Woman in the Library, The

Written by Sulari Gentill

Narrated by Katherine Littrell

This unexpectedly twisty literary adventure examines the complicated nature of friendship and reveals that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media
• Release date: Jun 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666583533

Sulari Gentill

Sulari Gentill is the award-winning author of The Rowland Sinclair Mystery series, historical crime fiction novels set in the 1930s. She won the 2012 Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction and has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. After setting out to study astrophysics, graduating in law, and then abandoning her legal career to write books, she now grows French black truffles on her farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales.

Reviews for Woman in the Library, The

[Erricka Hager · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Loved the premise but this fell a little short for me.

I applaud the writer for doing the story within a story premise well.

[pam harrell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The reader was perfect. She never yelled or screamed while telling this story! Which readers seem to feel they must do!!! I could not quit listening to this book. It was so fascinating to me. It’s been a long time since a book has captured my time so completely. The only disappointing part was the end. One part was answered and another part on very last page leaves you hanging. This is never a good feeling for a reader. I wish she had of left that story thread out of the book or answered our questions on that matter. You feel unsatisfied you have just spent many hours wondering trying to figure out and you get to the end and you have no answer. But the main story was answered so that was good.

[Larkin Moira · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Sooo many gaping plot holes. Especially with the American’s American edits. This book was such a disappointment.

[ShaTonya Wooley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.

[cole23 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Damn that girl was nosey as hell smh lol lol

[Kristine Haigh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Could not stop listening to this book. Perfect narrator for the story. It took me a while to catch on to how the story was written. I loved it.

[Gloriana · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very interesting & entertaining! I loved the way it weaves stories within stories with characters that are writers. It has a very charming feel to this story, as though it’s the college aged “Thursday Murder Club”….four different people bonded by a crime.

[susan deveney · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This could have been a great book, but completely lost its appeal with a sudden, boring, poorly developed ending. What a shame.

[Gina Watkins · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love the way it was a story within a story. Well, more like a story wrapped in a small story.

[cdguylhs · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

What a disappointment. This book is not what you think it is, at all. The synopsis of the book makes it seem like this will be locked-room mystery. It isn't. In fact, the synopsis describes the first chapter and that is it. 

In reality, it seems like this author had two book ideas and couldn't turn either one into a full novel. You have a person found dead in the library (hours after the scream, nothing was found when the scream happened and everyone was allowed to leave). Another focus of the book is the author of the library story receives some emails from a fan who loves her writing and she is letting him beta read the library story one chapter at a time. Is he really who he says he is? 

The whole story line with the author and the fan, who she lets beta read her book, didn't even feel like it fit with the story. It didn't bring anything extra or fun to the story. As I said, that could have been a different book all together and should have, but I don't think Sulari Gentill knew how to make it long enough to be considered a novel. 

If you take away the story of the author and fan, this book is barely over 200 pages long. 

The main story of this book is just OK. It isn't what I thought it would be. I wanted a locked-room mystery, and that isn't what we got. It is just a regular mystery. And the way she ended the book.......why? What was the point of that. The killer was found. I don't know if Sulari is trying to set up a second book or not, but I probably won't read anything by her again. 

I'm not going below 2 stars because I did find myself wanting to know who the killer was and why they killed. But, none of the twist and turns were surprising or shocking. I haven't been this disappointed in a book in a while. 

[tricia · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Good narrator, I never knew what’s going on really. Great read.

[Untamed Lawson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great listen! Was a bit bit confusing untl tou understand how it was told. Kept you guessing and wondering.

[Rhonda Morrison · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

So incredibly slow moving and boring. Best thing about this book is the title.

[Cass St. Phard · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book is awful. Some of the conversations are ENDLESSLY repetitive. Anything interesting that happens keeps happens again and again and again. I listened to this on audiobook and I stopped halfway. Also one of the characters is INCREDIBLY ANNOYING. They are nosy, immature, and intrusive. The other characters enable this person. I understand this is fictional story but in real life I would kick someone like that out of my life. I really wanted that person to be killed off just for my sanity! I have no idea where the story was going. Sometimes it perked up and there seemed to be a subplot developing but that fizzled. I wasted 340 minutes of my life on this and I still don't know whodunit. For closure, I'm going to find a spoiler online.

[carla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was so hesitant when I started this book, (it was a bit confusing at first) but I was pleasantly surprised about how much I ended liking this book! Unique and engaging story for its genre! Such a fun ride, with a protagonist that is actually reliable, and knows exactly what she wants! Yes! Bravo for this author, we’ll done!!

[Andrea Pelham · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I’ve listened to the ending three times now and honestly still have no idea what happened. ??

[Mary Knight · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great mystery with a twist. I loved all the characters and the narration was fabulous! If you are a writer or an editor, you will enjoy this novel.

[Amy Hagberg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“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, The Woman in the Library.

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, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who are sitting at the same table, pass the time in conversation. Australian author Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid, writer, Cain, psych graduate student Marigold, and failing law student, Whit, all have a reason for being in the reading room that morning. When they find out a body has been found, they work together to solve the crime. Freddie uses the incident as the start of her work-in-progress. 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 who offers to be her beta reader. So… Hannah is writing the story of Freddie Kincaid, who’s writing the story of the murder in the library. Confused? I guess you’ll have to read it!

The Woman in the Library is just the type of book I used to stay up all night reading, but now I am too old to manage it! Cleverly imagined, it is metafiction at its finest. Metafiction? What are you talking about, Amy? Basically, it is an innovative literary technique wherein an author writes about another author. It’s a book within a book, a mystery within a mystery. Gentill’s novel combines two of my favorite things: a library and a mystery. It’s an off-beat, tense whodunit with epic twists and turns that kept me guessing until the very end. The friendships between the characters are complicated and messy—part of what I enjoyed most about this book. At one point, I suspected each one of them of being the murderer. Although I had a hard time getting into the groove at first, especially when listening to the audio version, the author rewarded my patience with a surprising ending. 4 stars. For more reviews visit amyhagberg.com

[Will · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was an interesting story. A story inside a story. I'd suggest giving it a listen.

[mary-197923 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Woman in the Library is the most intriguing mystery that you'll read this year. Four strangers meet in a library where they are startled by the sound of a woman screaming. Later, this young woman is discovered dead and the four people embark on a new friendship and a journey to figure out what happened.

That is all you are getting from me. This book had SO MANY twists and turns that I do not want to give anything away. You will find yourself questioning the motives of every single character in this book, including the author. It is fast paced, easy to read, and a nonstop thrill. There is an exciting climax and a satisfying conclusion.

Don't stop! Grab this book before you head to the beach. Get a glass of lemonade or sweet tea and savor every page of this fascinating story.

[Sarah Miller · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Story about a story within a story… it felt like a telescope that kept zooming in, then out, then back in, then out again.

My head was spinning. Loved it!