As someone who judges a book by its cover, I was really surprised by this one. It wasn’t what I expected at all, and sadly, it was not my favorite. I really struggled, so much so that I requested the audio ARC and the print copy. I tried reading, listening and combining the two. Unfortunately, this one just fell short for me. I didn’t find any of the characters likable, and the lead was quite gullible. I’m not even sure who died and who lived if I’m being completely honest. Just not my type of story I guess? It read like a cozy mystery, but not quite. I can’t even pinpoint what went wrong here, but I did not enjoy it as much as I’d hoped.

Overall this book was a cozy mystery told as a thriller. If you are confused by that sentence, pick it up and find out see what I’m seeing. There are great triumphs of family, and a community that feels like found family. The story was told in a compelling manner, and I really was invested in Theo.

What I didn’t love— the ending felt rushed,and really zoomed out from the begging cozy-ness. It felt a bit disjointed towards the end, and like someone slammed on the breaks. I felt like I was really intrigued and entertained most of the novel. In a way I wished it was a bit longer to really bring the end out more.

I did an audio version of the book, and it was great.

Chock full of conspiracy crazies and doomsday insanity, this novel will leave you feeling topsy-turvy in the best way.
Theo Benton leaves law school to pursue fiction writing. She moves in with her brother, Gus in Lawrence, KS, and ends up befriending the elusive writer, Dan Murdoch. But when Dan is murdered, Theo becomes the #1 suspect. Suddenly, her world and that of Gus and his friend and PI, Mack, become a waking nightmare. As the bodies pile up, Theo decides sacrifices need to be made and she promptly disappears. Gus and Mack try desperately to find Theo but someone definitely doesn't want them succeeding.
There are interludes in the book that help you to understand why Dan was murdered. And maybe the doomsday enthusiasts aren't so far off the mark with the conspiracies.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audio e-arc.*

Gentill’s new novel started out with so much promise but eventually failed to deliver. Aussie Theo drops out of law school and lands on the doorstep of her older brother Gus, a lawyer living in their grandfather’s former home in Lawrence, Kansas. Her motivation for leaving with ostensibly her desire to write a novel, which she does in a remarkably short time, during which she strikes up a deep friendship with an established writer. Suffice it to say that this leads to a convoluted story involving murders, conspiracy theories, bad decisions, and lots of naïveté. The pacing increases to a breakneck speed as the book nears its end, revealing a solution that is not believable. The excellent narration pushed my rating from two to three stars. Many readers of Gentill’s previous work will be disappointed by this effort but probably not badly enough to see what her next work brings. I’ll be among them.

The Mystery Writer starts with such a strong premise that ultimately falls flat.

Unfortunately, our MC Theo is so clueless and somehow people around her keep dying. It’s so hard for me to believe a woman who was in law school could be so stupid in so many ways. She constantly was making herself look guilty as well as not seeing a LOT of red flags ahead of time.

As the story went on, I found myself getting more and more frustrated. There are so many side stories that ultimately didn’t add to the story – talking about Qanon-esque forums, doomsday preppers, growing up on a commune, etc. This could have had a much smaller scope and been so much more effective. Also there’s a very jumpy timeline and point of view shift around the 75% mark and I found it totally ruined the flow of the story that was already being set up.

I did really like the characters of Gus and Mac (and of course, Horse). They were really well conceptualized, and I loved the family dynamic with Gus and Theo. It just wasn’t enough to carry the rest of the book.

I had no real idea how I was going to feel about this book. In "The Mystery Writer," Sulari Gentill leads readers through a thrilling journey, turning the literary world on its head where a writer's voice becomes a controlled and weaponized tool. The setting is really what caught my eye as I live 2 hours away from Lawrence Kansas and I can tell the premise of the book was based on the author's personal life. With that being said, The mystery/adventure you are taken on is weird at the very least. When I started it, it just seemed kind of all over the place, little things here and there and it seemed as if it was like that through the whole book. It was as if the author had so many different ideas, that she just threw them all into this book. Random tidbits that made some very small connection to some other very small tidbits and so on. Nevertheless, I continued the book because the characters were great. and the story itself was interesting and twisty.

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced reader's copy.
Unfortunately this book was no for me. I found the plot dragging and uninspiring.

My first book by this author, definitely not my last. This was such a fascinating, captivating story. The end seemed a bit grandiose, but the story was enjoyable all the same.
I listened to the audiobook of this story and the narrator did an excellent job.

Thank you to Dreamscape media and netgalley for providing me with a free audio arc in exchange for an honest review.

