The Woman in the Library

A Novel

by Sulari Gentill

ebook

1 of 2 copies available

USA TODAY BESTSELLER * MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD NOMINEE * 2022 BOOKPAGE BEST MYSTERIES AND SUSPENSE * LIBRARY READS TOP 10 BOOKS OF 2022 * CRIME READS BEST NEW CRIME FICTION

"Investigations are launched, fingers are pointed, potentially dangerous liaisons unfold and I was turning those pages like there was cake at the finish line." —Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times must-read books for summer 2022

Ned Kelly award winning author Sulari Gentill sets this mystery-within-a-mystery in motion with a deceptively simple, Dear Hannah, What are you writing? pulling us into the ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library.

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

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, who'd happened to sit 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.

Sulari Gentill delivers a sharply thrilling read with The Woman in the Library, an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship and shows us that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.

What readers are saying about The Woman in the Library:

"I loved this intelligent, high tension, addictive, unputdownable book so much!"

"I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!"

"This is a smart, well-written whodunit with an interesting cast of characters and a well-developed plot."

"A murder mystery that starts off in a crowded library full of book lovers? SIGN ME UP!"

"What an outstanding job and literary work in the crime-fiction genre!"

Creators
- Sulari Gentill
  
  Author
Publisher

Sourcebooks
Release date

June 7, 2022
Formats
- Kindle Book
- OverDrive Read
  - ISBN: 9781464215889
- EPUB ebook
  - ISBN: 9781464215889
  - File size: 4969 KB
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- This publication claims to meet EPUB Accessibility 1.0 WCAG 2.0 Level A.
Navigation
- Table of contents to all chapters of the text via links.
Additional Information
- Page breaks included
- High contrast between text and background
Languages
- English
Reviews
- Library Journal
  
  January 1, 2022
  A woman's scream pierces the quiet of the Boston Public Library's elegant reading room, and patrons are asked to remain in place as security guards investigate. At one table, pleasant conversation prevails among four strangers, one of whom happens to be a murderer. From Ned Kelly Award-winning Gentill, following 2021's Shanghai Secrets and January 2022's Where There's a Will.
  
  Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- Publisher's Weekly
  
  Starred review from March 28, 2022
  This thrilling excursion into metafiction from Australian author Gentill (Crossing the Lines) wittily examines the writing process itself. Australian mystery writer Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid has come to Boston after receiving a prestigious writers’ fellowship. While she’s seeking inspiration in the Boston Public Library, a woman’s scream breaks the silence. Freddie seizes on this incident as the ideal start for her new opus, which involves “a group of people united by a scream.” Each chapter of Freddie’s book includes a letter written to famous Australian author Hannah Tigone by a dedicated fan, Leo Johnson, a fellow writer in residence who offers to be her beta reader. Hannah is writing the story of Freddie Kincaid, who’s writing the story of the murder in the library. Leo’s emails influence Hannah’s view of her characters and subsequently Freddie’s story. Leo’s emails shift from sycophantic to profoundly disturbing when his novel is rejected by Hannah’s agent. The agent dies a few days later, and murders in the two realities begin to multiply. This elegantly constructed novel is intelligent, funny, and profound. Who could ask for more? Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary.
- Booklist
  
  April 1, 2022
  Australian author Winifred ""Freddie"" Kincaid is writing in the reading room of the Boston Public Library when she hears a woman scream. This bonds her to her neighboring patrons, writer Cain, psych grad student Marigold, and failing law student Whit, and when they hear that a woman's body has been discovered several days later, they work together to solve the crime. But someone is sending threatening messages to Freddie, and Cain is hiding a past that makes him look very guilty. In between chapters of the story are letters from Leo, an American offering writing advice to Hannah Tigone, the Australian author of Freddie's story. Soon it becomes clear that Leo is no ordinary critique partner, as he collects gruesome evidence to make Freddie's story more believable. Gentill's latest is a departure from her historical Rowland Sinclair novels (Where There's a Will, 2022). It is a mystery-within-a-mystery, with the clues in Freddie's story becoming more intriguing as Leo's advice becomes more sinister. The two story lines work together beautifully, amping up the suspense before reaching a surprising conclusion.
  COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Kirkus
  
  May 1, 2022
  Feedback can be deadly. Sycophantic fan and aspiring writer Leo charms his way into a friendship with successful author Hannah Tigone through a series of flattering letters. In return, she shares a strange incident that happened in the Boston Public Library, where she's working on her new novel, an episode that begins with a scream and ends with this provocative sentence: "And so we go to the Map Room to found a friendship, and I have my first coffee with a killer." This, it turns out, is actually the beginning of Hannah's new novel, sent in morsels to Leo, who faithfully offers thoughts and encouragement after every chapter. Gentill mines similar metafictional territory as in After She Wrote Him (2020), teasing readers with the challenge of deducing which of two narrative threads presents the author and which his or her story. As the mystery unfolds, the book expands into psychological thriller territory, with Leo becoming increasingly unhinged and describing the world as a rage-filled dystopia. Winifred "Freddie" Kincaid, Hannah's mystery-writer protagonist, is as curious and resourceful as Miss Marple, and Hannah's buoyant whodunit provides a bracing contrast to Leo's dark world. Based on their appearances and their behavior in the library, Hannah gives her suspects names like Heroic Chin, Handsome Man, and Freud Girl. Lines blur. Freddie is so caught up in the twists and turns of the puzzle that she feels unable to write. Does Hannah have the same problem? Can Leo help her, does he genuinely want to, and where does he fit into the larger picture? A sharply drawn fictional hall of mirrors sure to tantalize and occasionally frustrate.
  COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Library Journal
  
