3.06.2023

finished reading

I'll try not to spoil this head-scratcher of a thriller.  It's a story within a story with some unreliable narration tossed in to spice things up.  The premise is appealing:  four strangers are seated in the Reading Room of the Boston Public Library when a woman screams--joining the four strangers together.  In the mystery component of the thriller, I figured out whodunit early on. 

The book asks exciting questions of the reader:  what is the relationship between writer and reader? What is the relationship between writer and muse?  The story within the story was written during the pandemic, yet there is no reference to the pandemic--which becomes a plot point.

The ending was weird.

From the publisher:
In every person's story, there is something to hide...

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 immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer.

Award-winning author Sulari Gentill delivers a sharply thrilling read with The Woman in the Library, an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship and shows us that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.

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