Woman In The Library - Sulari Gentill

Mystery

Rating: 8.5/10

Four strangers sitting around a table in a library reading room are inexorably bound when they hear a woman’s terrified scream.  Asked to stay put while security investigates, they break a cardinal rule of library etiquette; they start to chat. 

Once told by security all is well, they decide to go for coffee and thus new friendships are swiftly formed.  However, they soon discover that all is not well; a woman was found dead in the library.  Turns out that each of them has a particular reason to be there that day and that one of them might be the killer.

Our narrator, Winifred, is an author who was at the library seeking inspiration for her next book. While awaiting an epiphany, she began to sketch out backstories for each of these strangers. As she fleshed them out, she realizes this is the perfect plot for a book and casts her new friends as characters. 

Alongside this unfolding story within a story, our narrator is receiving letters from a fellow writer she is sharing her work with.  One whose advice starts off understated, turns to aggressive and demanding and eventually becomes sinister. Another device cleverly employed by the author to keep the reader on their toes.

The predicament, if you are inclined to call it that, is that we never know what is real or imagined. Even upon completion of the book I am not sure what and who were real and what may have been a figment of the narrator’s vivid imagination.  

Don’t get me wrong, that’s a puzzle I’m happy to leave unsolved.

And yes, I understand that none of it was “real”.

Thanks to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, Sourcebooks, Inc and the author for the advanced readers copy.

Book Pairing(s): ): Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi, Lying Game by Ruth Ware, I Let You Go by Clare MacKintosh