End of Story by A J Finn

End of Story is the second novel by A J Finn, author of The Woman in the Window. My eldest bought it for me for Mother’s Day this year. He’d asked for a list of books I wanted, then left it too late to get any of them. The assistant in Waterstones recommended End of Story to him. It was a very good recommendation. I’m saying it’s better than The Woman in the Window!

Famous author, Sebastian Trapp, is dying. It is 20 years since his first wife and his son, Cole, disappeared without trace. Many believe he is a murderer – his years of creating literary murders giving him the skills he needed to hide his crimes.

Nicky Hunter is a crime novel enthusiast. She knows Trapp’s novels inside out, as well as the works of Agatha Christie and many other authors. She has been writing to Trapp for several years. Wanting to get his memories down on paper, he invites her to his San Francisco home to spend his last months with him and write his life story.

Trapp lives with his second wife, Diana, and his middle-aged daughter, Madeleine. His nephew, Freddy, and sister-in-law, Simone, are frequent visitors. Madeleine doesn’t want this intruder in her home and Nicky wonders what she is doing there. Staying in Cole’s bedroom, complete with his possessions and a parade of stuffed dead dogs, is Nicky safe there?

Although set in the present day, End of Story has a really gothic feel to it. The house feels about as old and spooky as a house in America can feel, with its strange unpredictable lift and Trapp’s collection of murder weapons. It reminds me a bit of The Skeleton Key – a family destroyed by the father’s books. There are even obsessive and potentially dangerous fans of the books in both novels.

End of Story has a few really good twists. I had some theories as I went along, but they were very wide of the mark. If you enjoy a psychological thriller, I would definitely recommend End of Story.