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A review by mweis
The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill
3.0
*I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*
Sulari Gentill's The Woman in the Library blew me away when I read it in 2022 so I was thrilled to receive an advanced review copy of her latest and requested without even reading the summary.
I loved the set up of this. Theo is an interesting main character and while I never really bought into her relationship with her "mentor" it made sense given the circumstances that she would be involved in solving the mystery of his murder. I liked the tension and was happily along for the ride... until the ending. This book is on the longer end for a mystery novel yet the last 20% uses so many time jumps that the ending felt rushed and left me unsatisfied. While ultimately I think the logic was there, the change in pace made it feel unbelievable because it moved so quickly.
I liked what the author was trying to do by exploring conspiracy theorists and relating the believability of certain conspiracies to fandom around certain books and the parasocial relationship some readers get with their favorite authors in the age of social media. Ultimately though none of that was explored as in depth as I wanted it to and I'm not sure if it's because the ending felt rushed or because of other reasons.
While this ultimately didn't work as well for me as I wanted it to, I still really like Gentill's prose and am interested in seeing what she writes next.
Sulari Gentill's The Woman in the Library blew me away when I read it in 2022 so I was thrilled to receive an advanced review copy of her latest and requested without even reading the summary.
I loved the set up of this. Theo is an interesting main character and while I never really bought into her relationship with her "mentor" it made sense given the circumstances that she would be involved in solving the mystery of his murder. I liked the tension and was happily along for the ride... until the ending. This book is on the longer end for a mystery novel yet the last 20% uses so many time jumps that the ending felt rushed and left me unsatisfied. While ultimately I think the logic was there, the change in pace made it feel unbelievable because it moved so quickly.
I liked what the author was trying to do by exploring conspiracy theorists and relating the believability of certain conspiracies to fandom around certain books and the parasocial relationship some readers get with their favorite authors in the age of social media. Ultimately though none of that was explored as in depth as I wanted it to and I'm not sure if it's because the ending felt rushed or because of other reasons.
While this ultimately didn't work as well for me as I wanted it to, I still really like Gentill's prose and am interested in seeing what she writes next.