Review: THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY, Sulari Gentill

• 
  This edition an e-book from Amazon on Kindle
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09R41JFYN
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ultimo Press (1 June 2022)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 266 pages

Synopsis (Amazon) 

‘And then there is a scream. Ragged and terrified. A beat of silence even after it stops, until we all seem to realise that the Reading Room Rules no longer apply.’
 
Hannah Tigone, bestselling Australian crime author, is crafting a new novel that begins in the Boston Public Library (BPL): four strangers; Winifred, Cain, Marigold and Whit are sitting at the same table when a bloodcurdling scream breaks the silence. A woman has been murdered. They are all suspects, and, as it turns out, each character has their own secrets and motivations – and one of them is a murderer.
 
While crafting this new thriller, Hannah shares each chapter with her biggest fan and aspirational novelist, Leo. But Leo seems to know a lot about violence, motive, and how exactly to kill someone. Perhaps he is not all that he seems…
 
The Woman in the Library is an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship – and shows that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.

My Take

I have found this novel very difficult to review without revealing too much of the plot. I would rather leave it so the reader can travel on the same journey that I have.

So we have a cleverly constructed plot within a plot, a novel within a novel, a mystery within a mystery. I suspect that most readers, like me, will find this a challenging read.

So I have written my thoughts in a section below, rather than here, with an appropriate spoiler warning, and still trying not to reveal too much of the novel.

My rating: 4.5

 

About the Author
After setting out to study astrophysics, graduating in law and then abandoning her legal career to write books, SULARI GENTILL now grows French black truffles on her farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of Australia.
Gentill's Rowland Sinclair mysteries have won and/or been shortlisted for the Davitt Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and her stand-alone metafiction thriller, After She Wrote Him won the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel in 2018. Her tenth Sinclair novel, A Testament of Character, was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Best Crime Novel in 2021. --This text refers to the paperback edition. 

I've also read

5.0, A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN
4.8, A DECLINE IN PROPHETS
4.8, MILES OFF COURSE
4.7, PAVING THE NEW ROAD

Warning: Might contain spoilers 

Celebrated Australian author Hanna Tigone is in Sydney writing in her latest novel which she sets in the Boston Public Library. Winfred (Freddie) is an Australian writer who has won a Sinclair writer in residence scholarship to live and write in Boston and is living with other scholarship winners in an apartment house at Carrington Square. Among the others living there is another writer in residence named Leo Johnson. 

So we have a cleverly constructed plot within a plot, a novel within a novel, a mystery within a mystery. I suspect that most readers, like me, will find this a challenging read. The story that Freddie is writing is based on a group of people united by a scream. Freddie reveals her story to the others she has met at the BPL and they react enthusiastically, seemingly not realising she will be basing her story on them.

Hannah's novel also begins with the scream. As she completes her written segments she emails her novel off to a fan Leo, who, rather confusingly, is in Boston. Leo provides advice to Hannah about American customs and terminology. Leo talks about the need to give the novel a time frame, to say what colour/race the characters are and so on. He also keeps saying that he intends to come to Sydney to meet Hannah in person. The emails with Leo provide a third plot.

At the end of the novel the author has provided a Reading Group Guide, a set of questions readers might discuss. In the next section A CONVERSATION WITH THE AUTHOR Sulari Gentill reveals some uncanny parallels with the plots of the novel and what was happening in her own life.

I found the discussion between Freddie and the other characters about how she writes her story interesting: she likens the construction to a bus picking up passengers who then determine the direction the action takes. Whereas Cain plots his novel more conventionally, rather like a spider web. 

So after you've read the THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY come back and tell me how you reconciled  its construction.

Review: PAVING THE NEW ROAD, Sulari Gentil

• review copy supplied by publisher PanteraPress
• published in 2012
• ISBN 978-1-921997-07-5
• Book 4 in the Rowland Sinclair Mystery series
• 403 pages
• Kindle version available from Amazon

Synopsis (PanteraPress)

It’s 1933, and the political landscape of Europe is darkening.

