BooksThe Mystery Writer
'A mischievous twist on mystery novels and the people who write them.' - Benjamin Stevenson, author of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone She needs to write the ending ... before she meets hers. Theo has one dream – to become a bestselling author. Determined to make her mark in the literary world, she heads to the US on a whim to stay with her brother Gus and focus on her writing. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she befriends a famous author, Dan Murdoch, at a local bar – and then he turns up dead. Suddenly, Theo finds herself as the prime suspect. As Theo grapples with the shocking turn of events, she realizes that Dan may not have been the person he seemed to be, and there is something sinister going on in the world of publishing. Desperate to clear her name and uncover the truth, Theo sets out on a quest to find out who killed Dan and why. As she digs deeper, Theo uncovers a web of deceit, conspiracy, and hidden motives, with clues leading her to a shadowy online platform called The Shield. With her own life in danger, Theo must unravel the mystery before she becomes the next victim.
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Historical crime fiction and complex meta-mysteries form the core of a distinctive body of Australian mystery literature. Author Sulari Gentill has written numerous novels, including historical detective stories set during the 1930s and layered narrative puzzles that examine the creative process of writing crime fiction itself.
Gentill gained wide readership with her long-running Rowland Sinclair Mysteries before expanding into standalone psychological and meta-fictional thrillers such as The Woman in the Library and The Mystery Writer.
Sulari Gentill was born in Sri Lanka and spent her childhood in Zambia before moving to Brisbane, Australia. She initially pursued studies in astrophysics at the Australian National University before transitioning to law, eventually establishing a career as a corporate lawyer. Gentill later left the legal profession to write full-time. Aside from her literary career, she operates a farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, where she grows French black truffles and breeds miniature cattle.
Gentill published her debut novel in 2010, initiating the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries under her primary name while also publishing the fantasy-oriented Hero Trilogy under the pen name S. D. Gentill. Her career expanded through short fiction collaborations, including audio and print work for the National Gallery of Victoria's Fashion Detective exhibition, as well as non-fiction articles for publications such as Inside History and Southerly. In 2015, she was named Eminent Writer in Residence at the Museum of Australian Democracy.
Gentill's crime fiction spans traditional historical mystery structures and contemporary meta-fictional experiments. Her Rowland Sinclair Mysteries draw upon extensive historical research to depict the political and cultural backdrop of 1930s Australia, following an aristocrat artist who investigates murders alongside a circle of bohemian friends. The series balances period-accurate social commentary with classic whodunit plotlines.
In her standalone works, Gentill explores structural boundary-pushing and meta-narrative devices. Works such as Crossing the Lines (published in North America as After She Wrote Him), The Woman in the Library, and The Mystery Writer feature stories within stories, unreliable framing, and correspondence between characters or authors. These novels examine the relationship between creators, readers, and fictional characters, turning the mechanics of mystery writing into central elements of the plot.
