A mystery novelist attempting to find the muse in the Reading Room of Boston Public Library's main branch begins observing the people around her, concocting their intertwined stories. Suddenly, a woman's scream pierces the room and all of the room's occupants are ushered outside. Bound by the scream they overheard, the novelist and the three people she was observing start a fast friendship, based on discovering who screamed and what it has to do with a woman who was later found dead in the library. That's the kernel that starts the book within a book in The Woman in the Library. The rest of the book is epistolary, filled with emailed commentary on each chapter from the author's Boston-based acquaintance (the author is based in Australia, apparently).
While that description may not make sense, the book is well-structured and it's easy to tell if you're reading the book or the book within the book. Unfortunately, I felt like the structure was the most interesting element of the book. We know next to nothing about the author whose chapters we're reading, nor do we know much about her acquaintance, though we're able to pick up a bit as the book goes on. And the book within the book? It's interesting, but not deep. If you want a complex and twisty book-within-a-book mystery, stick to Anthony Horowitz. This one doesn't hold a candle to Magpie Murders, though it made me wish I was reading that again instead.
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