors themselves. So you see, its kind of a story within a story within a story. Makes your head spin a little thinking about it.

But the plot is not very complex to be honest and once you get the hang of this plot within a plot device you'd find it to be pretty quick read. I liked the concept of four strangers meeting and forming an unlikely friendship, unlikely because they come from different backgrounds. Though Cain and Freddie are both authors, the genres they write in are vastly different. Marigold is something of a genius and a psychology student while Whit, comes from an affluent family of lawyers but he himself is adamant to fail in law school which is his way of opposing his parents' decision.

Despite the interesting premise the story is slow moving and few chapters are really just the four people meeting and having lunch/dinner at various joints around Boston. Being an introvert, I felt Marigold was pushy and clearly doesn't understand boundaries, maybe that's the reason why Leo was cheering for her. Though Leo's analysis at the end of chapters, after some pages, gives you a clue to where that relationship of an author-reader is heading, I still didn't feel that it added much to the main story. The author interview in the end explains how Sulari came up with this brainwave , but it would've made things more exciting to get Hannah's perspective also, especially towards the end.

I really like literary mysteries like Magpie Murders, which utilize a plot within a plot trick so I had some high hopes for this book. It wasn't disappointing but not quite as good as I thought it would be.

The Woman in the Library

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill is an academia-adjacent thriller that examines the writing process in a very entertaining way. Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid, an Australian author like Ms. Gentill, uses an unexpected occurrence in the Boston Public Library as inspiration for her own manuscript. But it seems that she herself is a character in a book written by another Australian author, Hannah Tigone.

Hannah’s novel features Freddie, a novelist who is writing the story of a murder and the group of apparently unconnected strangers who become friends in its aftermath. Both of them are receiving advice from one Leo Johnson, another author, whose behavior becomes increasingly creepy. More characters are attacked, some peripheral ones die, and the labyrinthine developments make it harder and harder to separate reality from fiction.

This carefully constructed tale is an interesting take on the “unreliable narrator” trope and an interesting exercise in metafiction. The nesting doll plot certainly makes this book stand out in the crowded thriller field, its novel-within-a-novel conceit offering a new perspective on familiar themes in a way that is challenging, but not overwhelmingly so.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free advance copy of this entertaining book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to read this ARC.

What a fun ride with Freddie, our author who becomes enveloped in a murder mystery while trying to find inspiration for her next book while sitting in the Boston Public Library! When she and the three strangers closest to her hear a woman scream, later to find out she was murdered, unusual friendships form between the individuals. Will some lead to romance? Is the murderer among them? Are they all connected to each other in a way as yet unknown?

I enjoyed that each character, though described physically only briefly, had a well developed personality and behavior pattern. The book made me think about my assumptions as to the physical traits of the characters when it directly pointed this out in the subplot story with Freddie’s pen pal Leo. There was just enough potential motive revealed per character for any one or none of the main foursome to have been the killer, which kept me guessing. I also loved the introduction of quite a few minor characters like Mrs. Weinbaum to add some humor to it all. The fact that the protagonist was Australian and in that subplot, receiving writing tips from an American in Boston as she shares her new novel with him, started out fun and turned creepy. It was unusual and creative to see how Freddie weaved that pen pal content into her novel, in good ways and bad.

I did have a sense of suspended disbelief when our heroine managed to elude the police on multiple occasions as did others. With as much video capture as there now is via mobile, street cams, door cams, and security it seemed a bit far fetched that regular people could just escape surveillance without trying too hard, but this is fiction and just as I didn’t care whether people were wearing masks or not to be true to contemporary life, I decided to let this piece of reality go as well. This was a good mystery all things considered and I finished the book satisfied that there weren’t any loose ends.

(4.5 stars)

a murder mystery that all begins in a library? IM IN

this novel is actually a story within a story, which was super interesting! 4 people, each with a different story, find themselves in the Boston Public Library when a woman screams and then turns up dead. they bond over the experience and become friends, but one of them is a murderer. EXCEPT that entire plot is actually a manuscript for Hannah’s latest book (this is where the second story comes in). every chapter that you read is part of Hannah’s manuscript and at the end of each chapter, a mysterious man named Leo critiques what she has written and offers up suggestions to make the book seem more realistically American.

there are MAJOR PLOT TWISTS in both stories, but i was left a little unsatisfied with the ending of Hannah and Leo’s story. i wish there was more at the very end detailing what happened in each of their lives. however, i thoroughly enjoyed the primary murder mystery and trying to figure out which member of the foursome was guilty. i could not figure it out and was absolutely shocked when it was revealed.