In the High Peaks
















Monday, June 27, 2022

The Woman in the Library and Trailed: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders

 

     I thoroughly enjoyed both my 5th and 6th books from my 20 Books of Summer List. The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill, an Australian mystery novelist, is set in Boston (and Cambridge), particularly in Back Bay, a beautiful part of the city known for its Victorian brick and brownstone townhouses with a few mansions thrown in for good measure. Back Bay has always been an upscale neighborhood. It’s close to the Boston Public Library, a gorgeous building, and it’s there that the first scenes of the book take place. Four supposed strangers meet in the venerable Reading Room of the research library, and become quickly connected after they hear a woman’s piercing scream outside the Reading Room. One of the four is Winifred (Freddie), an Australian novelist who is lucky enough to travel to Boston via a fellowship that allows her to reside in a beautiful building in Back Bay. This story is a mystery within a mystery. The relationships among the four “sleuths” are lively and fun to watch unfold. I recommend it. 

     Some of you may know Sulari Gentill as the author of the Rowland Sinclair series of mysteries set in 1930s-early 1940s Australia. I don’t know if they are published here or not.

     My 6th read was a new book of true crime, Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by the journalist Kathryn Miles. In 1996, two highly skilled wilderness hikers, both young women, were brutally murdered in the Shenandoah National Park (two hour’s drive west of Washington, D.C.) The case has never been definitively solved. Miles’s research found that the majority of reported murder and rape victims in national wilderness areas are female, despite the fact that women are a minority of backcountry travelers.

     Miles makes an undeniably plausible case that the man believed to have committed the murder of these two women is innocent of the crime, and posits another man, a serial killer, who was never connected to this case. The backstory of the two women’s lives was fascinating. I was also very interested to learn more about how the science of forensics has changed over the past 26 years and how it has not. The story of the FBI’s mis-handling of the case was well portrayed and infuriating, but Miles does make a strong case that federal, state, and National Park Service forces are seriously under-funded and under-staffed, and also suffer from woefully insufficient training. I was quite awed by much that she brought to light and the research and writing was excellent. I think much of my interest in this book stems from my keen interest in wilderness areas.

8 comments:

  1. Hi Judith,

    I hadn't heard of Trailed, but I do loved these kinds of stories so I'm happy you blogged about it. I have both the audio an eBook of The Woman in the Library on my reserves list. This book has been getting very good reviews so, I'm happy to read you liked it as well. You are on a roll with your summer reads.

    I just finished The Midcoast and although it started slow and rambled, I found it very good overall. I also finished The Hotel Nantucket and liked it. No reviews yet but both 4/5 stars for me.

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    1. I'm so glad to hear that you liked The Hotel Nantucket--maybe I should give it another try. And I'm especially happy to hear that The Midcoast was a good read for you. You know, the "rambling" that you mention; in my head it was a quality that showed perhaps the author's lack of confidence in his writing. That sort of shambling, whether in speech or in print, sometimes comes from a lack of self-assurance. But he has tremendous promise, I think, if he continues writing.

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  2. I've been hearing a lot about The Woman in the Library so I'll be getting that at some stage. And I'm rather interested in Trailed. Back in April I read, True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Disappearance of Maura Murray about the dissappearance of a student in New Hampshire. I don't really read true crime books but found that one quite fascinating, so I might like Trailed I think. I'm quite attracted to anything connected to your NPs.

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    1. Hi Cath,
      Thank you for your mention of True Crime Addict. Because you found it fascinating, I will look it up. I'm not into the true-crime genre generally, but because I learned so much from Trailed, I am more interested than I was before I read it. I do think, Cath, that based on your interests, you might find this one interesting. I should have mentioned in my post that The Appalachian Trail goes right through much of the Shenandoah National Park.

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  3. I want to read The Woman in the Library also. I still have new hardback books I purchased in 2020 and 2021 unread, so I am trying to put that one off for a while, but I am very tempted.

    I believe that the Rowland Sinclair mysteries are published by the Poisoned Pen Press in the US. I have read the first one, years ago, before they were published here.

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  4. Hi Tracy,
    That makes sense, because The Woman in the Library was published by Poisoned Pen Press as well. I hope you get a chance to try this one.
    I'm sort of wondering what you thought of the first Rowland Sinclair mystery...

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  5. Cath and I are in Cornwall and she reminded me to put The Woman in the Library on reserve so that it will be waiting for me when I get home.

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    1. I'm so glad to hear that you two were able to get together--how I wish I'd been there! Cornwall is one of my all-time favorite places. I've been twice, but never for more than a few days each time.

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