The Woman in the Window
A J Finn
Published -2018
Pages- 427
A mystery thriller that won’t send your heart racing but one that you will race to finish, not precisely ‘unputdownable’ but one you will not like to put down.
In a road accident Dr (Mrs) Ann Fox suffers a severe spinal injury, and is confined to her bungalow in an upper-end neighbourhood in Harlem . The trauma also leaves her with a psychological condition – agoraphobia, a range of anxiety disorders that manifests ,inter alia, in fear of stepping out of home. Bina ,the physiotherapist, weekly visits her for physio sessions, and Dr Fielding, psychologist, administers online consultation to control her agoraphobia. In the basement lives the tenant, David who is mostly out doing odd jobs.
She lives alone and whiles time pouring large libations of wine to herself, watching Hitchcockian suspense and mystery movies, offering free online consultancy to psychologically traumatized patients, and ,most importantly for the storyline, espying on neighbours.
From the window of her study Ann espies Jane Russell, wife of Alistair, mother of Ethan, bleeding with a silver handle embedded in her chest in the living room of house no 207 across the park. She calls the cops. They don’t believe her story. The anti-depressant drugs she was taking has hallucinogenic side effects hence her testimony is not to be relied upon. And the story takes off with riveting twists and turns between what is real and what imagined.
The book manages to keep the reader hooked. It has all the ingredients that go into creating the surround of suspense heightened by flawed characters and doling out of clues in driblets. However, at many points I was seized by a sense of déjà vu. Hadn’t I read something similar somewhere and the plot begins to look increasingly like a new filigree woven from familiar episodic strands.
All in all, a thriller that straddles the line between ‘well’ and ‘swell’, yet indubitably an engrossing and enjoyable read.
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