  Starred review from May 1, 2022
  Writer Freddie Kincaid studies the people sharing her table at the Boston Public Library, naming them "Freud Girl," "Heroic Chin," and "Handsome Man." They hear a scream and learn that a woman has been murdered--that's when Freddie says one of them is a killer. The subsequent story is Freddie's account of her growing friendship with those three, attacks on two of them, and the growing awareness that one is attacking the others. But Hannah Tignone, a best-selling Australian author, is actually writing the story of Freddie and her new friends. The story within a story alternates Hannah's writing with letters written to her by a wannabe author, Leo, who suggests changes to Hannah's plot and characters. Freddie's account of trying to discover which of her new friends is a killer is an engrossing mystery. At the same time, Hannah's communication from the FBI allows the reader a glimpse into the life of a writer with a fanatical correspondent. VERDICT Ned Kelly Award winner Gentill (Crossing the Lines) presents a complex, riveting story within a story. The fictional story of an author writing about another writer with messy, complicated friendships and suspicion is an innovative literary mystery.--Lesa Holstine
  
  Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- Good Reading Magazine
  
  Sulari Gentill, has taken a break from her much-loved ‘Rowland Sinclair’ series to write this stand-alone novel. It is complex in structure and opens with an email from a fan called Leo to Australian author Hannah Tigone, who is working on her second novel. Hannah is setting her novel in Boston, especially the Boston Public Library, but, due to pandemic travel restrictions, is unable to travel there to research the local area and library. Leo is American and volunteers to do it for her. Hannah also sends him draft chapters for comment but, when he starts to send her photos of murder scenes to aid in her accuracy, her suspicions are aroused. Hannah’s novel centres around four people sharing a table in the library’s reading room when an ear-piercing scream shatters the silence. One of the four is author Freddie, who is in Boston on a writer’s fellowship to work on his own novel. A conversation begins among the four that develops into friendship and romance. Later that day a body is found. Sinister events begin to dog one of the four, who has a criminal record and therefore is a person of interest. To complicate matters, Hannah creates a character in her book also called Leo. So, we have Freddie’s novel inside Hannah’s novel inside Sulari’s novel with multiple murders to be solved and two Leos. The action takes a while to get going and the complicated structure means that the reader needs to follow several strands at once. Although I enjoyed it, for me, I confess I think I prefer Rowland. Reviewed by Lynne Babbage ABOUT THE AUTHOR I am still the person who owned the bio below, but it seems eight years passed when I wasn't looking. Rather than writing a whole new biography I thought I'd leave 2010 where it was, and update. I still live on a Trufferie in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains. Indeed, that's Badger the truffle dog in this picture. I now have 12 published novels under my belt with the 13th due for release in February 2019. My work is published in print in Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada, and worldwide as audiobooks. The little boys I mentioned in my 2010 bio are now strapping young men. It has been a wild and glorious eight years filled with the competing madness of both my real and imaginary worlds. I have met many extraordinary people, made some wonderful friends, earned a readership and, I hope, honed my craft. I remain hopelessly in love with the art of writing. I'm Australian. I was born in Sri Lanka, learned to speak English in Zambia and grew up in Brisbane. I went to University to study Astrophysics, graduated in Law and after years of corporate contracts, realized I just wanted to tell stories. Perhaps a legal career is a natural precursor to writing fiction. Whilst I maintain that I am nowhere near old enough for a mid-life crisis, I did begin turning down legal positions two years ago, so that I could write. Since then, I have completed four independent novels and co-authored two others. My first novel was short listed for the 2008 NSW Genre Fiction Award, and another placed in the 2008 FAW National Literary Awards (Jim Hamilton Award). In 2009 I was long-listed in the QWC Hachette Livre Manuscript Development Program and offered a Varuna Fellowship. It was enough to keep me stubbornly refusing to do anything but write, though the bills were mounting and I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever be gainfully employed again. Then, in a moment which I'll always remember as one of pure joy, hysterical giddy excitement and overwhelming relief, Pantera Press asked me to become one of their authors. And so here I am. I live and write on a small farm in the Snowy Mountains of NSW, where I grow French Black Truffles, breed miniature cattle...
- BookPage
  
  Readers are treated to two expertly crafted mysteries in Australian author Sulari Gentill’s The Woman in the Library. Four strangers are sharing a table at the Boston Public Library when they hear a woman’s terrified scream. Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid, Cain McLeod, Marigold Anastas and Whit Metters form a quick friendship while they wait for security guards to figure out what happened. When a woman’s body is later found in the library, the new friends realize they didn’t just hear a scream: They may have overheard a murder. Freddie, Cain, Marigold and Whit set out to discover what happened that afternoon, but they soon realize that their meeting wasn’t random—because one of them is the murderer. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="220"] Read our audiobook review! Voice actor Katherine Littrell brings a measured sense of menace.[/caption] But there’s yet another twist! The characters of Freddie, Cain, Marigold and Whit are just that: characters in a novel being written by an Australian woman named Hannah. She’s corresponding with an American writer named Leo, emailing him the chapters of her mystery novel as she completes them. Leo’s detailed responses follow each chapter, and readers soon realize he is more than an appreciative fan. Leo may be just as dangerous as one of the characters in Hannah’s story. The author of more than a dozen mysteries, Gentill has created a smart, engaging novel that blurs genre lines. The mystery set within the library is a fresh take on the locked-room mystery, and Leo’s emails to Hannah create an increasingly ominous epistolary thriller, despite the distance between the characters. It’s an inventive and unique approach, elevated by Gentill’s masterful plotting, that will delight suspense fans looking for something bold and new.