The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
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Web ID: 15058475Great mystery.
Buy this one because you'll want to share it. Starts a little slow, but the end surprised me, and that's rare.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Writer writing about writer writing about writers
The Woman in the Library Writer writes about writer writing about writers Sulari Gentill is the writer who wrote the novel, “The Woman in the Library” which is about a writer named Hannah Tigone who is writing a novel about a writer named Winifred Kincaid who is writing a novel about a writer. Got it? The main novel is about Winifred (Freddie) Kincaid with the Hannah Tigone frame story only making brief appearances. In the process of writing her story, Hannah sends updates of her manuscript to a fellow writer/fan named Leo who is living in Boston which is also the location of the story. Leo in turn sends her his thoughts about the manuscript with suggestions on changes regarding plot and characterization as well as local idioms. How Hannah came to know Leo is a bit of a mystery, although you could infer that maybe Leo just cold-called the correspondence due to his admiration of her work. Leo’s knowledge of the Boston area and the Boston Public Library presumably would be useful to Hannah which would justify her interest in maintaining the correspondence, if not for the fact that Hannah pretty much ignores almost every suggestion Leo has regarding the manuscript. One example of this is Leo’s obsession with putting references to Covid in the story. Hannah does not use a single one of these suggestions. As far as the main story goes, the mystery there centers around who is the murderer among a group of 4 newly minted friends. This is the story involving Freddie Kincaid and the 3 friends she meets in the Boston Public Library – Cain, Whit and Marigold. While they are all together in the library, a murder takes place and Freddie reveals right from the outset that one of her newfound friends is the murderer. Freddie has her suspicions about each of them in turn and almost makes a fatal mistake before the identity of the killer is finally revealed. This book is a fun read, but I think it would have been better if the frame story had been developed more so that we could get into Hannah’s head to see how she viewed her relationship with Leo. Also, to that point, what could have made it even more interesting would have been if the interior story (the one Freddie was writing) had the Leo character from the frame story in it, and even better if we could read a few passages in parallel to the frame story. At the risk of sounding more and more like Leo, I will refrain from making any more suggestions.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
catching a killer across the world
The mystery starts in the Reading Room of the Boston Public Library, where four individuals are quietly working, until they hear a scream in the next room. Security doesn’t find anything amiss, so they are all allowed to leave the library, but the four agree to meet again. Marigold is a psychology student. Whit is studying law. Cain is a writer with a book already in The New York Times. And Winifred, Freddie, is a visiting writer from Australia, in the country for a prestigious writing fellowship. And Freddie can’t help but be inspired by what they experienced in the library. Especially after she sees the news later and finds out that the body of a woman had been found in the library. Had she been sitting in the Reading Room with a killer? If so, having three witnesses during the woman’s scream was a fantastic alibi, Freddie can’t help but notice, as her pen goes flying across the pages. Freddie doesn’t know anyone in Boston, so she’s happy to meet these other three and learn more about Boston’s restaurants and attractions. She also makes the acquaintance of Leo Johnson, another writer with the same fellowship she has, who can help her adjust to America as well. As Freddie and her new friends start to investigate the woman’s murder, she keeps up with her writing and finds herself drawn to Cain. But when his phone is used to call her, and all that’s heard is a scream, exactly like the scream they all heard in the library, Freddie doesn’t know what to think. Cain said that his phone had been missing, but who would know that she’s looking into the murder, other than the three other people who were in the library with her when it happened? As Freddie keeps writing her story, the killer comes closer, sending photos of her door and then coming after those she cares about. And when she finds out that Cain had spent time in prison, Freddie doesn’t know what to believe. But she’ll need to figure it out quickly, as her novel takes shape, because she doesn’t have much time before the killer comes for her. Meanwhile, as readers get caught up in the story of Freddie and her Boston mates, the real writer of this story, bestselling author Hannah Trigone, is writing this story from her home in Australia, and she sends each chapter to Leo in Boston, who fact checks for her and offers her the American equivalents of the words or phrases she uses. It’s like pulling back the curtain and seeing the magic of the writing. And where these stories go will surprise and thrill. The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill is a funhouse of thriller stories, with the details of one story bleeding into the other and sometimes making you forget where you are. It’s layers of questions, compounded by secrets and lies and danger and intrigue. And it’s an amazing story that sucks you in and won’t let go, or at least, that was my experience. The Woman in the Library is a suspenseful story on more than one level, and I’m not sure any description would do it justice. But if you love a good thriller and haven’t yet visited Boston with Freddie and her library friends, then this is a trip you’ll want to take. But make sure you’re seatbelt is on nice and tight and keep your hands inside the car at all times. Things get a little wild. Egalleys for The Woman in the Library were provided by Poisoned Pen Press, with many thanks.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Suspenseful and cozy thriller.
I absolutely adored this book. A murder mystery taking place in the library? Truly does it get any better? Full of twists and suspense. The Woman in the Library was a quick read that kept me engaged from start to finish. I look forward to reading more from this author. Thank you to NetGalley and Poison Pen Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. Review also being posted to Amazon and Barnes & Noble pending approval.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Gripping Read!
