Interesting concept, I liked the book within a book aspect.
A bit slow paced for me.

Thank you for my e-arc.

Genuinely one of my favourite books of the year!

I loved the style and the writing! It’s so unique that you are almost being spoon fed what to think by Leo and the one way correspondence is genius!

This book is an utter triumph! All the stars from me

I loved reading this book, the writing style and concept of a book within a book was great and I throughly enjoyed it. I loved all the characters who kept me guessing until the end I highly recommend this book for all mystery lovers!
Thanks to #netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book!

I didn't know what to expect when I started this book, and I still don't really know what I think after finishing, except to know that I really enjoyed it.

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill is a clever and engrossing mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end. The story is told in a unique way, with the first half of the book consisting of emails from Leo Johnson, a mysterious stranger, to Hannah Tigone, a successful mystery writer. The second half of the book is the draft of a new novel that Hannah is writing, which is based on the events that she and Leo have been discussing in their emails.

The story begins with a scream in the Boston Public Library. Four strangers who are sitting at the same table are drawn to the sound and discover that a woman has been murdered. The four strangers - Winifred "Freddie" Kincaid, Cain Sorenson, Marigold Lake, and Wes Matthews - become fast friends as they try to piece together what happened. However, as they get to know each other better, they realize that each of them is hiding secrets.

As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that one of the four strangers is the killer. But who is it? And why did they commit the murder? Gentill does a masterful job of keeping the reader guessing until the very end. The clues are all there, but they are cleverly hidden.

In addition to the mystery, The Woman in the Library also explores themes of friendship, betrayal, and redemption. The characters are all well-developed and relatable. Freddie is a particularly endearing character. She is smart, funny, and resourceful. She is also a talented writer, and her draft of the new novel is a joy to read.

The Woman in the Library is a well-written and suspenseful mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end. It is a must-read for fans of the genre.

Here are some of the things that I enjoyed about the book:

- The unique story structure.
- The clever and well-crafted mystery.
- The relatable and well-developed characters.
- The suspenseful and twisty plot.

This was such an interesting read and I loved the crime that is at the centre of the novwel. The strucutre of this was really interesting too and i felt like this added to how much i wanted to read this. All the characters were done well and i felt like they all stood out from each other. I feel like the way the action played out was good and it added to how much i wanted to read it.

I have read a few of the reviews on here for this book and I have to say I agree with most of them. After reading this book I am unsure about how I feel about it. I was engaged and read it fairly quickly, I was definitely entertained as the pacing was nice and quick and the writing was fine. However, I found the story became predictable and at times a little confusing. How it can be both I couldn't tell you. I am glad I read it I am just unsure of it and maybe need more time to digest it.

I have to say I was drawn in by the great front cover of this, and I do love a good murder-mystery, but unfortunately, while there was a lot I enjoyed about The Woman in the Library, there was a lot I really didn't too. Once I understand the format of the book, of the whole story-within-a-story element, I did really enjoy that part of it, and found myself wanting more of the real-life mystery compared to the fictional book being written inside the story. I did find the writing to be quite clunky at times, especially some of the dialogue, and I couldn't tell if it was an in-joke because of the whole 'Australian author writing American characters' aspect or if there really was just a disconnect. I found Leo creepy from the start and eagerly anticipated finding out his role in the whole thing, but I found the actual murders within the plot of the book to be lacklustre, and the reveal of the killer's identity disappointed me.

Positively gripping, I have read nothing like it in a long time. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for a review.

A very well written and clever book. Very unusual and very unique. I enjoyed this one. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

The meta nature to this murder mystery is fun and entertaining, but I'm afraid that's where the positives to this book end. Whilst I was hooked by the interesting device of a story within a story, I quickly became bored by the poor writing, the lame characters and the endless visits to cafes and restaurants. The novel trips around quite deep issues at times, but because the tone is so light and the writing flits from one superficial scene to another, it doesn't do them justice. Each chapter moves with pace, but the plot does not and I felt it lagged behind the dull relationship development between the four friends. Disappointing, but I should have probably learned not to fall for quirky devices as a selling point as they are no substitute for intelligent writing.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

Winifred 'Freddie' Kincaid is an Australian author currently living in Boston, USA on a scholarship. She's taken to visiting the Boston Public Library, taking note of the people sitting around her in the reading room to try & drum up ideas & characters for her next book. That particular morning, the quiet atmosphere is disturbed by the loud scream of a woman. In the ensuing chaos as security look for the source of the scream, Freddie gets talking to 3 of her nearest 'neighbours': Marigold, postgraduate psychology student, Whit, reluctant law student, & Cain, a fellow author. They start to get to know one another & their meet-ups become more frequent, but as secrets emerge, Freddie realises she doesn't know these people at all, in fact one of them may be a murderer.

