THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY

3 stars out of 5

How is it possible that I enjoyed a book but never understood what was really going on? I don't have an answer, but this story-within-a-story concept truly left me shaking my head despite the surprising reluctance to put it down. Even now, I'm not sure what was real and what wasn't (ditto the who) - but I'll try to explain it as best I can. To paraphrase Billy Joel, I may may be wrong for all I know but I may be right.

Hannah Tigone lives in Australia; in part because of pandemic-related travel bans, she sends chapters of the Boston-set mystery she's writing to Leo, a Boston writer who has agreed to contribute background information and correct content errors. Enter another setting: Four strangers in a Boston library include Winifred (Freddie) Kincaid, an Australia native in Boston on a prestigious writing scholarship. Their quiet is interrupted by a terrifying scream from an unknown person - female, all four conclude after they begin to talk with one another and form a collective friendship based on that common bond. Then, an actual body is found - that of a murdered woman. 

Okay, correct me if I'm wrong here, but that second scenario appears to be the book Hannah is writing. Freddie, the star of that show, is writing a book herself - and one of her neighbors is named Leo. From then on, chapters shift from exchanges between Hannah and Leo and the four new friends - make that the story Hannah is writing. That story held my interest most just because, I guess, of the whodunit factor (even though, I think, it's coming from a writer's imagination).

I can't say I much liked any of those characters - at least two of which are likely murder suspects - but the action did hold my attention. The only thing intriguing about Hannah's exchanges with Leo, on the other hand, was his progression from the role of editor to control freak. In the end, the whodunit was resolved, although I'm not totally sure whether that happened in real life or fiction (the latter, I think). I spent maybe half an hour after finishing the book trying to make sense of the whole thing, but total enlightenment never came. To be sure, it's cleverly written, but overall it just wasn't my cup of tea (or the awful American coffee Freddie - or was it Hannah - complained about). Still, I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review it.

The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill (Poisoned Pen Press, June 2022); 292 pp.