The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn, Book Review

Watching, being watched … observations that prove dangerous or even deadly – it’s all the rage in current crime literature. The Woman in the Window puts a whole new spin on ‘neighbourhood watch’. Imagine a woman with extreme agoraphobia, whose contact with the outside world is limited to her telephone, computer and binoculars. And perhaps this woman doesn’t only have agoraphobia, but perhaps she has a drink problem and is a bit unstable in other ways too. Now, if she told you she had seen something strange through her binoculars, you wouldn’t know whether or not to believe her, would you? Especially if that strange thing is a murder. To complicate matters, there is no body, no bloody knife or anything in fact that would point to the possibility that a murder has been committed. Not even a missing person. 

The narrator is in charge of the story, that’s the deal, and the reader has to decide what is true. My grandmother always told great stories, but we all knew to take them with a pinch of salt, as she was an expert with hyperbole. She might not have known about poetic license intellectually, but she used this device instinctively to full effect.  

Back to our protagonist, Dr Anna Fox, said agoraphobic alcoholic. How much do her observations and stories rely on poetic license? How much is alcohol and drug induced? That’s the challenge for the local police officers and the reader. 

And then there is a twist. What happens when the watcher becomes the watched? Did Anna Fox really get a photo emailed to her – one which was supposedly taken of her in her bedroom while she was sleeping? This is a thriller about shifting realities and unreliable witness. The protagonist’s mind is unravelling, bit by bit. Is her life really at stake or only her sanity?

The Woman in the Window, A. J. Finn’s debut novel, was published by Harper Collins in January 2018. Finn (a pseudonym for Daniel Mallory) is an American author and former book critic. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the Times Literary Supplement.