Book Review: THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY by Sylari Gentill. Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press, 2022.
Read & reviewed by Jane Mack, September 2022.
The Basics
Genre: Mystery. A story within a story.
The outer story:
Hannah Tigone, famous and award winning novelist, writes another mystery from Australia. She hopes to get to Boston to do the necessary research to make her novel setting realistic. Leo Johnson, an author shopping his own novel without success, corresponds with her through e-mail from Boston, with details about his writing journey, life in Boston, American colloquialisms, and other comments on Hannah’s work in progress that she is sharing chapter by chapter.
In Hanna’s novel: the story within:
Winnifred (Freddie) Kincaid is a writer. She’s stares at the ceiling at the Boston Public Library Reading Room, where she awaits her muse. In the meantime, she creates character sketches of her unknown table mates—next to her, a young college student with full-arm inked sleeves who is reading psychology. Freddie dubs her Freud Girl. A young man opposite Freud Girl is Classic Hero with cleft chin and rugged features; and across from her is Handsome Man, someone who Freddie can’t help but acknowledge makes her drool.
They are Marigold Anastas, Whit Metters, and Cain McLeod. They form an unusual bond of friendship after hearing a woman scream in terror from somewhere close by. The group relocates to the Map Room, share coffees and exchange introductions as they wait for security clearance after the scream. They are released and there is no explanation for the scream. Perhaps it was a prank. But Marigold is sure they are destined to be friends because they have shared an inexplicable experience.
The next day, Freddie, reads in the Boston newspaper that a woman’s body was found under a table, hidden by the covering. Marigold reaches out and insists the four of them solve the murder.
SPOILER ALERT! This book review contains huge spoilers.
Introduction
We quickly learn that Freddie is Australian, on a Sinclair fellowship, living at an incredible brownstone in the Back Bay area. Freud Girl, that is Marigold, is in fact studying psychology at Harvard. Classic Hero Whit is failing at law school, hoping to avoid going into the family firm. And Handsome Man Cain is a New York Times best-selling author of his debut novel.
We also meet Leo Johnson, eponymously named after the real person. But in the inner story he’s a writer-in-residence on a similar fellowship as Freddie, with a southern accent and Harvard background, too. He was at the Library on the day in question and saw Freddie there, although she didn’t see him. He left before the scream, and tactfully lets Freddie alone when she has that “story writing glint” in her eye.
Initial Developments
In bits and pieces, layer by layer, we get the picture of events and people involved in the inner story. The police found the body of a young woman under a table, hidden by the tablecloth draped to the floor. Marigold is deeply interested in solving the mystery and insists that they all meet up, which they do. Cain reads the newspaper report that the woman’s name was Caroline Palfrey. She was from a Boston Brahmin family, which confuses Freddie. But Cain explains about the elite who trace their ancestry back to the first settlers. Freddie feels the connection in echoes of her Australian life; and periodically goes through homesickness and culture shock.
Marigold is impressed that Whit knew the murdered young woman. She was a reporter at a local magazine and Whit wrote for them in his undergraduate days. Freddie is charmed that Whit is also a writer, although he discounts his work. Freddie studies her companions, especially their smiles. She realizes Americans are quite different than Australians on that account, with ready smiles that go along with their talking. According to Freddie, Aussies only smile and talk at the same time when they’re lying.
In the outer story, Hannah gets Leo’s letters with his feedback, charmed that she put him in her novel! He sends her his manuscript at her offer of help, too. Worried that Marigold is outshining Freddie. Giving tips on Boston weather and how it affects what they wear, how they prepare to go in and outdoors.
Heating Up
Cain sends a gift basket to Freddie. Old lady residents of the brownstone worry that she’s sick, and add an element of humor that comes into play later in the story. Fellow writer Leo plots his current work in progress with lines and strings of relationships in careful and detailed precision. Freddie, in contrast, says she writes free falling. She holes up in her room with her gift basket and writes. Cain interrupts because he’s lost his phone and hopes it’s there. It isn’t. And then Freddie gets a call, with a woman screaming. She’s sure it’s Caroline Palfrey’s scream.