Wow this book was a nonstop page turner. While it started out a little slow and confusing, once I got the gist of it I couldn't read it fast enough. A chance meeting of four strangers in the library sets off a chain reaction like none other. Definitely a cat and mouse thriller between the four new friends. My first read from this author and won't be my last.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Book within a Book within a Book
I started this an audio book and was so confused. It was read by a woman and even though she did a great job with the voices there seemed to be more male characters than female. When I switched over to print things seemed a bit clearer. There are letters from Leo in Boston to the author in Australia ostensibly helping her with the scene and some of the American lingo. In the book Winifred is one of four people in the reading room at the Boston Public Library when they hear a woman scream. They start talking and become friends over the bonding experience. Honestly I don't even know how to describe the book within a book within a book. None of the characters seemed really developed and I didn't feel invested in the outcome or really even care who was the murderer. While the end was exciting it just seemed to wrap up too quickly and I never understood the reason why or what the last line even meant. I would like to thank Netgalley and Poison Pen Press for providing me with a digital copy.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Terrific Thriller
Wow, hold on! There are enough twists in this story and story within a story to leave you reeling. You might think, knowing that one is the story and the other a sub-story, that Gentill might ease up on the latter giving it less time, less attention, less to cause knuckle biting. Yet, the opposite is true. The sub-story is the center of focus with well developed plot, intriguing characters, and enough suspense to keep you wrapped in a blanket in a corner hoping no one knocks at the door. You might even wonder why she bothered with the outer story through the first half of her novel. -But there is nothing wasted here, nothing extraneous. The two stories build together weaving a web that leaves you dangling with possibilities even as the main questions are resolved.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
The Woman in the Library
One of the things that I like about GR (besides the humungous database of book recommendations) are the different book groups. Many of the book groups have group reads, and I like the nomination process because that’s where a member can come across some pretty good reads. I came across this book in the Mystery Crime Thriller group during the nomination process for a group read for a murder mystery story centered around books. While this wasn’t one of the books that was chosen for the group to read, it was the one that I added to my to-read list. The book summary is very brief and vague and basically just describes the beginning of the story. There is so much more going on here. This is a story about a writer writing a murder mystery and it’s that story that becomes the primary storyline. There is a storyline that is introduced in the form of email communications between a well-known Australian writer, named Hannah, and a fan/struggling writer from Boston, named Leo. Apparently, Hannah is sending Leo excerpts of the book she is currently working on (we never see any of Hannah’s emails), and Leo is providing feedback in the form of info for all things American for Hannah’s writing. This particular storyline is interspersed between the chapters and is actually a secondary storyline. Based on the comments from Leo, it’s in the early days of the Covid pandemic. The book Hannah is working on is a story about the developing relationships of four people, Winifred (Freddie), Marigold, Whit and Cain, who were sitting in a reading room at the Boston Public Library and heard a woman scream and who was discovered murdered in another part of the library. The Freddie and Cain characters in Hannah’s book are writers who immediately gravitate to each other in their shared trials and tribulations of plotting out storylines for the current books they’re working on. The Cain character is already a published writer, and the Freddie character is working on her first novel. At the same time, unbeknownst to the Whit character, the Marigold character is developing a somewhat obsessive attraction to him. Consequently, like Hannah, the Freddie character is also an Australian writer. Hmmm….. Coincidence? At this point, I’m thinking probably not. Hannah develops a secondary storyline in her book where the Freddie character uses the murder to develop the budding relationships between her and the other three characters and uses them as central characters and plotlines for her book. In the Freddie character’s book, Cain becomes Handsome Man, Whit becomes Heroic Chin and Marigold becomes Freud Girl. Both Hannah and the Freddie character, in her book, spend a good deal of time centering around the relationships that are developing between the four MC’s (in Hannah’s book) and the unexplained incidents that begin to happen to them. What started out as just some odd and a creepy little pranks quickly progressed into dangerous and life-threatening incidents. In the second half of the story, Hannah presents some major reveals in her story about the Cain character as the incidents continue and become more threatening. At around the 60% mark, a whole new development is revealed, and it actually becomes another secondary story, but it is also very suspicious (at least to me) that two of the storylines are beginning to merge. Shortly thereafter, there was a kind of strange development in the email communications between Hannah and Leo the was a totally out in left field twist that was also offensive, at least to me it was. After a while, I started to forget that the storyline of Freddie and the other three from the library are just characters in Hannah’s book and that the storyline between Hannah and Leo is the actual “real” story. Good grief!!! That itself sounds confusing – right? The last 10% or so just got really weird. Kind of a hot mess, hence, my 3star rating. As I said, there was a lot going on in this book and probably a little too much for a lot of readers. I guess I would give it 3.5stars if I could, but I’m not feeling compelled to round up because of the ending. For me, a messy ending can be the difference between a 3star and 4star rating. Of all the characters (and there were a lot) my fave character was Freddie, regardless of some of her strange Australian food tastes that Hannah assigned to her (were they actually Sulari Gentill’s food preferences?). Peanut butter and cheese??? Seriously!!! Don’t even get me started on the Vegemite toast. As for Australian chocolate being the best in the world, that’s a matter of opinion. Actually, I can’t say that I’ve ever had Australian chocolate, and I don’t consider Cadbury Australian (I think it’s UK) but Lindt (Swiss) and Godiva (Belgium) are by far the best (5’s, on a scale of 1-5), with Ghirardelli (US) coming in a pretty high (4), at least on my scale. Although, I am tempted to search out where to get Tim Tams just so I can try out a Tim Tam Slam. From the get-go, I found the storyline of a murder in a library kind of interesting. My first thought was to one of the local LA library branches. The LAPL downtown, central library is this humungous, forbidding, place in an 8-story, historical building that I’ve always found kind of creepy, and not just because of the way it looks (don’t even get me started on the elevators and stairwells). It seems like the perfect setting for a really creepy murder mystery.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com