This story uses a library setting and is a twisty story-within-a-story. Hannah Tigone is a writer that lives in Australia and is writing a story about woman from Australia living in Boston on a writer’s scholarship. Her name is Winifred Kincaid, known as Freddie to her friends. She is having writer’s block and goes to the Boston Public Library for inspiration. Once there she is completely distracted by the beauty of the library and by the three strangers that are sitting at her table. As she tries not to make it obvious that she is staring at them, a woman’s scream jolts all of them and conversation leads to introductions.
When a body is found in the library the four strangers leave the library in shock but continue their conversation elsewhere. Freddie soon learns that two of the strangers are also writers and one is studying law. She begins to write a story that includes the personalities of her new friends. When a connection is made to one of her new friends to the woman that was found dead in the library, they all become suspicious of each other.
Hannah Tigone is an established writer and has fans and followers all over the world. One of her fans lives in Boston and this creates another layer in the story. She corresponds with him and his letters start out innocently suggesting locations in Boston that might help her story line. However, his attention and the pictures that he sends to her lead her to become suspicious of him and she reports him to police and FBI in Boston.
Once you begin to follow the characters and story lines, you won’t want to put the book down. It has been described as being a sophisticated mystery with more layers than an onion.