Nail-biting thriller from the master

End of Story by A.J. Finn, HarperCollins, $36.99 .. ..

.. .. .. .. .. The invitation detective fiction expert Nicky Hunter receives is one she can’t resist.

The sender is reclusive mystery writer Sebastian Trapp and it comes with the words “I’ll be dead in three months. Come tell my story.”

She arrives at Trapp’s San Francisco mansion to be met by his second wife, Diana, nephew Freddy and his daughter Madeline.

Trapp’s first wife and their son, then in his early teens, vanished 20 years earlier — presumed murdered.

No one’s been charged in the cold case although suspicion has always hovered in Trapp’s direction.

Riddled with cancer, he sets out to tell Nicky his story. Why her? The two have corresponded for some time. She’d dared to correct what she perceived to be an error in one of his bestsellers. He claims he admired her spunk.

This is the barest of bones of this second book from the author of the “spooky as” Women in the Window which sold many millions of copies and was a hit Netflix movie.

With that book Finn (a pseudonym adopted by American author Daniel Mallory) set the seal on being a master craftsman in the art of psychological thrillers. It took him seven years to write the end, a book he describes as having many levels. It was time well spent.

In pre-release material he writes: “I want to scare, surprise and move audiences in equal measure. I hope their hearts race even as they break.”

He’s mostly succeeded. The climax is a tour de force. Who’d have guessed?

My one criticism is the first 200 or so pages is a slow burner. There’s a lot of scene setting and character introductions to wrestle with before the plot ramps up and sustains a cracking pace, compounding intrigue upon intrigue.

A must for fans of the genre.

—