Woman in the Library

LoveReading Says

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. 

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen

About Woman in the Library

Winner of the Crime Fiction Lover Best Indie Crime Novel of 2022';A seriously fun read.' - Dervla McTiernan, author of The Murder Rule';Wickedly clever, highly original and thoroughly entertaining I loved it!' - Chris Hammer, author of Scrublands';Sulari Gentill delivers another murder mystery gem.' - Tim Ayliffe, author of The Enemy Within';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.

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