Plot twists in murder mystery will keep you guessing

When the first chapter ends with the sentence “… And so we go to the Map Room to found a friendship, and I have my first coffee with a killer,” “The Woman in the Library” is off and twisting.

This story within a book, within a book, has more turns and character changes than anyone suspects. I truly enjoyed reading about the letters exchanged by the “author’s” number one fan about the book being written, and I found myself trying to figure out what was the main plot.

Four strangers, Heroic Chin (Whit Metters), Freud Girl (Marigold Anastas), Handsome Man (Cain McLeod), and Freddie (Winifred Kincaid), all end up sitting at the same table in the Boston Public Library Reading Room. When a scream is heard and they are asked to temporarily stay in their seats, conversation begins, names are exchanged and the fact that Cain and Freddie are both writers comes to light. They soon move to a new location for coffee and more discussions about what had brought them all together. We discover Freddie is a Sinclair scholarship student from Australia and is working on a novel. Cain is a published author, with a dark background. Marigold is studying psychology at Harvard. Whit, who is in law school, is trying his hardest to fail so he will not have to join the family firm. During this same time, we also meet Leo Johnson, who is a fellow Sinclair winner, who weaves his way in and out of Freddie’s life.

Soon it is discovered the scream had to do with the murder of a wealthy, young woman who worked for The Rag, a local tabloid. The police are calling it murder, so now everyone begins to speculate and connections begin to be discovered. Someone knew the murdered woman, someone has a murderous past, and someone is a borderline stalker. Still someone else seems to be drawn into everyone’s lives and thrown into the middle of a plot that was started long before this foursome met. You might need a scorecard because things happen fast and the shocks keep coming. This part of the story has multiple twists and turns, and it is often hard to decide who is being honest and who is trying to stir up trouble. But if you are like me, that is part of what makes a mystery interesting. This will all culminate in a shocking conclusion after many false leads, and I’m still not sure if it was totally satisfying.

However, while all this is going on, each chapter contains a letter from Leo, a fan and apparently story critiquer for the famous author, Hannah Tigone. He lives in Boston and is a struggling writer who believes he is giving guidance and encouragement to Hannah as she writes from her home in Australia. Things seem pretty normal but quickly change. Leo references Hannah’s trip stateside being canceled due to the ongoing pandemic. He also talks about fires and other weather issues that are happening in Australia. He is easily agitated when she seems to not follow his advice, and soon his letters take a darker turn. All of this is occurring simultaneously with the plot of the four young adults and the murder investigation in Boston. The ending to this portion of the book will certainly get your attention.

As a good reader wants to do, trying to figure out which plot is the book, which story is the true one and whether they are all one in the same, will keep you reading. It will also make it hard to put the book down, because you are sure the next chapter will be the one that answers all the questions.

Good luck getting a good night’s sleep once you start “The Woman in the Library” by Sulari Gentill.

Donna Loehner is the children’s programming associate at the Missouri River Regional Library.