Title: END OF STORY
Author: A.J. Finn
ISBN: 9780008234218
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 432
Source: Private Copy
“I’ll be dead in three months. Come tell my story.”
So writes Sebastian Trapp, reclusive mystery novelist, to his longtime correspondent Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction. With mere months to live, Trapp invites Nicky to his spectacular San Francisco mansion to help draft his life story . . . living alongside his beautiful second wife, Diana; his wayward nephew, Freddy; and his protective daughter, Madeleine. Soon Nicky finds herself caught in an irresistible case of real-life “detective fever.”
“You and I might even solve an old mystery or two.”
Twenty years earlier—on New Year’s Eve 1999—Sebastian’s first wife and teenaged son vanished from different locations, never to be seen again. Did the perfect crime writer commit the perfect crime? And why has he emerged from seclusion, two decades later, to allow a stranger to dig into his past?
“Life is hard. After all, it kills you.”
As Nicky attempts to weave together the strands of Sebastian’s life, she becomes obsessed with discovering the truth . . . while Madeleine begins to question what her beloved father might actually know about that long-ago night. And when a corpse appears in the family’s koi pond, both women are shocked to find that the past isn’t gone—it’s just waiting.
Official Summary
19 November 2024
No, I have not read The Woman in the Window – I think I have seen the movie, but I am not sure. This book landed on my TBR shelf simply because I liked the cover. Seriously, it’s a pretty addition to any bookshelf.
My 2024 Book Bingo card requires me to read a book with bad reviews, for the record, I avoid reading reviews before I start a book, but this time I opened Good Reads and went looking for bad reviews on any of the books on my TBR. This book has been ripped to shreds – so I had my book with bad reviews. Unfortunately, after reading what people have to say, my motivation to start this one was not great.
Now that I have read the book, I can say that while this is not a five-star read or even a four-star for that matter, it certainly is not as bad as some of the reviews claim it to be. Yes, it is slow – but that is normal for most stories where the main character is in their eighties. Well, all the books I’ve read with old characters anyway. So yes, it is not a fast-paced read. The other common complaint about this one was the jump into some surreal settings, that were a little unexpected and definitely have a trippy feel to them. Not quite sure what that was all about. This part of the story was a tad over the top – okay maybe more than that.
However, the story was creative, colourful and delivered a good plot twist. The characters managed to keep you on your toes and at times you were forced to remain focused to keep track of everything that happened. Sebastian Trapp’s speech was unrealistic – who speaks like that? Every time the man opened his mouth, he uttered a riddle. And a large part of the story is made up of Sebastian speaking…..
This book was not an easy read, I opened the cover with a heavy heart after reading what people had to say, and yet I still found myself wanting to finish it. I simply had to see where the story was going.
My recommendation for this book is that you will have to give it a try and decide for yourself. It is a good story, told slowly with a couple of trippy scenes thrown in to confuse you, and loads of references to old-school mysteries. If nothing else, this book will leave you smiling as you wonder what the author and publisher were thinking.
About the Author
Author bio from the author’s site
A.J. Finn is the author of The Woman in the Window, the #1 internationally-bestselling phenomenon published in more than forty languages and adapted for the screen as a film starring Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, and Julianne Moore. His second novel, End of Story, was released in February 2024.
Thank you for visiting the blog and reading my review. While this review is a little out of the ordinary for me, I decided to share my thoughts anyway. I won’t ask that you leave a comment below, I have sadly read way too many opinions about this book. Until next time…. Happy Reading!
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