Eric Campbell, the man who would be Australia’s Führer, is on a fascist tour of the Continent, meeting dictators over cocktails and seeking allegiances in a common cause.  Yet the Australian way of life is not undefended.  Old enemies have united to undermine Campbell’s ambitions.  The clandestine armies of the Establishment have once again mobilised to thwart any friendship with the Third Reich.

But when their man in Munich is killed, desperate measures are necessary.

Now Rowland Sinclair must travel to Germany to defend Australian democracy from the relentless march of Fascism. Amidst the goosestepping euphoria of a rising Nazi movement, Rowland encounters those who will change the course of history. In a world of spies, murderers and despotic madmen, he can trust no-one but an artist, a poet and a brazen sculptress.

Plots thicken, loyalties are tested and bedfellows become strange indeed.

My Take

This title has sat in my TBR shelves for far too long. In it the author cleverly reminds of what is happening in the world in 1933: Germany rapidly heading into fascism; that there are those who would like to see Australia heading the same way. When Rowland Sinclair agrees to go to Germany instead of his brother Wilfred, Rowland's bohemian friends decide to accompany him. And how else to get there quickly other than in Kingsford-Smith's Southern Cross?

I loved the way some now famous names came to life in this story including Kingsford-Smith, Eva Braun, Hermann Goering and Nancy Wake, just to name a few.

Although the action of the story really is improbable, it makes a captivating tale, and excellent reading.

My rating: 4.7

I've also reviewed
5.0, A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN
4.8, A DECLINE IN PROPHETS
4.8, MILES OFF COURSE 

Review: MILES OFF COURSE, Sulari Gentill

• Published Pantera Press 2012
• ISBN 978-0-9870685-2-1
• Book 3 in the Rowland Sinclair series
• 352 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Pantera Press)

In early 1933, Rowland Sinclair and his companions are ensconced in the superlative luxury of The Hydro Majestic - Medlow Bath, where trouble seems distant indeed.
And then Harry Simpson vanishes.

Croquet and pre-dinner cocktails are abandoned for the High Country where Rowland hunts for Simpson with a determination that is as mysterious as the disappearance itself. Stockmen, gangsters and a belligerent writer all gather to the fray, as the investigation becomes embroiled with a much darker conspiracy.

Murder, Treason, Trespass, Kidnapping, Betrayal... Again, Rowland Sinclair finds himself in the middle of it all.

My Take

MILES OFF COURSE, set in New South Wales in 1933, follows a similar pattern to the earlier books in this series. Rowly is asked by his older brother Wilf to go to the high country, where Sinclairs have cattle runs, to investigate the disappearance of an aboriginal head man Harry Simpson.

Newspaper extracts of the time keep up a running commentary about contemporary events and politics. At the same time it seems that someone may be targetting Rowly himself amid a wave of suspected abductions in Sydney.

The novel is an interesting exploration not only of New South Wales politics but also of current attitudes to women and aborigines. The landed gentry like Rowly's brother Wilf are still very apprehensive about the rise of Communism and overseas Hitler is gaining strength in Germany. Wilf himself moves in social circles who focus on a way of life that has been lost.

Amid this historical detail Sulari Gentill weaves a mystery and gives us more of the background of the Sinclair family.

Most enjoyable reading. The setting feels authentic and the mystery is engaging.

My rating: 4.8

Other reviews:

• Bernadette's
• Sarah McDuling at Booktopia
• Authoraire

I've already reviewed
5.0, A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN
4.8, A DECLINE IN PROPHETS  

Looking forward to reading the next (already published) PAVING THE NEW ROAD, also set in 1933.

Author's website.

Review: A DECLINE IN PROPHETS, Sulari Gentill

• published by Pantera Press 2011
• ISBN 978-0-9807418-9-6
• 354 pages
• Source: review copy from the publisher
• #2 in the Rowland Sinclair series
• Winner of Davitt Award for Best Adult Crime Fiction 2012

Synopsis (from the publisher)

In 1932, the RMS Aquitania embodies all that is gracious and refined, in a world gripped by crisis and doubt.

Returning home on the luxury liner after months abroad, Rowland Sinclair and his companions dine with a suffragette, a Bishop and a retired World Prophet. The Church encounters less orthodox religion in the Aquitania’s chandeliered ballroom, where men of God rub shoulders with mystics in dinner suits.
The elegant atmosphere on board is charged with tension, but civility prevails… until people start to die. Then things get a bit awkward.

