Book Review for The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan

 

The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan

Published:  November 18, 2025 by William Morrow

Genre:  Dark Academia, Mystery Thriller, Scotland

Taken from Goodreads:  A thrilling dark-academia tale of murder, obsession and ruthless ambition set in remote St Andrews, Scotland

On a frigid, windswept day in Scotland’s Western Hebrides, Eleanor Bruton’s body is discovered on the shore. To her family Eleanor was an ordinary middle-aged woman. She made flower arrangements and plumped kneeler cushions at church. Little did they know she was harboring a dark and all-consuming secret: a scrap of fraying embroidery that seems worthless at first glance.

For more than a century two rival organizations of women have gone to deadly lengths to secure the valuable artifact in the hopes of finding the original medieval manuscript from which it was torn: The Order of St Katherine, devoted to the belief that women must pull strings in the shadows to exercise control. And the Fellowship of the Larks, determined to amass as many overt positions of power for women as possible…so long as their methods of doing so never come to light.

When Dr Anya Brown garners international attention for her translation of the cryptic Folio 9, she is handpicked by Diana Cornish, a professor and high-ranking member of the Fellowship of the Larks, to join the exclusive Institute of Manuscript Studies in St Andrews. Meanwhile at Scotland Yard, Detective Clio Spicer begins a private investigation into the death of Eleanor Bruton.

As all of them grow further entangled in this ancient web, circumstances are spinning wildly out of control and their lives may be in grave danger.

 

My Thoughts:  WOW!  This book had me turning pages, staying up late, and not wanting to read the last page.   I loved the characters, the storyline, and the beautiful setting.   The setting came to life with all the descriptions.  I could picture exactly what Anya was seeing, letting me travel along side her  The characters all had secrets and quirks.  I love that they were unique but still relatable.  The storyline… I cannot say it LOUD ENOUGH…it is riveting.  I could not put it down.  I was worried that there was a lot happening and I would lose track but it was so easy to follow. 

 

Thank you William Morrow for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

 

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Meet GillyMacmillan (taken from her website):  Gilly Macmillan is the internationally bestselling author of eight novels:  WHAT SHE KNEW, THEPERFECT GIRL, ODD CHILD OUT, I KNOW YOU KNOW, THE NANNY, TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH, THE LONG WEEKEND, THEMANOR HOUSE (published as THE FALL in the UK) and THEBURNING LIBRARY, which will be published in the US on November 18, 2025 and in the UK on November 18, 2025 in ebook & January 29, 2026 in hardback.  

A former art historian and photographer, Gilly studied at Bristol University and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She lives in Bristol, UK, with her husband and three children.

Her first novel, WHAT SHE KNEW, was a Target pick, a LibraryReads pick, an Indie Next pick, a Book of the Month pick, an Edgar award nominee, and an International Thriller Writers award finalist. THE NANNY was a Spring 2020 Richard & Judy WHSmith Book Club pick and TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH was named one of the best thrillers of 2020 by the New York Times.

Gilly’s novels have appeared on the New York Times, Sunday Times, Globe & Mail and Der Spiegel bestseller lists and have been translated into 25 languages. She’s been described as ‘one heck of a good writer’ (Wall Street Journal) and her novels have been praised as ‘nuanced, completely addictive’ (People), ‘riveting’ (Publishers Weekly), and ‘visceral, emotionally charged…heart-wrenchingly well told’ (The Daily Mail).