Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Mystery Writer

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill

6 reviews

kylieqrada's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I was so hyped to read this after The Woman in the Library, but it didn’t work for me, unfortunately. A lot of the elements were really intriguing to me, but the story as a whole, combined with a lack of copy editing, just wasn’t it.

Content Warnings

mels_reading_log's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

All she wanted to do was move closer to her brother and try her hand at being a writer. But somehow she ended up inside of a murder mystery wilder than anything she could have wrote.

Content Warnings

minimicropup's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This book felt too long and mushed together too many ideas (many of which were great but could have used their own story). By 50%, I wanted to put it down and that feeling never went away.

Energy: Careless. Capricious. Shifty.

Scene: 🇺🇸 Set in Lawrence, Kansas

Perspective: We follow an Australian law student who dropped out of Uni and flew to America hoping to stay with their lawyer brother to work on a first novel. A chance meeting with a famous but controversial thriller writer leads to a mentorship (maybe more) but puts our main character in the spotlight after a gruesome murder.

🐺 Growls: Cartoony action scenes. Repetitive topics and musings. Too much ‘silliness’ in the storytelling style. Theo, her thoughts, her actions, her incompetency…her very being 😂

🐕 Howls: The synopsis is misleading and more of a B- or C-plot. Time jumping ‘lazy’ ending.

🐩 Tail Wags: The first half. Originality. Creative plot ideas. Conspiracy theory doomsday angle.

🤔 Random Thoughts:

Theo was the worst. I’m a sucker for unlikeable characters, but Theo felt like a convenient plot device with her unbelievable damsel-in-distress decisions. She was all inner monologues about how grateful she is for her brother keeping her safe...then she’d knowingly do the most banal idiotic crap, and her brother and his friend would have to rescue her by putting their lives in danger repeatedly. I wanted to push her aside and get to the other characters we were getting too little of.

There’s an escalation of stakes through action and chase, cat-and-mouse survival without knowing the connection or what is happening. Eventually, we know more ( it had a ‘that’s it?’ feel). I hated how we often found things out through repetitive dialogue. The kind where a character reveals something to another character. Then, that character tells the same thing to a different one and so on.

There’s a shift in style and tone halfway through. Whether you prefer the slow bizarro mystery from the first half or the wacky action adventure of the second half, you may feel a little ripped off by the ending. It all ends abruptly when we jump years in advance, switch character perspectives, and are told what has happened since. Like an extended epilogue but full of plot holes and unresolved subplots.

----

🎬 Tale-Telling: A little melodramatic and verbose (lots of dialogue and reflecting).

🤓 Reader Role: Overhearing from the sidelines and sometimes jumping deep into Theo’s mind.

🗺️ World-Building: Simple, a bit gritty, little moments of sensory immersion, but somehow still felt out of place.

🔥 Fuel: First, a murder mystery and figuring out what the bizarre online posts ahead of the chapters mean. Then it’s violence and explosions without context – on the run but not sure from who or why. It settles into wondering how everything will wrap up once we know some truths.

📖 Cred: Over-the-top silliness (not camp), suspended disbelief

🚙 Journey: Struggle chugging spinning wheels, ending in a bullet train blur.

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Gun shots. Squealing tires. Coffee. Breaking glass. Dog barking. Distant footsteps. Keys in the door.
Bizarro cozy mystery meets conspiracy theorist doomsday drama meets PG14 action-adventure

Content Heads-Up: Guns and gun violence. Sexual content (consenting; brief). Threats. Stalking. Medical (intensive care, life-saving procedures). Murder, dead bodies. Sexual assault. Blood.

Rep: Cisgender. Heterosexual. Dark/tan-skinned Australians and White Americans.

📚 Format: Library Digital

My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

Content Warnings

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Narrator Rating: 4.0 stars

Content Warnings

hbarratt1's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

jerichotownlibrary's review

Go to review page

mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

When Theodosia Benton shows up on her big brother’s doorstep with some luggage and an idea for a novel, she’s sure of two things: she no longer wants to be a lawyer, and Gus will always have her back. A chance encounter at Benders, a local watering hole, introduces Theo to a famous writer, who takes her under his wing - and perhaps into his heart.

Just when Theo is at her happiest - contemplating her developing relationship and invigorated by her newly finished draft - things begin to unravel. Theo is drawn into a web of lies, conspiracy, and murder.

The novel shows its hand early in the story. This isn’t necessarily a drawback; letting the reader in on secrets that the characters haven’t quite figured out can add tension and increase suspense. However, the novel treated some of its more predictable plot points as unexpected twists, which impacted the story’s pacing. In the last quarter of the novel, the action winds down for a great deal of exposition about the characters’ pasts,

the events surrounding a 2-year time jump

, and the motivations and methods of the primary antagonists.

Despite the pacing in the final fourth of the book, the central conspiracy was compelling, the characters were varied and believable, and I really enjoyed the meta commentary on the publishing industry. As an American, I also appreciated the Australian perspective on American culture and gun laws. (Both the author and the protagonist are Australian.) Readers who love books about books, red herrings, and intricate conspiracy theories will likely enjoy this literary thriller. Overall, an enjoyable, layered mystery with well-developed, believable characters.

Thank you to Sulari Gentill, Net Galley, and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with a digital advanced reader copy of this book. I look forward to reading more of Gentill's work in the future (and to exploring her back catalogue)!

Content Warnings

More...