Marigold analyzes and examines Freddies’ phone. She figures out it was Cain’s phone used to place the call with the scream.
Whit gets mugged, stabbed in the back, and ends up in the hospital. Marigold gets him his favorite, odd donuts from a specialty shop. Freddie meets his mother, a powerful attorney with an uncompromising air about her. The detective on the case hones in on Cain.
Outer story
In the outer story, the real Leo Johnson comments on mundane edits like adding the American custom of tipping, and calling it a crank call not a nuisance call. He reports that he passed by a murder scene and took photos, after the body was gone. And he sends them along to Hannah to help her with her dark arts mystery writing.
Plot Thickeners
Inner story
There are many plot thickeners. Cain spent time in jail for murder of his step-father, which is the motivation for the police interest in him. Marigold has a mad crush on Whit. But all of Whit’s attachments seem to be brief, and Freddie worries for Marigold’s chances. Marigold wants a man with a future and good stock portfolio, and Whit is well within her sights. Freddie is surprised that a psychology scholar with tattoos up and down her body has such mundane desires. But Marigold explains that the heart wants what the heart wants. Meanwhile, Freddie is falling in love with Cain, despite her knowledge of his past. Whit, for his part, is less interested in solving the murder and just wants friends. He also wants to avoid his mother’s watchful eye as she mother hens him after he’s out of the hospital. And Freddie keeps getting calls and a message with a photo attached of her door!
In the midst of all this, the police find another murder victim connected to the Library. A homeless man, who sometimes hung out at the Library. Cain knew him, too. He had a short verbal tussle with him while Freddie watched just a while before his murder. The spotlight on Cain as the potential murderer is hotter than ever.
Outer story
In the outer story, Leo continues to send edits about Americanisms and his suggestions for where the story is headed. He also sends more photos: of a man asleep or passed out on a bench, who looked as if he could be dead; of Magazine Beach; and then shockingly, photos of a murder victim disemboweled, that Leo sees just after the police arrive and before the crime scene tape is even put up. Hannah recognizes the dark turn of events in Leo’s letters and notifies the FBI. They initially tell her to stop having any contact with Leo as it does appear the photos she’s sent in are from recent, unsolved murders in the Boston area. She has her attorneys work out an agreement with the FBI at their request to recommence correspondence with Leo and eventually to try to get his photo and his actual location. She does, and Leo accepts her explanation that she had a computer crash that interrupted her correspondence.
Another Twist
Freddie and Cain take their relationship to the intimate plain. The Boston detectives warn Freddie again about Cain. She agrees to get away for a day trip with Leo and two other fellowship scholars at her brownstone. We learn a little more about Freddie on her day trip, that she won her fellowship writing about her own painful experience having her sister killed when they were young and the destructive power of the accident on her mother and father and their family. She gets another call, another scream, and a photo message, this time of Cain’s door. Freddie insists they leave and return to Boston immediately. She notifies the Boston police detective. Cain is nowhere to be found. It’s also clear that only a limited circle of people know Freddie’s number and could have sent her the photos. She makes a list for the police.
In the outer story, Leo refuses to send Hannah his address, saying he wants to spare her the cost of postage, although it would be sweet of her to send him something. He laments the pandemic and its effect on travel so that Hannah cannot come to Boston. He sends her a selfie, wearing his pandemic mask and a baseball hat, calling it his bank robber look. Leo encourages her to include the pandemic in her novel, for “the world is getting darker.”
The Climax
Jolts
There are more jolts. Cain’s name isn’t Cain McLeod but Abel Manners. Another jolt is about Cain’s time in prison and his connection with the murdered, homeless man whose name is Shaun Jacobs and who also spent time in prison. Freddie learns Shaun was a doctor, who could easily stab someone like Whit exactly where he’d cause harm but not murder. Cain had been stabbed in exactly the same way in prison, which put him in the infirmary and kept him out of other harm’s way.
Then there’s news that Whit knew the murdered young woman Caroline better than he said. He’d had a brief romantic attachment with her in the past. Caroline was always sticking up for Whit at the magazine. And that they were working on a story together.
