The Woman In The Library

The Woman in the Library, by Sulari Gentill, is a thriller around a novelist, working on a thriller that might have a novelist in it…  It gets a bit confusing at a few moments, since there’s the book I’m reading by Sulari Gentill, which contains the book written by Hannah about Freddie, which contains the book written by Freddie, about three characters who strongly resemble her friends… After each chapter of Freddie’s story is written, by an author called Hannah who we never actually meet, a letter from Hannah’s American friend Leo arrives, commenting on and critiquing the story, and then there’s book-Leo, a friend Hannah’s given her character Freddie, inspired by her penpal. (And then there’s the author’s note, in which Gentill mentions her real American penpal…)

Freddie, an Australian writer with a fellowship in Boston, is daydreaming and trying to write in the Reading Room of the main Boston Public Library. It’s gentle, casual writing, as Freddie imagines backstories and brainstorms connections for the three people near her: Freud Girl, Heroic Chin, and Handsome Man.  When they hear a scream from the next room, Freddie and the three strangers she was writer-stalking all start talking and speculating about it. This sparks an insta-friendship, between Freddie, Whit, Cain, and Marigold,  and the first chapter ends with the ominous note that Freddie’s just had a coffee with a murderer.

After each chapter, Leo writes back to say what would make it sound more like American English, or suggest interesting parts of Boston for settings, including a list of hidden real-life locations for Hannah to set her fictional murders. One of his suggestions is that Hannah include the pandemic in any fiction she writes.  I found parts of this eerily familiar, since I spent lockdown in Boston, mostly reading thrillers and taking night walks. I did see new sides of my neighborhood on my pandemic walks, but I mean more like discovering which of my neighbors are secret smokers, not stumbling onto crime scenes.

The Woman In The Library asks interesting questions about fiction in general. There’s one character in Hannah’s novel who refuses to go to the police (Does that count as a mild spoiler? I think the decision about whether to involve the police is a thriller/suspense standard), and Leo insists that means he’s Black. Why else would a character avoid the police? He begins to badger Hannah about spelling out characters’ races, which is interesting development of Leo’s character and his relationship with Hannah, and also encourages readers to think about how they’ve pictured the characters so far.

Without giving away anything else, I’ll just say that the stories both (all?) build nicely, with misdirections and increasing tension. Because the reader is always aware that Freddie’s story is a novel, and a novel in critique, too, I completely accepted any required coincidences, and always felt like tropes were being using intentionally, as a wink and nod to mystery readers.

I really enjoyed reading this one, but I found the ending — literally the final paragraphs — confusing and weird. If you’ve read it too, here’s what I thought about the ending of The Woman In The Library, and I’d love to hear your take too. Obviously, my reaction to the last page has a lot of spoilers, so don’t click until you’ve read the book.