A review by cwerber
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

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

2.0

The whole narrative within a narrative is usually okay with me...until it's not. I'm not excatly sure what it adds to the narrative of the other story, but this wasn't it. 

One of the characters really made me roll my eyes. Seriously, you've been a stalker sweetheart. It's not loyalty or concern. It's stalking. And then to turn around and accuse the narrator of sleeping with the person you're stalking? Ugh. Sorry, Marigold, you're a bit too much for me. 

And Leo (Freddie's friend or whatever), no. Nope. You're much too good to be true. 

The info we found out about Whit came a little too late. He was also much too charming and I didn't like him at all. But then again, I don't think I like many people at all so that could be me. 

The reader is made to believe that Cain is the murderer from almost the get-go. Shady past; time spent in jail; living on the streets, etc. But Marigold and Whit seem too eager to pin it on him very quickly. 

I guess it brings me to Freddie, our main character and narrator of the story, an Australian living in Boston on a scholarship to write her book for a year. She seemed determined to want to fall in love with Cain. I could see tantalizing glimpses of her life - a dead sister whose death Freddie witnessed - but they were glimpses. 

I take that back, each character could have done with fleshed-out backstories. But there you have it. I should have stopped when I struggled but I finished.  

This book, obviously, wasn't for me. A reverse locked room mystery set in Boston with questionable or naive characters.
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