End of Story
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3.7 • 38 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The brand new edge-of-your-seat thriller from the author of the smash hit No.1 bestseller The Woman in the Window.
'Elegant, absorbing, full of Hitchcockian menace’ Lucy Foley
‘I was mesmerized’ Lisa Jewell
'Brilliantly plotted' Liz Nugent
‘Fans of detective fiction will be thrilled!’ Shari Lapena
A house filled with secrets…
Young writer Nicky Hunter is summoned to the lavish mansion of infamous crime novelist Sebastian Trapp to tell his life story — before his imminent death.
And then a body is found…
Who really is Sebastian Trapp? Misunderstood genius or cold-hearted killer? What really happened to his first wife and young son, who disappeared twenty years ago?
You’ll never guess the secret. You’ll never forget the twist.
What readers are saying about End of Story
'Had me gripped all the way through to the jaw dropping finale!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘Lots of plot twists to keep you on the edge of your seat’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘A great rollercoaster ride of a book’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘I changed my mind about the way I thought the plot would progress so many times, and was still surprised!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘This is a writer who loves words, loves mysteries, and loves weaving the two together’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘One of those books that once finished I want to read from start to finish all over again’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘The whole novel is packed full of atmosphere’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
‘An extremely twisted murder mystery’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Reviews
‘Elegant, absorbing, full of Hitchcockian menace. Once again Finn reinvents the genre in spectacular style’ Lucy Foley
‘A. J. Finn’s new novel is beautiful, intense, beguiling. I was mesmerized by End of Story’ Lisa Jewell
‘Fans of detective fiction will be thrilled by Finn’s latest!’ Shari Lapena
'End of Story is a masterpiece. Brilliantly plotted by a master craftsman who parries words like an Olympian fencer. This is a book for smart people and I must admit that I did not guess the crux of the matter until the same millisecond it was revealed. Normally I know by page 5. It is a vastly superior thriller leaving this reader on the edge of her seat, sleepless and drained, yet charged by the pull of the story to keep reading. A relentless roller coaster ride around the pacific coast drawn so vividly that I was immersed in the story immediately. I absolutely loved it.' Liz Nugent
‘A stiletto-sharp sliver of California gothic, full of San Francisco fog and dark dusty rooms, as a crime writer’s long-hidden secrets slowly emerge into the dazzling light. This is a perfectly crafted mystery, written with a Hitchcock flair for atmosphere and suspense’ Jane Casey
‘Incisive, absorbing, stylish, and sparkling with quick wit, End of Story is a mystery-lover’s delight’ Nita Prose
‘A.J. Finn has done it again. End of Story is a dark, beautifully constructed thriller about a familiy and its secrets where nobody is quite what they seem. A story that draws you in, takes your breath away and, in the end, breaks your heart’ Nicci French
‘A bedazzling, beautiful, masterful mystery. A classic, yet wildly original, End of Story is delightfully devious, hugely fun, and murderously unpredictable’ Chris Whitaker
'A thrillingly Gothic golden age mystery to lose yourself in’ Jenny Colgan
‘Creepy, dark and full of twists – everything a thriller should be’ Sun
‘The plot pleasurably wrongfoots the reader' Financial Times
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In the terrific End of Story, A. J. Finn delivers a classic detective tale that paradoxically unpacks the genre's conventions. It follows Nicky Hunter, a tenacious young woman tasked with writing a private biography for the family of Sebastian Trapp, a famed but reclusive crime novelist dying of renal failure. A guest in Sebastian's fog-enshrouded San Francisco mansion, Nicky becomes an amateur detective when she discovers a woman's body in the parterre courtyard's koi pond. The narrative is as dynamic and dramatic as the grand setting, and the pairing of two crime writers within a crime novel is clever and fun. All of the characters, including Sebastian's second wife, Diana, and his daughter, Madeleine, are fascinating and richly drawn, showcasing Finn's exceptional talent for building internal landscapes. Peppered with sly mystical elements and chock full of shocking twists—including the ending—it’s a highly entertaining read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
Customer Reviews
Give this book a miss
Clumsy not sophisticated