This was good fun to read! Captivating writing and an interesting premise kept me hooked and I had a great time.

Thank you for my copy.

Very far-fetched but great fun, this mystery thriller has a really clever hook, all centred round the writing (and writers) of mysteries and thrillers.

I spotted some comparisons to The Firm quite early on in the story, but was nevertheless hooked right in and found myself desperately hoping that Theo, Mac and Gus not only survival the conspiracy they become embroiled in, but manage to untangle and resolve their personal lives too.

Mac and Gus are especially entertaining characters and really carried a lot of the action and investigation side of things, while Theo’s role was mainly to stumble into as many bad situations as she can find and then panic and make them worse, but she brought the writerly insider info that I dearly love finding in any book and so I was willing to let her off for being a bit of a blinkered damsel in distress!

Again, the main storyline was pretty ridiculous by the reveal, but the execution of it was very entertaining and made this book a definite page-turner and a stay-up-all-night-to-finisher too! If you’re willing to suspend your disbelief and just go with the flow, then this is a well-written, entertaining and immersive read.

This was a great read, I love murder mystery, and the fact that the protagonist is a writer made it even more interesting. It reminded me a little of Anthony Horowitz, it's a genre I really enjoy. Nevertheless, it's fresh and intriguing and a really good read.

The concept and summary intrigued me and it didn't disappoint! While it's not unforgettable it still kept me up reading way past my bedtime.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for access to an e-arc for review.
This is the first title by this author that I have read and I am officially putting Sulari Gentill on my list of authors I NEED to read their backlist for. This title started of ok but within the first 5 chapters something happened and I became obsessed. I ended up reading this in one sitting. Trust me when I say... I needed the loo sooooo bad when I came out of the hypnotic trance I was in for the duration of this book. The characters were really well flushed out and had backstory without info dumping, The backstory and the impact of past things is a key to the actions and feelings of the characters but then the twists are so unpredictable. Not to mention the moments where you think things have happened when they haven't and vice versa. The characters and plot are as interesting and entertaining as each other in this book and I recommend it to anyone who likes mysteries with some thriller aspects. Is new to the mystery genre and is used to faster paced plots. This is more of a medium pace, but because of the thriller aspects I think it would suit for this reader. I also think that people who like true crime and those who may be mystery readers but are wanting to come out of a reading slump.

This is a unique story and I really enjoyed reading it. There were twists and turns, many which I didn’t see coming. I hadn’t read anything by this author before this book but I would definitely look to read other books by them.

My thoughts: Thank you to @sularigentill for allowing me to be part of your ARC process.

I became hooked on Sulari’s writing following reading The Woman In The Library and when the opportunity came to read this novel I knew I had to do it.

I am usually not a fan of murder mystery novels but there is something about Sulari’s writing that keeps the reader engaged and wanting to know more. She provides excellent characters all with a sprinkle of culpability and every one is a credible suspect.

Whilst this novel did fall slightly into the, too extreme to be believable at times (although isn’t this exactly why we all love reading - to escape mundane reality) I throughly enjoyed the storyline including the guts and gore.

I highly recommend Sulari’s books and I feel she is going to be such a huge name in crime/thriller/mystery books 📚

This one wasn't a favourite unfortunately. The synopsis and beginning held do much promise, but I feel as if it dragged a bit in too many places which left me bored. It took me so long to read due to some chapters having not much happen in them.I’m

I am not a big fan of conspiracy theories and stories surrounding this kind of mindset, so honestly it's my bad. I think other people will enjoy this book but there wasn't much in it that appealed to me personally.

The book intrigued me with its classic story reimagined in a fresh way. It is well-written with well-developed characters, making for an enjoyable read. I look forward to exploring more of the author’s future works.

3.5/5.

I didn’t love this one quite as much as The Woman in the Library but it was still a SOLID read. Gentill has a real style to her writing that just sucks the reader in. Her writing is captivating and I will read anything and everything she ever puts out. Bravo

📚 Book Review

The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill
Ultimo Press, 18th April 2024

Theo dreams of becoming a successful author, so she moves to the US to stay with her brother, to give her time and space to concentrate on her writing.
Deciding to spend each day writing in a local bar, Theo soon meets a famous author named Dan. The pair hit it off and spend most days in the bar together, where Dan helps Theo with her writing.

However, Dan turns up dead, and as the body count mounts, Theo has a connection with each one, leaving the police to join the dots.