Another shockwave, that Marigold followed Whit to the Library on the day of the murder. Her presence at the table wasn’t random at all.
Cain hides from the police. When he calls Freddie for help, despite all the warnings and revelations, she escapes the brownstone to help him.
Marigold & Whit
Freddie also helps Marigold set up a date with Whit. But when Freddie gets back she finds Marigold angry at her and a mess of heartbreak. Whit ran out on her. Marigold assumes that with Whit gone and Freddie gone, they had a tryst.
Whit shows up later that night and says his mother was attacked, and identified the attacker as Cain. He’s imploded, and now believes Cain has done all the murders. After a while, Freddie manages a face-to-face with his mother, who asserts adamantly that Cain tried to kill her. Whit’s mother wants Cain caught and locked up as a measure to protect Whit. She claims that Cain was the one who mugged and stabbed Whit, too. Freddie doesn’t believe it, but doesn’t argue, either.
The homeless man, Shaun Jacobs
Freddie goes in search of more information about Shaun Jacobs. She finally gets a scoop from one of his friends, the cook at a soup kitchen. Shaun said he came into money recently, knew something about a girl who screamed and made everyone think she was dead. And then she was dead. She got what was coming to her, according to Shaun. Shaun brought the cook fancy donuts, too. From the same bakery where Marigold got the ones she brought to Whit.
Suddenly, Freddie and Cain think it’s Marigold who killed. Possibly she thought Caroline was a rival for Whit’s attention.
In the outer story, the FBI has identified Leo Johnson as Wil Saunders, a former law enforcement officer, who has entered Australia recently. The FBI warns Hannah to be on the alert for him.
Resolution
Cain and Freddie go to see Whit, and warn him that Marigold may be a killer. Only to find out that Whit did it. The plan was for Caroline to scream, while Whit sat at the table with Cain McLeod. And then Whit could get bonded to him and learn his inside story of the murder, and they would write about it and become famous and Whit would escape from his parents’ expectations that he be a lawyer. The bonding worked so well that Caroline wanted a bigger part in the story. Whit killed her in a fit of anger, not meaning too. But Shaun wandered into the library and saw what happened and then blackmailed Whit. Then said he would exact justice.
Whit shoots Cain, and plans to kill Marigold and Freddie in a wild attempt to frame Cain, but Marigold attacks and Freddie joins in, all until the Boston police arrive.
Conclusion
In the end, Whit’s mother advises him to remain silent, and he immediately confesses to the murders. Freddie and Marigold manage to sneak out of the hospital and avoid the reporters with the help of Leo, who shows up to offer his help.
In the outer story, Wil, f/k/a Leo continues to write to Hannah from jail, and sends her a basket of cupcakes.
Thoughts & Analysis
This book is a Whydunit. (See “Save the Cat Writes a Novel” by Jessica Brody). From the very beginning there are the intriguing questions of why-why did the woman scream? why didn’t they find her body? why were the four people sitting at the same table? These questions drive the novel and are fascinating, and satisfied in the closing chapters. And while there is a whydunit in the inner story, the outer story is also a puzzler. What exactly is going on in the correspondence?
There is a darkness to the framing story that is truly frightening. It feels much more real because of the fiction of the inner story. One of the intriguing aspects of the notes from Leo Johnson, a/k/a Wil Saunders, is his questioning about the race of the characters. He assumes they’re white, until he changes his mind and assumes Cain is black. He wants race expressly stated. This is an interesting technique, to use the framing story to reveal aspects of the main (inner) story that aren’t explicitly stated.
The small differences in Australian conversational use and American language use are fascinating and heighten the sense of truth in the story, and build trust in the author. They add opportunities for explication and examination of ordinary things we take for granted.
The pacing is perfection. The personalities of the characters and the light moments (omitted in this review) blend together to make this novel a quick, easy read. There’s nothing much I can criticize in the entire novel.
All in all, this is an excellent murder mystery with psychological twists and cross-cultural references that make it both enjoyable and thought-provoking.