Publishers Weekly
★ 03/04/2024
From its gothic opening image of a woman facedown in a koi pond to its stunning cliffside climax, this spellbinder surpasses the high bar set by Finn’s bestselling debut, The Woman in the Window. Readers are immediately plunged into the world of Sebastian Trapp, a reclusive novelist made rich by a long-running detective series and notorious by personal tragedy. On New Year’s Eve 20 years earlier, Sebastian’s first wife and teenaged son disappeared from separate locations, and Sebastian remains, in the public eye, the primary person of interest. Recently diagnosed with kidney failure and given months to live, Sebastian invites—to the consternation of his second wife, Diana, and adult daughter, Madeleine—Manhattan crime fiction critic Nicky Hunter to move into his Victorian San Francisco mansion while interviewing him for a private memoir. From there, a cat-and-mouse game unfolds as Nicky and Sebastian, both charming but perhaps equally unreliable, chase each other through the labyrinth of Sebastian’s life toward the secrets at its core. Meanwhile, Madeleine receives unsettling texts from someone purporting to be her long-lost younger sibling. Given the grand surroundings and rich array of eccentric characters, comparisons to the Knives Out film franchise will be inevitable, but Finn cuts much deeper. More than a mere puzzle, this elegant symphony of ghosts and fog concerns the nature of storytelling itself—and the crucial art of crafting one’s own narrative. It’s a tour de force. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
Elegant, absorbing, full of Hitchcockian menace. Once again Finn reinvents the genre in spectacular style.” — Lucy Foley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Apartment
“A. J. Finn’s new novel is beautiful, intense, beguiling. I was mesmerized by End of Story.” — Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of None of This Is True
“A thrillingly Gothic golden age mystery to lose yourself in." — Jenny Colgan, New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Skies
“Literary magic – a mystery lover’s delight . . . Absorbing, stylish, and sparkling with quick wit . . . reminds you of something so utterly essential about a truly masterful mystery – that the end is just the beginning.” — Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest
“Fans of detective fiction will be thrilled by Finn’s latest!” — Shari Lapena, New York Times bestselling author of Everyone Here Is Lying
“Compelling . . . End of Story revels in references to classic mystery novels and works clever and unanticipated twists.” — Wall Street Journal
"Finn has crafted a book that is fresh, intelligent and — best of all — delightfully witty. . . . Finn traps us in a maze that seems entirely built of dead ends. When the truth finally emerges, there's only one possible response; Whew. I didn't see that coming. — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"End of Story may be even more confounding and fun than its predecessor. . . . Finn is clearly making a stake as one of the world’s finest writers of complex mysteries, and I cannot wait to see what he has in store for us next." — Bookreporter.com
“A. J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window was a huge best-seller. End of Story is destined to be, too. It’s a mystery more than a thriller, and a tightly crafted page-turner. . . . The ending is a shocker, and you’ll want to read the book a second time to pick up the clues.” — Denver Post
“A real page turner.” — New York Post
“Atmospheric, haunting, and not too far off from fun suspense stories like ‘Knives Out,’ this book will have readers questioning until the very end.” — Huffington Post
"Given the grand surroundings and rich array of eccentric characters, comparisons to the Knives Out film franchise will be inevitable, but Finn cuts much deeper. More than a mere puzzle, this elegant symphony of ghosts and fog concerns the nature of storytelling itself—and the crucial art of crafting one’s own narrative. It’s a tour de force." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Finn is an assured, witty writer with a gift for entertaining description and sharp instincts about how many references to other mysteries he can get away with. . . . It could be dangerous to name-drop Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler and others. Those legends raise expectations and plenty of writers since them have invented compelling situations that they couldn't figure out how to resolve. Finn, however, knows what he's doing. The way he wraps up End of Story is so satisfying that it fits comfortably in that august company.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“There’s something irresistible about this made-for-the-movies tingler. Finn knows how to pleasurably wind us up.” — USA Today on The Woman in the Window
“The rocket fuel propelling The Woman in the Window… is expertise. . . . Dear other books with unreliable narrators: This one will see you and raise you.” — New York Times Book Review on The Woman in the Window
“Superior.” — New Yorker on The Woman in the Window
“As the plot seizes us, the prose caresses us. . . [Finn] has not only captured, sympathetically, the interior life of a depressed person, but also written a riveting thriller that will keep you guessing to the very last sentence.” — Washington Post on The Woman in the Window
“The Woman in the Window is a tour de force. A twisting, twisted odyssey inside one woman’s mind, her illusions, delusions, reality. It left my own mind reeling and my heart pounding. An absolutely gripping thriller.” — Louise Penny, #1 New York Times bestselling author
