The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

5 Stars

“Cat and mouse, cat and mouse, but which is the cat and which is the mouse?”

In an effort to prove I read everything wrong – even the stuff I like – I’m giving The Woman in the Window the full monty of Stars while the majority of my friends experienced “meh” . . . .



Credit goes to debra and Trudi and Melissa and Liz and Deanna and Diane S whose mediocre ratings helped lower my expectations. (Now that I’m done I can go read all of your reviews.) Credit to myself for putting my name on the looooooooong wait list and then nearly forgetting all about this one until it was due to be returned. Braintrust. I is one.

Here’s what I knew before starting: The Woman in the Window was going to be about . . . . you guessed it, a woman in the window. Said woman was housebound for some reason and also liked more than her fair share of the drinky drinky. Same woman would see “something” from her window – or maybe not. And almost everyone thought it was too long and slow-going for their liking.

Now that I’m finished and have read the blurb, I’m actually quite surprised to see it not being compared to The Girl on the Train because really? Not only was this kinda like The Girl on the Train, but it was EXACTLY what I was hoping The Girl on the Train would be like. I am quite pleased, however, to see proper credit given to A.J. Finn’s inspiration . . . . .



I think that is why this one worked so well for me. I am a Hitchcock superfan. Please don’t get that twisted to think I wrote some thesis analyzing his works or know the answer to every trivia question about him. I appreciate Hitchcock the same as I appreciate a book – for the entertainment value it provides me. As a kid I was raised on Hitchcock classics (as an adult I’ve discovered some of the books/stories his films were based on) and they are my go-to films of choice even if I’ve seen them a thousand times. The Woman in the Window succeeds in bringing little snippets of so many of Hitchcock’s films together seamlessly. From the obvious selection . . . . .



Which is brilliantly the one mentioned the least by our leading lady, Anna. To the selection that is applicable in so many cases of an “unreliable narrator” . . . .



To the twists and turns that serve as an homage to . . . .



A reader who isn’t a fan of Hitchcock might easily miss out on some “inside info.” Or they might just think it’s slow because it’s definitely not a roller coaster full of twists and turns. For me, though, it was the perfect mystery. Not only due to the Hitchcockian shout-outs, but also because Anna was a phenomenal unreliable narrator. Bonus was she even had a sense of humor about how fucked up she was . . . .

“I’m running on fumes. Grape fumes.”

It also didn’t bother me one bit to know what was coming. Some things were foreseeable because they were events that followed their movie inspirations and some were just things that an avid mystery-thriller reader is going to pick up on.

Once again, thanks to all for making me go into this with no hopes at all. It obviously worked out great : )