"The Woman in The Library" has some striking similarities to "And Then There Were None". Four strangers are working at a table in the reading room of the Boston Public Library when there is a scream. Investigation leads to a dead woman and our narrator, an Australian author working on her novel at that table, tells us that little did she realize that she has been with the murderer. To the reader that appears to be impossible. The four strangers become fast friends even though evidence comes to light that seems to implicate some of them. Gentill complicates this mystery further when we realize that the author is writing each chapter of this murder mystery to an admirer in Boston whose responses become more disturbing as the tale goes on and is actually identified with one of the fictional side characters. Ultimately, "The Woman in the Library" is a less successful novel because the complications and misleading clues are too heavy handed and none of the main characters are particularly likeable. An interesting, twisty tale.
