"An exhilarating, entertaining literary thriller with satisfying twists in each of its tales-within-tales-within-tales."
Clever, compelling, and laced with juicy clues, Sulari Gentill’s Woman in the Library is an elegantly written work of murder mystery magnificence - an addictive game of Cluedo that pivots from death in a library, to dark secrets from the past.
A scream interrupts the peace of the grand reading room in Boston Public Library where four people are working. A woman has been murdered, and a writer - the narrator - who heard the scream uses the incident and her reading room companions as source material. It’s “the story of strangers bonded by a scream”, strangers the writer names Handsome Man, Heroic Chin, and Freud Girl. In the narrator’s words, it’s “a bit like a locked room mystery in reverse… The mystery is about where her body was between the scream and when she was found."
As the four library-mates form close bonds, the body count rises, love blooms, and truth and trust are called into question. Courtesy of the sparky character dynamics, alongside being an un-put-down-able mystery, it’s also absolutely hilarious and thought-provoking as it explores the nature of truth, fiction, and the blurred lines between the two. All of which means Woman in the Library is an exhilarating reading experience that stimulates the brain, heart and funny bone in one thrilling fell swoop.
| Primary Genre | Crime and Mystery |
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‘And then there is a scream. Ragged and terrified. A beat of silence even after it stops, until we all seem to realise that the Reading Room Rules no longer apply.’
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. But Leo seems to know a lot about violence, motive, and how exactly to kill someone. Perhaps he is not all that he seems...
The Woman in the Library is an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship – and shows that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.
Woman in the Library features in the following genres: Crime and Mystery, General Fiction, Thriller and Suspense, Classic crime and mystery fiction, Crime and mystery: cosy mystery, Fiction, Crime and mystery: women sleuths, Book Club Recommendations, Star Books, Recommendations
Woman in the Library is available in Paperback, Ebook, Hardback
Woman in the Library was written by Sulari Gentill and published by Ultimo Press
Woman in the Library has 272 pages
£8.09