The structure of the book is an unusual one in that the chapters about the book are interspersed with chapters detailing letters from 'Leo Johnson' to the author, Hannah Tigone. They start off rather benignly with suggestions about architecture & features of Boston for the book, but they gradually become more sinister in tone. I really liked the 'story within a story' aspect which I think worked well. It kept my interest & the pace was mostly good.

Less positively, I thought Freddie & Cain's relationship moved a bit too quickly: they'd been out for meals a couple of times & to the cinema & suddenly she was in love with him. I'm more used to 'instalove' in YA books than murder mysteries & it's not one of my favourite tropes. Also I was a little frustrated at the ending, I get where the author was coming from, but it was a bit abrupt. Overall, great concept, loved the storyline(s), I would definitely recommend it.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Ultimo Press, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

God I loved this book so much!!!!Wow
the entire time i was reading it (i WHIPPED through it in roughly 4 hours) my heart was pounding and i had so many theories and questions. if you love insanely well written and fast paced books with crazy plot twists and well developed, shady, and secretive characters - PLEASE READ THIS !!!!!

Even having read this one, I'm still not sure about it.

At the heart of this book is a murder mystery. I'm not entirely clear on whether the murder happened within the story being written within the book, or if the book is about the murder. Confused? You're not alone. Added to that the writer appears to send copies of her writing to someone called Leo - but he's not the only Leo in the story.

I enjoy a murder mystery and really looked forward to this one but it was quite a weird read. I liked finding out 'whodunnit' but I really can't work out what all the rest of it was about. Not an author for me. I struggled through to the end but did I enjoy it? Not really. 3*

