The Woman in the Library

Product Information

While waiting for an all clear from the guards, they strike up a conversation and a friendship results.

The Woman in the Library Character Analysis | SuperSummary

Foursome" Freddie, Marigold, Cain and Whit, go to the Map Room Tea Lounge for friendship and Freddie states, 'my first coffee with a killer. Racism was also dominating headlines as she wrote, including the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is explored in her Hannah-Leo narrative. The mystery of who killed Caroline and Freddie’s growing entanglement with Cain, Marigold, and Whit are excellent inspiration for her writing.

That is the point where I had to start really concentrating, and also when things started to become really tense and I had problems putting the book down just to make a cup of tea!

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill | Waterstones The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill | Waterstones

While I don’t want to say too much more (although other reviews do…beware), I’ll add that this novel serves food for thought on racial equality and pandemics in writing. Apart from the multi-layered story within a story plot, the descriptions of the numerous trips to local coffee houses and the vegetarian meal preps would trigger a hunger response in me and off I'd go to the kitchen! The format is set up as alternating letters/e-mails from aspiring author Leo (in the US) to Hannah, an accomplished Australian author who is writing a book about the murder of a woman in a library and the group of people who are doing some armchair investigating of the crime.I suspect that a world without disease will need to feature flying cars and victims dispatched by laser guns.

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill - Publishers Weekly The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill - Publishers Weekly

Cain, Whit, and Marigold happen to be sitting at the same table when they hear the horrendous noise of a woman’s screams. I admit that it might be a chore for some readers to stick with it to that point, but if you do the payoff is worth it.This book alternates between two perspectives and while it sounds like it might be confusing, it did not mess with my brain as much as her previous book. I loved the mystery novel wrapped in a mystery novel, the Boston locations, the characters, the whole thing, but I don’t understand the last pages and I don’t know what we readers were supposed to get from it!

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill | Waterstones

Hannah also names another character in the book, Freddie’s friend, neighbor and fellow scholar, Leo). The Woman In The Library by Sulari Gentill is a clever murder mystery that involves a story within a story. As the story progresses, the four of them become friends and find themselves embroiled in the mystery surrounding the death of the young woman and it is revealed that one of them is connected to the murder. Overall, I would recommend this to readers looking for an entertaining and sometimes humorous mystery that balances the right amount of depth without ever taking itself too seriously.The mystery element was intriguing and I found myself pleasantly surprised with the way both the stories progressed. Now, before I get into my review, I want to let you all know about the trigger warnings I found while reading. As you understood: you just read two plots at the same time and there’s a smart move from the author who also added Leo as a colleague of Freddie at the library murder story which makes us confused more about the motives of the character. Australian author Gentill’s enjoyable sixth Rowland Sinclair mystery (after 2018’s Gentlemen Formerly Dressed) explores the early life of her amateur sleuth.