And Rowland finds himself unwittingly in the centre of it all.

“I’m afraid, Sinclair has a habit of being in the wrong place every possible time. I would think twice about standing next to him.”
“God forbid, Rowland, you should return home without some sort of scandal… leading some kind of insane cult!”

My Take

In this sequel to A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN Rowly and his entourage have been to Europe and are returning aboard a luxury liner. When the first murder occurs it is not clear what the reason behind it is. It seems that the real target may be the Theosophist leader Annie Besant but then the attacks continue and one victim is a seemingly innocent girl.

Rowly returns home, the central figure of newspaper headlines much to his elder brother's disgust. Wilfred has been hoping the world trip will have settled his brother down. Rowly himself would like nothing better than to be able to return to the quiet life in Sydney and to take up painting again, but Wilfred's son is being christened and Wilfred is determined that Rowly will also take up some familial obligations. Things get nasty when the murderer from the RMS Aquitania makes another appearance.

Once again Sulari Gentill has put together an interesting mix of fact and fiction: 'real' people like Annie Besant, Charles Leadbetter and Norman Lindsay; and fictional creations. The mixture of fact and fiction even extends to the luxury liner she uses as her setting for the first half of the novel.  The Aquitania was the longest serving Cunard liner built in the 20th century and survived service in both World Wars. Although I could vaguely remember reading about Annie Besant, I knew next to nothing about Theosophy and went scurrying off to do some research.

The main characters from the first novel in the series, Rowly's bohemian friends, are all there, and provide a good reason for reading these books in order.

A very satisfying read, good Australian flavour.

My rating: 4.8

Websites and other things to check:

• Author's website
• Read an extract
• review by Caroline Sully
• review from Angela Savage
• review on Fair Dinkum Crime by Bernadette

Review: A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN, Sulari Gentil

• first published Pantera Press 2010
• ISBN 978-0-9807418-1-0
• 349 pages
• Source: my local library
• #1 in the Rowland Sinclair series

Synopsis (Pantera Press)

In Australia’s 1930s, the Sinclair name is respectable and influential, yet the youngest son Rowland - an artist - has a talent for scandal.
Even with the unemployed lining the streets, Rowland lives in a sheltered world... of wealth, culture & impeccable tailoring with the family fortune indulging his artistic passions & friends… a poet, a painter & a brazen sculptress.
Mounting political tensions fuelled by the Great Depression take Australia to the brink of revolution. Rowland Sinclair is indifferent to the politics… until a brutal murder exposes an extraordinary & treasonous conspiracy.

My take

As the 21st century rolls on, and events that made us in the 19th and 20th get further away, Australians are in desperate need of good story tellers whose fictions are firmly embedded in an authentically drawn past. Last year Geoff McGeachin did it for me with THE DIGGERS REST HOTEL set in an Australia recovering from World War II, and now comes Sulari Gentill's series featuring artist and gentleman Rowland Sinclair, set in the period leading up to that war.

A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN is #1 in the series, and now there are two more for me to track down, A DECLINE IN PROPHETS, and MILES OFF COURSE.

Gentill does a wonderful job of embedding her fictional protagonist Rowland Sinclair into authentic historical detail: Australia in the Great Depression; the Premier of New South Wales seeking to distract the people by building a great bridge across Sydney Harbour; and widely disparate political groups who want to roll time back to the 19th century, or to adopt Communism, or to install Fascism.

Coming from a wealthy landed family Rowly Sinclair is caught in a cleft stick between the old values and his friends who have joined the Reds. And then his uncle Rowland Sinclair is murdered and Rowly's quest to find the culprits takes him into the third group.

This was an excellent read: well constructed plot, vividly drawn characters, and reminders of the historical events that occupied Australia's "premier state" in the early 1930s.

My rating: 5.0

Other sites to check:

• Bernadette's review on Fair Dinkum Crime
• Fair Dinkum Crime interview with Sulari Gentill
• More comments on the Pantera Press site.
• The author's site