REVIEW: The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

Taking a break from her ten book-long Rowland Sinclair historical crime series, bestselling author Sulari Gentill used the extended COVID lockdown period to continue her experimentation with the novelist’s writing form, as she did with the triumphant stand-alone Crossing the Lines in 2017. The result, The Woman in the Library, may just be the best thing to come out of the pandemic (at least in the literary realm).

Sulari Gentill

Highly cerebral and brilliantly plotted, this is a story within a story within a story, reminiscent of the erudite and entertaining style so brilliantly laid out by Paul Auster in Oracle Night almost 20 years ago.

While writing a new mystery novel set in Boston, bestselling Australian author Hannah Tigone sends her draft pages to aspiring author Leo Johnson. Leo’s a fan of her work and a resident of that great city, who can give feedback on local neighbourhoods and haunts to add detail and authenticity. Unsolicited, he also suggests plot changes and improvements. Their correspondence is interspersed with Hannah’s manuscript chapters.

Hannah’s novel opens with a piercing scream shattering the erstwhile silence of the Boston Public Library where four strangers, Freddie (our narrator – a novelist and fictional version of Hannah), Caine (a fellow writer also working on his next book), Whit (a failing law student) and Marigold (a heavily tattooed student of psychology) are working on their respective projects in the Reading Room. Understandably, it prompts them to start talking with each other, which leads to friendship and bonds made even closer through their shared experience, until a woman’s body is found by cleaners in an adjacent room the next morning. The reader is advised very early on that one of them is a murderer. The stage of massive intrigue is well and truly set!

Gentill delivers a darn-good mystery with surprises galore. Readers will be convinced they know the killer’s identity multiple times throughout the book, only to be surprised and foiled in their suppositions by yet another plot twist or revelation. All the while, Leo’s letters to Hannah raise additional questions about his motivations (perhaps nefarious?) and backstory.

Aside from the intrigue which keeps readers on their intellectual toes, Sulari Gentill lifts the veil on the world of the novelist and their need to research thoroughly to make their story credible, to examine language and the varying words or expressions used in different countries and to tie up all loose ends of plot detail and unanswered questions. She succeeds on all levels and provides a remarkable, intelligent and entertaining novel which gives brilliant insight into the writer’s craft.

—The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill (Ultimo Press) is out now. Limited signed copies are available while stocks last!

The Woman in the Library

Limited Signed Copies Available!

by Sulari Gentill

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. They are all suspects, and, as it turns out, each character has their own secrets and motivations – and one of them is a murderer.

While crafting this new thriller, Hannah shares each chapter with her biggest fan and aspirational novelist, Leo...

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Scott Whitmont