This fast paced mystery is perfect - it has the right amount of chaos, insanity and 'suspend you disbelief' moments to keep you on the edge of your seat. The narrator is written well-openly honest about much of the main storyline while questionably shady about her past.

One thing I will say is that the blurb felt a bit misleading in that it led me to believe the story was focussed on her trying to prove her brother's innocence but instead much of the focus is on her innocence.

10/10 for the dooms day preppers.

I received an audio ARC of the mystery writer via #NetGalley and the publisher for review *

Theo drops out of college and shows up at her brothers front door. With a slightly rocky/mysterious past, Theo is hellbent on writing a novel and her brother Gus takes her in. Soon after, Theo befriends a fellow writer, but when he is discovered murdered, things get really messy. There are tons of conspiracy theories and Theo finds herself in the middle of it.

I had a few complaints. This story was LOOOOONG. It took forever to develop, and then would have these rework abrupt time jumps. Like 3 years and now Gus has a cane and wtf did I miss?! I didn’t even feel like I knew the characters and what was happening.

The ending seemed VERY rushed. Like we took 8 hours to get to this point, and it’s done in 1 anticlimactic chapter. Also the fact that the author had every American in her story carrying a gun? Please, Gentill, go eat some Vegemite and recognize not every American is a gun-toter 🥴

My issue was, I read Woman in the Library and liked it… so I expected something similar/equally as readable. To be honest, up until like 70% of the way through, this was a 3.5/4 star book for me. The rushed ending, lack of excitement, and overall sense “wow this was underwhelming” leaves me at a 2.5.

Is this my new favorite narrator? Maybe. She is amazing! I loved this entire book. It has everything! I think it is a perfect example of American Culture and how we let corporations control us. I really felt for the characters and loved every weird twist. I couldn't predict a single twist in this book. I especially loved Horse.

A bingeable mess, even though I was consistently engaged from start to finish, the lack of commitment to a specific theme/tone made The Mystery Writer sillier and more disjointed than what I was expecting coming from Sulari Gentill, whose past few novels often incorporated an intricate literary ‘gimmick’ (such as After She Wrote Him, with its 2 writer protagonists writing each other’s POVs). Same attempt was made here, but with less impactful outcome.

Other readers have highlighted their frustration towards the protagonist, and I can see where they’re coming from: her behavior throughout is widely inconsistent. Sometimes naive to a fault, at the same time we are meant to believe her as someone with a decent understanding of law and attention to detail—she ends up being less of a fleshed out character, but a puppet for plot convenience.

The fragmentation continues with its plot, which starts out like a lighthearted cozy mystery, only for its latter half turning into some kind of Mission Impossible extravaganza with huge action set pieces and grave consequences. The novel also feature characters with very extreme world views, but for reason unknown presenting them as funny ‘quirks’ (isn’t it hilarious Americans carry guns everywhere and have doomsday shelters?), yet at the same time drawing provocative parallel between conspiracy theory and the power of storytelling. I was left in the constant whiplash, not sure whether The Mystery Writer is going for surface level entertainment, or something more in-depth.

The audiobook is expertly done by the narrator, but with many POV switches happening mid-chapter, sometimes it can be easy to miss listening without seeing the proper formatting on page.

At no point did I find The Mystery Writer boring, thanks to its cast of colorful secondary characters (compensating for its weak protagonist), and the constant hijinks. But I was annoyed by the haziness of its intent; it’s almost like the author was trying for Yellowface, making a razor-sharp commentary about the publishing industry ‘weaponizing’ stories, but chickened out so decided to wrap it all in comedy instead. If you have not read from Sulari Gentill before, probably don’t start with this one.

This was so different and had me on the edge of my seat. The beginning made me think it would go one way, and then an early twist changed the whole thing. There’s just one big thing I can’t wrap my head around. The end twist is that a man who sexually assaulted Theo when she was 10 was the older male author she wrote next to and fell in love with. Did he know who she was? How did they end up in the same bar half a world away from where they knew each other before? Other than that, I loved the mystery, the intrigue, the conspiracy theory threads, and the main characters.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media & Sulari Gentill for an audio galley of The Mystery Writer in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED Woman in the Library so I was thrilled to receive the audiobook for Gentill's newest novel. Sadly, this one fell a bit short for me. At the time of listening to the audiobook, it was just "blah" - it kept JUST enough interest to keep me from DNF'ing it, but that's about it. In fact, even though I just listened to it recently, I am failing to recall any exact details to even summarize the story. Therefore, I'm quoting the synopsis below. As I sit here and read through the synopsis, it almost feels as though I never read the book (I did), as even the synopsis isn't ringing many bells.

