Sebastian Trapp is dying. In his life he has been a bestselling author of mystery books. He lives in a big house in San Francisco with his second wife and daughter. His first wife and son disappeared decades ago, a mysterious tragedy that no-one has ever been able to solve.
Trapp wants to document his life and he has invited Nicky to stay in his house, to talk with him and write his life story. Nicky feels unsettled as she sleeps in his lost son’s room. From there she can hear the clack-clack of Trapp’s typewriter. She wonders if Trapp has one last great novel to give.
She spends time speaking with Trapp’s daughter and wife who, although give her a cold shoulder, they do open up somewhat to her. Ultimately, both women wish Nicky wasn’t there.
The pace is quite slow as we meet Nicky and listen in on conversations she has with the family. The missing wife and son are a constant in Nicky’s thoughts as she desires to solve the mystery while digging into Trapp’s life for his story. Did Trapp murder them?
It’s not until well into the second half of the book that things pick up with a death. Finn has nods to the great mystery/detective writers in this book and it has the feeling of that style of read. Nicky has studied Trapp and his writing. There is a sense of a literary duel when they spoke together.
Unfortunately, as I read, I found Finn’s sentences were trying too hard to be clever. They slowed me down as my mind had to work harder to process the words. This further affected the pace and reading flow.
I am a big fan of A J Finn’s The Woman in the Window. But this book is quite different. It’s a slow burn but with the added slow reading made it hard work. It wasn’t until the end that Finn picks up the pace and, at that point, I was finally sucked right in. The ending is a total surprise, which was a good way to end the End of Story.
Reviewed by Rowena Morcom
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dan Mallory writes under the name A J Finn
and is the author of The Woman in the Window, the #1 internationally-bestselling phenomenon published in more than 40 languages and adapted for the screen as a film starring Amy Adams, Gary Oldman, and Julianne Moore.
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