Book Review: End of Story | A. J. Finn

Since his juggernaut of a debut, I think many of us have been looking forward to seeing what A. J. Finn would publish for his sophomore novel. Finn’s first book, The Woman in the Window, was by all definitions a success. It took the literary world by storm, quickly rising to Gone Girl level buzz. It introduced plenty of people who identified as casual readers to the love of the psychological thriller and a killer twist. His second novel debuted in early 2024, and I found End of Story to be a different but no less exciting direction for Finn. In every way that his first book was a psychological thriller with commercial appeal, his second book is an expertly-plotted literary thriller that proves Finn’s talent as a writer.

The rise and fall of A. J. Finn was almost as shocking as one of his plots. I won’t get into the details of the scathing New Yorker article, but I do think that learning more about Finn’s personal story—the article felt not exactly untrue, but unnecessarily cruel and colored by (understandable) personal bias. Add to that Finn’s undeniable major commercial success, the article was over-sensationalized and took advantage of the opportunity to go viral because of Finn’s popularity. The accusations paint Finn as the exact type of unreliable narrator he writes about, but Finn (and later his psychiatrist) shared his own mental health struggles with bipolar disorder that have plagued him his entire adult life. For those of you who have friends or loved ones who struggle with mental illness, the fear of how people will respond (particularly because these very diseases can cause people to question one’s ability to do their job) is undeniably real.

Regardless, let’s set that aside and focus on the delivery of a book that proves Finn to be one of the greatest literary talents of this generation. If you’ve ever wondered what books from contemporary writers will be considered classics in fifty to one hundred years, End of Story is sure to be one.

What’s End of Story about?

The story opens with acclaimed and reclusive author Sebastian Tripp inviting reporter Nicky Hunter to his storied, gothic, San Francisco mansion. The famed mystery writer shares that he is dying, and he wants to have someone tell his story before he goes. Nicky is taken aback by the request, though she and Sebastian have exchanged correspondence for years. He is looking for a writer who he knows can do his story justice and will go into their book with good intent.

Sebastian Tripp is best known for his compelling mystery novels featuring a Hercule Poirot-esque detective named Simon St. John. Tripp is known among literary critics as a “champion deceiver” for his expertly crafted mysteries and well-timed twists that blow the case wide open. Tripp may be most famous for his best-selling mysteries, but second only by a small margin are the tragedy and scandal that surround him.

Twenty years earlier, Tripp’s first wife Hope and his son Cole disappeared. Even more bizarre, they disappeared from seemingly two different locations on the same night. The mother and son were presumed dead when no sightings were reported. In the wake of their shocking disappearance, gossip and speculation ran wild. The rumors gained more traction when Sebastian married his second wife, Diana, not long after the disappearance. To add fodder to the gossip, Diana was his wife Hope’s assistant prior to her disappearance.

Nicky moves into the bizarre and often creepy mansion while she works on writing Tripp’s story. Also present in the house are his second wife Diana, his nephew Freddy, and his daughter Madeleine. Diana’s coolness is matched only by Madeleine’s bitter and combative disposition and Freddy’s overly friendly one. As Nicky begins to dig into Sebastian’s past, it’s clear she is ruffling feathers. When someone is murdered, Nicky finds herself in the middle of a whodunnit that could appear in one of Sebastian’s mysteries. The world has spent two decades wondering if Sebastian pulled off a perfect crime the night his wife and son disappeared. Now, Nicky wonders whether there is a killer nearby desperate to keep Sebastian’s story quiet, or if Sebastian pulled off a second perfect crime?

Is End of Story similar to The Woman in the Window?

Before I get into my thoughts, I already know what comparison many will draw between the two books. This is now the second novel where Finn has written a character who does not leave the house (though I would argue reclusiveness and agoraphobia are remarkably different psychologically speaking). As a slight tangent, I wondered if Finn resonates with these two conditions due to his own personal struggles. It’s interesting that both of his books have a claustrophobic setting as a major plot point. However, if you’re worried this will be a rehash of The Woman in the Window, don’t be. I actually think some reviewers would have preferred it, because they were looking for a book that delivered the same narrative style and commercial appeal as The Woman in the Window, and this is a different (but no less gripping) book.