For me, a forgettable book is the worst kind. A reader will always remember the good ones & they'll even remember the particularly bad ones.

I'm sorry I don't have a better review. I obviously will not be recommending this one.

I will give two positives, though - The cover art is great and I enjoyed the narrator.



Theo Benton decides to move to the United States to finally finish her novel, and she is soon drawn into a literary labyrinth where identity is something that can be lost and remade for the sake of sales and readership.

When her mentor and lover is brutally murdered, Theo wants the killer to be found and justice to be served. But when the prime suspect turns out to be her older brother, Gus, Theo does what is necessary to protect him—to save him. Then she disappears. But the writer has left a trail, a thread out of the labyrinth in the form of a story. When Gus finds that thread, he follows it, and in attempting to find his sister, inadvertently, or perhaps recklessly, threatens the foundations of the labyrinth itself. In order to protect the carefully constructed deceit, Theo Benton, and everyone who ever looked for her, will have to die.

3.5 stars.

This was a somewhat meandering, far-reaching conspiracy story that probably strikes fear in the hearts of authors a lot more than average readers. I found it less thrilling than frustrating and really wanted it to all get worked out faster. Liked the premise, mostly liked the characters, found it well-written and compelling, but the dragging was painful, and how long it took for people to figure things out was the downfall. Still a fan of the author, but I just didn't connect with this story so much.

This is the second title I have read by Sulari Gentill. I really do enjoy her storylines, and I think she is a good storyteller, but this is also the second book that I feel like the story went on just a bit too long. I found myself losing interest about 2/3 of the way through, and though I carried on and finished the book, I didn't see anything in the last bit of the book that could not have been done in a shorter amount of time. There seems to be a lot of dialogue that could have been cut short that may make it easier to hold interest in these characters, with less twists in the story along the way that may overwhelm readers.

Aside from being a longer read than I thought was necessary, I think Gentill does write very well, and I am very glad to have been given access to this book early, because I was looking forward to reading this after picking up "The Woman in the Library" last year. Thank you for allowing me to read and review!

Well, this book took me for an interesting ride. Theo is beginning her writing career, and befriends a famous writer who she later finds dead, and then we are off to the races. People are dying, people are going missing, and there's a few mysterious groups lurking in the background - but who is to blame? I thought it got hurried at the end with multiple long time jumps and could have used some editing in the middle to have a smoother transition, but was overall pleased with how it turned out. I also thought the plot was a bit over the top, but a lot of thrillers/whodoneits are.

I really enjoyed the first chunk (75%-ish) of the book. It was a unique mystery with lots of interjected info in the form of message postings by conspiracy theorists that add a bit of intrigue. At about the 75% mark though, the book shifted and I really struggled to finish it then. By the end of the book, my enjoyment really dropped and I just wanted the book to wrap up.
Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the audio ARC.

I went into this story basing it off of my enjoyment of the authors last book, The Woman in the Library, but slightly blind to the plot of this story. This took some turns that I definitely was not expecting.

As I had the audio version, I really was able to get the tone of the story as the narrator was able to dictate with different accents well. I did feel a certain way about the characters until I learned more about their past and it made me look a little deeper than skin deep.

For the most part, the majority of the story takes place over a matter of weeks I felt - until it didn’t. I had some major questions towards the end of the book and, if you read, you too will most likely have similar (if not the same) questions/thoughts.

Still taking some time to digest this while it’s fresh in my mind as so much happened in this book that I’ll most likely continue to think about it for a while.

Thank you so much to the author, Sulari Gentill, Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the arc audiobook of The Mystery Writer!

After "The Woman in the library" I didn't have high expectations, but I was hoping for some fun. Unfortunately "The Mystery Writer" didn't deliver even in that department, as the fun was lost somewhere between main character naivete, some weird misconceptions about the publishing world and ridiculous time jumps that completely ruined the 3rd act for me.
I couldn't get over the scene where the main character is offered a representation by a literary agency that is so blatantly evil, my teeth hurt that the protagonist couldn't see it. The agent told her that she had to give up all of her social media and contacts and basically hand her personal live over to the agency. That should ring a flashing alarm in her head, but she just assumed that's normal? I couldn't like Theo, as she was soooo oblivious to how publishing work - nowadays it's expected from writers to run their own promotional campaigns using their private social media channels, so an agency trying to cut you off from all social contacts and the internet should give you a major red flag.
The pace of the whole thing was off, especially when the main character suddenly disappears for two years in the middle of the 3rd act.
And the final reveal explaining what was the villain's plan was simply ridiculous. I actually laughed out loud when I read it.
Fortunately the audiobook version was ok.