The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill

THE MYSTERY WRITER by Sulari Gentill did not quite come up to the high standard Gentill set with The Woman in the Library, but this is an enjoyable mystery which I am happy to recommend. The main character, Theo Benton arrives in Lawrence, Kansas to live with her older brother, Gus, after she abandons plans to obtain a law degree in Australia. Theo wants to write instead and has an amazingly easy time of crafting a novel, with some guidance from an older, more established writer, Dan Murdoch. Things shift rapidly when Theo (and later her brother) are suspected of murder and even hounded by conspiracy theorists (“We Know What We Know”). Fortunately, Theo and Gus have a private detective friend (who is conveniently very rich) named Mac and his survivalist family to help in solving the puzzle of multiple murders and disappearances. The villains were fairly obvious, but the mystery here was more the “why” and the “how” rather than the “who.” In fact, in a section titled “Conversation with the Author” Gentill states that “THE MYSTERY WRITER is about the writer’s place in society and the power of the story to influence behavior.” This title was a LibraryReads March 2024 selection and a Reading Group Guide is also appended for interested book groups.