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.25 stars
Paperback release: 27 April 2023
Thank you to NetGalley and Ultimo Press for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
~~~~~
Hannah Tigone, bestselling Australian crime author, is crafting a new novel that begins in the Boston Public Library: four strangers - Winifred, Cain, Marigold and Whit - are sitting at the same table when a bloodcurdling scream breaks the silence. A woman has been murdered. 
~~~~~
I was looking forward to this one as its synopsis made it sound very Agatha Christie-esque, and that is a good thing in my book (Ha!)
There were a lot of things that really worked for me: it was well-written and well-paced, it kept me engaged throughout and I flew through it. I loved the book within a book style: it's very meta and Gentill used it very cleverly, adding an extra layer of mystery with the addition of a one-sided correspondence about the writing of the book itself.
But ultimately, I found one of the mysteries very predictable, while the other - where Gentill had so skillfully ramped up the sense of threat - petered out to absolutely nothing. I love an open ending, I do not need everything to be neatly tied up, but this one sadly fell flat and was really unsatisfying.
Not quite the success I was hoping for but I would read from this author again.
~~~~~

Review in progress and to come.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

Story in a story in a story - loved this structure!

This one is going to be hard to both describe and review without giving anything away. But it was definitely worth the read and effort to write about.

What could easily have been just another murder mystery is made into something more by the clever structuring of the story - which is itself the creation of an author writing the book and discussing it chapter by chapter with a fan. Oh and the character in HER book is a writer writing a book too.

Confused? It's actually easy to follow.

The main action starts, wonderfully enough, in a public library, as a writer is observing those around her to use as potential characters in her own work. But true to form, there's a woman's scream, a lockdown, a body. And the writer speaks to the people she's been studying and friendships are formed. Though she tells us - the narrator/author of the murder story through her main character - that one of them is a murderer.

Now as we move through this mystery of working out who the dead woman is, how any of the characters might be connected to her, how the friendships/budding romances between the foursome develop, the writer of THEIR story also shares with us messages from a fan of hers (the author of the mystery is a well-known writer of the genre already). This fan, we learn, comes from the city in which the author is setting the story. Due to COVID lockdowns, she's stuck in Australia so he offers to help with geographical tips, language phrases, and comments about his own struggles to become a published author. His correspondent's words are never shared, only her chapters.

Gradually as the murder mystery itself moves through the usual red herrings, twists, amateur detective work, escalating violence, backstories and character development, its writer and fan/reader also develop their own plot, which sneaks up on the reader (us, in case you are lost in the maze or readers and writers involved in the layers by now!).

Ohh, it was great. I re-read a few pages now and then as some things were quite subtly placed in the pages to seem low-key and trivial. Which turns us (the reader of the writer of the writer - keep up!) into the detectives too.

What could have been a fairly standard murder mystery became something much more exciting and concentrated.

I hope I've kept this broad enough to tantalise without giving anything away. Apart from the fact that it's highly enjoyable, mind-twisting stuff that gives depth and finesse to this piece of fiction.

I'd recommend this for those who enjoy the genre but also those who might be weary of tropes and lazy plotting. This will give you something to get your detective teeth into.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

DNF at 40%

I hate not finishing books especially when they're gifted copies. But I tried with this book and even after getting this deep into it, I was half sure the author was pulling a prank on us.

This is a book within a book (within another book) where a writer is exploring a fascinating premise. A murder in the Boston Public Library. Only I'm still yet to find out anything about the victim except her name and the story just revolves around four dull people and their everyday conversations with a pinch of mysterious elements being thrown in here and there.

I think this was some really good potential wasted. Overall it comes across as a draft of a book rather than one. I do see divided reviews on the internet so whether or not you like it is entirely dependent on your taste.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ultimo Press for the e-copy.

The Woman in the Library has been all over #bookstagram so how could I not request it from NetGalley?

At its heart is a classic-style whodunnit set in the Boston Public Library - one of America’s most iconic libraries. The protagonist of this story is Freddie (short for Winifred), an Australian novelist in Boston as the recipient of a prestigious scholarship. Writing in the BPL one day she hears a blood-curdling scream from the stacks, the mystery of which draws her into an immediate and close friendship with the people sitting near her - Cain, Marigold and Whit.

From the beginning, we have a strong suspicion that one of them is somehow responsible for the murder of the Woman in the Library, even though they apparently are sound alibis for each other. The solution is quite simple and obvious to anyone who has read classic crime: the scream did not coincide with the time of death, but, of course, the author does not reveal this until the final third of the novel.

So far, so classic, you might be thinking. However, Sulari Gentill has framed all but the final chapter with another murder mystery, in the form of letters from supposed American writer Leo to the supposed Australian author of the mystery, Hannah.

The conceit is that Hannah has engaged Leo as an alpha reader to sense check the American “facts” and language she uses. As the novel progresses we become aware (a) that Leo has an unhealthy fixation with Hannah and (b) he is himself probably a serial killer.

This frame allows Gentill to explore the thriller genre and to deal with writerly themes. She also uses it to discuss the 2019 pandemic.

It’s all very clever and well-written, but, to be honest, I am vacillating between loving the framing and feeling robbed because it could have been another separate novel:

⚖️ It’s innovative and I LOVE novels that include epistolary elements to progress their plot BUT

⚖️ I also love straightforward classic-style murder mysteries and Freddie’s story is a good one.

Have I got two-for-one? Maybe. But would I have preferred to read Freddie’s story as one novel and then a second novel telling Hannah’s story? I think, to be honest, I would 🤷🏻‍♀️

The Woman in the Library is a gem. It's a story within a story; a novel about a woman writing a novel that is heavily influenced by her own life in the present.

It's very, very clever and crafty and you get so engrossed in both stories that you have to keep pulling back to think about what is 'real' and what is 'fiction' and then keep reminding yourself that the whole thing is fiction. In fact, the author really plays with the reader, and it's a lot of fun.

There are murders in both story threads, suspects aplenty, loads of really great and original characters that I loved and lots of great plot twists. And let it be said that while I love a good plot twist, I scorn silly ones. These are not silly, they are clever and pull you this way and that in a rollercoaster ride.

Gentill is clearly not just a clever plotter, but a very skilled writer too. The characters are totally realistic and engaging, and the dialogue sharp. I will definitely be adding her to my 'read more' list.