Crossing the Lines

Crossing the Lines is a novel that follows two writers: Madeleine d'Leon, who is crafting a story about serious novelist Ned McGinnity, and Ned himself, who is writing about Madeleine as a mystery author. The lines between creator and creation begin to blur as their narratives intertwine. The story operates on multiple levels as both characters write each other's lives while living their own, creating a complex exploration of authorship and reality. Their personal lives and relationships develop alongside their fictional counterparts, leading to questions about where imagination ends and reality begins. The novel breaks from standard crime fiction conventions, focusing not on solving a traditional mystery but on the increasingly complex relationship between these two characters and their written worlds. Its structure and narrative approach earned it the 2018 Ned Kelly Award for Best Fiction. This work examines themes of artistic creation, the nature of reality, and the power of imagination to shape our understanding of truth. It challenges readers to question the boundaries between fiction and reality, creator and creation.

Readers appreciate the meta-fiction approach and the blurring of lines between fiction and reality in this story-within-a-story. Many note the unique structure keeps them guessing about which narrative thread represents "truth." Readers highlighted: - Complex exploration of the writing process - Psychological tension between the two main characters - Unpredictable plot developments - Creative formatting and perspective shifts Common criticisms: - Confusing transitions between storylines - Slow pacing in the middle sections - Some found the ending unsatisfying - A few readers struggled to connect with either protagonist Ratings: Goodreads: 3.9/5 (2,100+ ratings) Amazon: 4.1/5 (240+ ratings) LibraryThing: 3.8/5 (90+ ratings) "Like watching two trains headed for collision in slow motion" - Goodreads reviewer "Clever but occasionally too self-aware" - Amazon reviewer "The literary equivalent of a Russian nesting doll" - BookPage review

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🖋️ Sulari Gentill wrote this novel while simultaneously working on her popular Rowland Sinclair historical mystery series, creating a unique parallel to her character's dual-writing experience. 📚 The book's structure is known as a "frame narrative" - a literary device dating back to ancient texts like "One Thousand and One Nights," where stories exist within other stories. ✍️ Before becoming an author, Gentill was a corporate lawyer and practiced in both Sydney and Melbourne, bringing a precise, analytical approach to her complex narrative structures. 🏆 "Crossing the Lines" was published in Australia under the title "After She Wrote Him" and won the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction in 2018. 🎭 The concept of writers writing about writers (metafiction) gained prominence in the 1960s, with notable examples including John Fowles' "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five."