A fascinating excursion into crime meta-fiction
The Woman in the Library is Australian author Sulari Gentill’s second excursion into crime meta fiction and, like her most recent Rowland Sinclair series release the setting is Boston. However, in this case the time period is contemporary.
The book resembles a literary matryoshka doll: it portrays an Australian writer, Hannah Tigone, writing a mystery story set in Boston, featuring as its main character another (fictional) Australian writer, "Freddie" Kincaid, who is in turn writing a fictionalised murder mystery inspired by her experiences while undertaking a literary fellowship in the city. One day, while fruitlessly seeking literary inspiration in the Boston Public Library Reading Room, Freddie and other patrons are shocked to hear a woman's blood-curdling scream. She subsequently forms friendships with three other "readers" and together they seek to uncover the horrific truth behind what they witnessed. But could the villain be closer than Freddie could possibly imagine?
Hannah's authorial presence is depicted only via her role as the invisible recipient of a series of emails forming one side of an exchange between herself and a Boston-based fan / de facto research assistant named Leo. Their exchange forms a separate plot line, as Leo gradually morphs from a somewhat gushing Beta-reader into a disturbingly volatile individual who seems to be blurring the line between fiction and reality.
Sulari Gentill skilfully employs a range of literary devices, including foreshadowing, misdirection and the trope, familiar in "golden age" crime fiction, that every character has something to hide. The underlying mystery storyline is enthralling, but just as engrossing are the developing relationships between Freddie and her newfound circle of friends.
Gentill clearly draws upon her own experiences as a writer, via the experiences of both Hannah and Freddie throughout the narrative. I found it a fascinating read - The Woman in the Library is so much more than another murder mystery novel - it's a window into the process of mystery writing itself.
I'd thoroughly recommend The Woman in the Library to any lover of crime-mystery-thriller fiction who's keen to read something a little different and perhaps more challenging than the mainstream offerings.
Sarah, 14/06/2022
