In every person’s story, there is something to hide…

From award-winning author Sulari Gentill comes a mischievous, twisty crime novel in the vein of Only Murders in the Building and White Lotus.

Four strangers in the Reading Room at Boston Public Library are introduced by a scream. Caught up in the subsequent murder investigation, each one finds themselves revealing more than they intended about their pasts as they race to solve the murder before one of them gets hurt.

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Whilst their stories unfold, so does another.

Dear Hannah… As correspondence between the author and an avid fan becomes interwoven with the core tale, the boundaries between what is fiction and what is real life begin to blur, highlighting the lengths people will go to keep their secrets.

Through these entwined narratives, Gentill delves into the complicated nature of friendships, the lives we show versus the lives we lead and the ways in which art can imitate life. Or perhaps it’s the other way around?

A sharply thrilling literary adventure, The Woman in the Library is contemporary crime with a clever twist.

My Review

Before I say anything else, I must just say that I love the book cover. It immediately made me think of the original Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho even though it’s not really like any of the posters.

But now for the book itself. Well this was something completely different. It’s a murder mystery, but it’s also a story within a story, with a side story thrown in for good measure.

Hannah Tigone is a well-known, published, Australian author, writing a book about a young Australian writer – Winifred ‘Freddie’ Kincaid – who is living in Boston, USA (not the one here in Lincolnshire) having won the prestigious Sinclair scholarship. One day she goes to the Boston Public Library, where she sits at a table with three other people, psychology student Marigold Anastas, Harvard law graduate Whit Metters and author Cain McLeod, when suddenly they hear a blood-curdling scream. And it’s this that brings them together and their friendship blossoms.

In the meantime, Hannah has a superfan in budding writer Leo, who emails her constantly with comments and ideas. Living in Boston himself, he offers to help Hannah with American language usage and descriptions of local places. However, what starts out as Leo’s admiration for another author, begins to turn a bit creepy. He suggests more and more changes to Hannah’s story and seems to forget she is the successful one, not him. I also need to mention that the ‘Hannah – Leo’ story is set during the pandemic so Hannah is unable to travel to America herself, which is why Leo offers to help her.

I’m not sure if anyone reading this who has read the book will agree with me, but I really didn’t like Marigold. She is so needy and her constant stalking of Whit, turning up at Freddie’s uninvited, and then offering to stay and help and never taking the hint when Freddie says no it’s fine, drove me mad. She never seems to understand that Freddie needs some peace and some space to do her own work. Just …… off Marigold. You are supposed to be studying psychology but your empath mode seems to be permanently switched off.

The Woman In The Library is a fantastic book if you love crime fiction but want something just a bit different. It may take a while to work out who is who, but it’s worth it in the end. Full of twists and turns and some real surprises, it’s very clever, but in a good way. It also pays homage to a number of writers and film directors from the past including Hitchcock which is probably why the cover reminds me of Psycho.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours.

About the Author

After setting out to study astrophysics, graduating in law and then abandoning her legal career to write books, Sulari now grows French black truffles on her farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of NSW. Sulari is the author of The Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, historical crime fiction novels (ten in total) set in the 1930s. Sulari’s work has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Best First Book), the Davitt Award, the Ned Kelly Award and the ABIA. She won the Davitt Award for A Decline in Prophets, and the Ned Kelly Award for her most recent standalone novel, Crossing the Lines.