This was a really great read with excellent characterisation and so many different scenarios to imagine when the twists occur. Always interesting and leaving me wanting to know more, I found The Mystery Writer to be a compulsive read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thanks to Ultimo Press and Sulari Gentill for providing an eARC via NetGalley,; this is my honest review.

#TheMysteryWriter #SulariGentill #UltimoPress #NetGalley #BookReview #ARCReader #ARCReviewer

I didn’t read the blurb for this so really enjoyed the twists and turns for what they were! So many twists that were almost absurd but believable enough within the world of the novel. Theo Benton moves to Kansas to write her debut novel, but gets pulled into a mysterious literary world with high stakes and a higher death rate. This novel hooked me in early on but seemed to falter in the final quarter, especially around the two year time jump. I feel that it’s unclear throughout the novel how much time had passed and so the time jump felt sudden. Maybe the novel needed to be longer to describe more the gravity of the events in the time jump? Even so, I enjoyed this a lot. Huge thanks to the publisher for the advance copy of this novel (views are my own). 4*

I'm still not sure why the book cover states 'she needs to write the ending... before she meets hers.' This is a book where the mystery writer completes/submits her manuscript to her mentor and its then that things go wrong. This little niggle aside, this was a book that I certainly enjoyed. Initially the side references to comments being made online about conspiracies and how to respond to them seemed a little odd and entirely irrelevant to the unfolding plot but it was worth continuing to read to see where the author was taking us. All began to make sense as the book moved into its second half. This was one of those books that you can easily see being made into a film/netflix thriller - whilst I didn't get a clear impression of what the places looked like, the conversations and places felt real. Overall a solid 4 and I am grateful to NetGalley for giving me a chance to read an ARC.

A unique book.

Theo has left law school in Australia and she goes to stay with her brother, Gus in the US to finish her novel.
She goes to a coffee shop to write and befriends a chap who she eventually realises is actually a very well-known author, Dan and just as Theo is wondering if Dan will be able to help hr with an agent or publisher, he is murdered.
Theo becomes a prime suspect as well as having conspiracy theorists adding to the mystery.

What follows is quite confusing with sub-plots and red herrings all over the place but it kept me guessing the entire time.

I loved the characters and will keep an eye out in the future for work by this author.

This book wasn’t for me, the premise could have been really really strong especially if it had gone down the cosy mystery route of a wannabe mystery writer turned amateur sleuth however I felt that the author was trying to do too much

Theo's dream to become a writer, changes the course of her life. She moves to America to live with her brother from Australia, dropping out of law school.

With her brother, Gus' support Theo takes the time she needs to write her first novel in a local bar, where she meets other authors, until one ends up dead and she becomes the centre of the conspiracy theories.

I enjoyed the pace of this book and the writing style on the whole. The characters had a good depth to them, with some intrigue, which kept me wanting to read.

The book is conspiracy theory heavy, which isn't my favourite, and at first I found a little confusing, but the writing style kept me reading.

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for this ARC.

A young woman called Theo drops out of law school and goes to live with her brother Gus to pursue her dream of writing. Whilst working on her novel in a cafe meets a famous author and over the weeks they become close. However,
When her author friend is found dead in his home she suddenly finds herself involved in a dark sub world, mixed up with conspiracy theories with her life in danger....

I found it hard to get into this book at first as the conspiracy theory storyline is a bit confusing and I found it hard to relate to the main story. However as I read further on it started to make sense. An intriguing  and fast paced read.

I've been backwards and forwards a lot about this novel, and whether my HUGE enjoyment of The Woman in the Library gave me too high an expectation of this, the author's next book.

In the end, though, I have to be honest and say that I found the main character, Theo, utterly tedious. I don't have to like a character to be fascinated by them. But I do have to want to know more about them. I did not want to know more about Theo. From the moment she walked into the bar ('Benders' - what a terrible name) and took up with the creepy old writer bloke ('He's not a writer!' I shouted at my Kindle), I was so done with her.

I kept on reading because the power of the author's writing is so strong. Even telling a story of such a tedious trust-fund "I'll just write a book and it'll be published", moany individual as Theo, Sulari Gentill's prose keeps me coming back for more.

If you are interested in conspiracy theories you will probably love this novel. The second half is as 'out there' as anything I have ever read.

For me, this was a well-written novel that I just failed to fall in love with.

This was a really strong opener but kind of lost pace and my attention - the slightly odd imbalance of power between newbie and experienced writer made the short lived "romance" feel a bit uncomfortable to me. Not for me but hope it finds success with the right audience