A.J. Finn had a spectacular rise and fall. Now he has a new novel.
If you’ve picked up a thriller in the last five years, you’ve probably seen A.J. Finn’s name on it. But not necessarily on the cover.
Since the publication of his blockbuster novel “The Woman in the Window” in 2018, Finn has become something of a serial blurber, adorning dozens of novels with his praise. “Loved every word,” he said of Richard Osman’s “The Thursday Murder Club.” He declared Alex Michaelides’s “The Silent Patient” “that rarest of beasts: the perfect thriller.” Of Nita Prose’s “The Mystery Guest” he gushed, “Wise and winning and altogether wondrous,” adding: “I was nearly hugging myself as I turned the pages of this splendid novel.”
Meanwhile, Finn’s next novel — the second part of the twobook, $2 million deal he made with William Morrow in 2016 — remained a work in progress. Expected to be published in 2020, the book, “End of Story,” finally landed in stores last week.
The question is: Will it be enough to save Finn’s reputation? Before answering, I need to explain the unexpected plot twist that preceded its publication.
“The Woman in the Window” was a smash hit that put its witty, camera-ready author on the cusp of celebrityhood. The book — a domestic suspense tale about an agoraphobic child psychologist who believes she has witnessed a murder — debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list and went on to sell millions of copies worldwide. Stephen King called it “delightful and chilling”; Louise Penny declared it a “tour de force.” Translated into more than 40 languages, the novel was made into a film with Amy Adams, Gary Oldman and Julianne Moore. It even inspired a spoof, “The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window,” a Netflix series starring Kristen Bell.
But something funny happened on the way to fame. In early 2019, an exposé in the New Yorker portrayed Finn, whose real name is Dan Mallory, as the kind of unreliable narrator you might find in an