Is End of Story good?

One of the more impactful parts of End of Story is how much the reader is kept in the dark as to what the true nature of the mystery is. We are not unlike Nicky herself, coming into Sebastian Tripp’s dark and brooding mansion unsure of what to expect and the true purpose of our summons. I saw another reviewer liken the setting and story to the sort of story Charlotte Brontë would write if she had access to a laptop and social media. I couldn’t say it better myself!

While The Woman in the Window heightened the tension nearly from the very first page, End of Story is the opposite. It’s a spider luring us into its web without us realizing it. Don’t expect to understand what type of story you’re in for the first one hundred or so pages. In a vast landscape of psychological suspense novels that rely on outlandish twists, soapy relationships, and reused tropes, End of Story stands boldly in front with its clever plotting and expertly crafted mystery that delivers a perfectly-timed twist.

Subtly provocative and boldly intelligent, End of Story also delivers poignant prose that has a playfulness and wittiness that is as unexpected as it is refreshing. As with The Woman in the Window, the book is filled with nods to great mysteries and renowned crime fiction that are woven seamlessly throughout the narrative. The first portion of the book is devoted largely to building the atmosphere and setting surrounding Sebastian Tripp and the mysteries that follow him like a shadow. Unsettling characters and eerie events begin to stack up, until the true nature of the mystery becomes clear with terrifying reality.

Finn’s instincts as a writer are sharp. He is able to reference many of the great writers throughout history as inspiration (Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie) and craft a mystery that aspires to be as compelling as theirs, and actually delivers on it (something that many writers before have failed to do). The characters are all carefully developed to evolve before the reader’s eyes throughout the novel.

Many writers struggle to create effective villains. Their villains either reveal themselves too soon or not soon enough, making their identification as the villain jarring and at odds to how they were portrayed through the rest of the book. Finn’s are the opposite. Every character is complex and layered. As each is fleshed out and new attributes are revealed, they have an authenticity to them that makes the execution of the final reveal pack a powerful punch.

I’d describe End of Story as one of those novels that is part experience, part story. It’s a book that the reader continues to pick up on new revelations planted throughout the story. It’s a long book, but there isn’t a single line of dialogue that is extraneous or unnecessary. True to it’s title, the end of the story is fatal and brilliant. It’s an ending you’ll never see coming but that reframes the entire experience reading the story in a way that makes perfect sense.

My final advice? Read this book. Set aside the time to invest in reading it and soaking up the incredibly detailed and complex mystery Finn has crafted. The story is absolutely beguiling—it’s beautiful and fatal in equal measure.

What should you read next?

About the Book | End of Story

“I’ll be dead in three months. Come tell my story.”
So writes Sebastian Trapp, reclusive mystery novelist, to his longtime correspondent Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction. With mere months to live, Trapp invites Nicky to his spectacular San Francisco mansion to help draft his life story . . . living alongside his beautiful second wife, Diana; his wayward nephew, Freddy; and his protective daughter, Madeleine. Soon Nicky finds herself caught in an irresistible case of real-life “detective fever.”

“You and I might even solve an old mystery or two.”
Twenty years earlier—on New Year’s Eve 1999—Sebastian’s first wife and teenaged son vanished from different locations, never to be seen again. Did the perfect crime writer commit the perfect crime? And why has he emerged from seclusion, two decades later, to allow a stranger to dig into his past?

“Life is hard. After all, it kills you.”
As Nicky attempts to weave together the strands of Sebastian’s life, she becomes obsessed with discovering the truth . . . while Madeleine begins to question what her beloved father might actually know about that long-ago night. And when a corpse appears in the family’s koi pond, both women are shocked to find that the past isn’t gone—it’s just waiting.