Book Review :: The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
ISBN: 1464215871
on 2022-06-07
Genres: Adult, Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 288
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads

In every person's story, there is something to hide...

The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers sitting at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.

Last updated on 13 February 2023

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What is The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill about?

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill is a story within a story. Within a story. Think Inception but in book form and set in the Boston Public Library. Sort of.

The first layer: Leo Johnson is an aspiring author who, after multiple rejections from publishers for his book, is frustrated. But as he sits in the Boston Public Library’s Reading Room trying to get some inspiration, his correspondence with famous Australian author, Hannah Tigone, is keeping him going.

As he describes the characters he sees in the BPL, Hannah begins to weave them into her own book, sending Leo chapters as they’re completed. Every few chapters, Leo will send back a response, giving Hannah tips on how to use American lingo (as opposed to Australian), giving her ideas for locations around Boston, and sending the odd photo to help her fill in the details of her story.

Second layer: The main storyline is really the book that Hannah is writing. We follow Winifred ‘Freddie’ Kincaid, who is an aspiring mystery author, as she sits in the Boston Public Library Reading Room with three strangers: Freud Girl (Marigold), Heroic Chin (Whitt) and Handsome Man (Cain). As she starts to think about how these people in front of her would weave into a story, there’s a pricing scream.

And suddenly the people in front of her, strangers before today, are thrown into her life as the four of them are wrapped up in a murder. As the secrets come to light, connections are made, and suspects are named … Freebie tries to piece together the mystery of the scream and the murdered woman, all while trying to write a book of her own and not fall in love with a potential killer

My thoughts on The Woman in the Library

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill was a wild ride. I have to say when I first realised the format of this book was a story within a story (within a story?), then I was put off. I outwardly groaned and the people in the room with me asked what was wrong. That’s exactly how it went down. And that’s because I don’t generally enjoy inception-like stories, where what you’re reading is fiction within fiction.

But!

A few chapters in and I was hooked.

“I am a bricklayer without drawings, laying words in sentences, sentences into paragraphs, allowing my walls to twist and turn on whim…no framework…just bricks interlocked…no idea what I’m building or if it will stand…no symmetry, no plan, just the chaotic unplotted bustle of human life.”

Sulari Gentill does an incredible job of telling the story of Freddie and her 3 strangers-who-become-friends within the story of author Hannah communicating with author Leo.

The first level story is subtle – you only ever get information about what’s happening through Leo’s letters about Hannah’s chapters and the odd other letter to Hannah. You never heard from Hannah, you never get a look into her life, you never ‘meet’ her. And yet somehow, you’re routing her and her journey as an author writing her murder mystery about Freddie and the gang (great band name).

It’s clever. It’s very, very, clever.

And it keeps the reader on their toes. I read this over two days, and the only reason it wasn’t done in one day was that I literally had to go to bed.

The Woman in the Library was a brilliant mystery read, and the first I’ve read of Gentill’s. I’m definitely going to be checking out more of her work.

Have you read any of Sulari Gentill’s books? Which do you recommend? 

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Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Poisoned Pen Press for the review copy. This does not affect my review, and all thoughts and opinions are my own.