Audiobook Review: The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

The Woman in the Library

by Sulari Gentill, audiobook narrated by Katherine Littrell (CD Gentill)

 

Based on the “jacket blurb” description, I thought The Woman in the Library was going to be a “locked room” mystery — four strangers — Winifred “Freddie” Kincaid, Whit Metters, Marigold Anastas and Cain McLeod — are sitting in the central Boston Public Library’s reading room, when a scream rings out elsewhere in the building. Security asks that the foursome remain where they are while the building is searching, and the four strangers share an extended conversation that turns into friendship…except that one of them is a murderer. I presumed that this was going to be a mystery in which all of the action took place in the library, and the tricky, unfolding story would reveal how one of them managed to commit a murder in the library, with the ultimate goal of revealing who the guilty party is.

 

The “blurb” didn’t lie, but my presumption about the book was incorrect. It is, indeed a mystery novel. In fact, it is two mystery novels in one. The mystery of the foursome in the library is merely a work of fiction — the “book within the book”, written by the The Woman in the Library‘s Australian narrator, interspersed with chapters that take the form of letters from a Boston resident to his Australian writer pen pal, which grow increasingly troublesome. The reader must watch as the plots of both the “library” story and the “real world” story increase their levels of tension, and begin to affect each other’s plots.

 

I’ll have to admit, I thought that the endings of both stories felt a touch anticlimactic, and yet I really did enjoy listening to this one in audiobook format. Narrator Katherine Littrell does a terrific job of bringing Freddie Kincaid to life, and I really found myself invested in the lives of the foursome of library customers. And then the plot of the other layer — the correspondence between the novel’s author and her Boston “friend” becomes more and more creepy. All in all, a fun read, and I recommend trying it on audio!

 

( official Sulari Gentill web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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