Hannah herself doesn’t appear within the novel except for at the end of each chapter, and even then, it’s only in the emails addressed to her, written by Leo, superfan/beta reader. What we are reading, as the novel, is actually the novel that Hannah is writing. Hannah Tigone is writing a crime mystery and is sharing each chapter with her biggest fan, who is also beta reading for her and offering, initially, much needed input, as Hannah is an Australian author writing from a pandemic locked down Australia and her novel is set in Boston, America. The Woman in the Library is a book within a book style of a novel.
The Woman in the Library is stunningly clever in its structure and execution, and it’s this that I’ll talk about more than the actual murder mystery itself. Anyway, this was my first experience of her writing, and I was solidly impressed. I’ll primarily attribute this to not being a reader of series much and she is of course the author of the extraordinarily successful Rowland Sinclair WWII Mystery series. This is my first novel by Sulari Gentill, despite her lengthy backlist. Lucky, I didn’t become a detective! I did, however, enjoy this novel immensely, and I also enjoyed this added guessing game bonus provided to me through my copy, so thanks again to Ultimo Press for their efforts. I guessed wrong, which is not unusual for me as I am notoriously bad at guessing ‘whodunit’ in any crime situation. I was provided with a picture card for each of the four main characters and an envelope to put my card (which was my guess) into. My review copy of The Woman in the Library contained a guessing game from the publicist, whereby at a certain point in the novel, I was to pause, have an educated guess based on the story as far as to who I thought the guilty party was. The Woman in the Library is an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship – and shows that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all. But Leo seems to know a lot about violence, motive, and how exactly to kill someone. While crafting this new thriller, Hannah shares each chapter with her biggest fan and aspirational novelist, Leo. They are all suspects, and, as it turns out, each character has their own secrets and motivations – and one of them is a murderer. Hannah Tigone, bestselling Australian crime author, is crafting a new novel that begins in the Boston Public Library: four strangers Winifred, Cain, Marigold and Whit are sitting at the same table when a bloodcurdling scream breaks the silence. A beat of silence even after it stops, until we all seem to realise that the Reading Room Rules no longer apply.’
0 kommentar(er)
