The Woman in the Window (novel): Difference between revisions
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'''''The Woman in the Window''''' is a thriller novel by [[Dan Mallory]] writing under the [[pen name]] "A. J. Finn". |
'''''The Woman in the Window''''' is a thriller novel by [[Dan Mallory]] writing under the [[pen name]] "A. J. Finn". |
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==Plot Summary== |
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Anna Fox suffers from agoraphobia due to a traumatic car accident and lives a reclusive life. She has recently separated from her husband, who has custody of their daughter, but they frequently talk on the phone. |
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When the Russell family moves in across from her home, Anna meets each member of the family: Ethan, a reserved and polite son; Alistair, a controlling father; and Jane, a friendly woman with whom Anna shares many interests. Anna and Jane spend an evening together playing chess and drinking wine. |
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One evening, while looking out the window, Anna witnesses Jane being stabbed and calls the police. The Russells deny any sort of attack took place. The police don't believe Anna's story as Jane is alive and uninjured, but Anna insists the woman claiming to be Jane is not the same woman she meet before. |
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Anna has a number of encounters with the Russells and becomes more convinced that something is suspicious about them. After Anna receives an anonymous email with a picture of herself sleeping, she calls the police believing someone is in her home. |
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A detective confronts Anna with a tragic truth: that her husband and daughter died in the car accident which triggered her agoraphobia, and that she has been imagining her conversations with them. Knowing her medications can cause hallucinations, they discount her evidence of the murder as coincidences and theorize that Anna could have taken the picture and emailed it to herself. Anna realizes that the murder may have been a hallucination as well. |
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After finding the picture of herself sleeping on her phone, Anna finds a picture she had taken of the "Jane" she met and shows it to Ethan. He breaks down and tells her the truth of the situation: Jane and Alistair are his adoptive parents, and Katie, the woman who Anna assumed was Jane, is his biological mother. Katie tracked the family down in order to see her son again, but her frequent and unwanted visits led to an altercation with Jane which resulted in Katie being stabbed. Alistair and Jane hid the body and lied to the police. |
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Anna urges Ethan to talk to the police, but he convinces her that he will talk his parents into turning themselves into the police. Ethan later sends a text confirming he and his parents are going to the police. |
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That night, Anna realizes that Ethan mentioned something before that he couldn't have known. She is startled by Ethan's presence in her room where he confesses that he has psychopathic tendencies, that he has been sneaking into her home at night to watch her, and that he has stalked other women as well. Ethan also reveals that he was the one who killed Katie because of his resentment about the abuse and neglect he faced as a child under her care, and that his father knew, but kept it a secret to protect Jane. |
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Realizing that he intends to kill her as well, Anna catches Ethan off-guard, attacks him, and flees. He pursues her to the roof where, after a brief struggle, she pushes him through an old skylight to his death. |
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Alistair is arrested as an accessory to Katie's murder, and Anna slowly begins to rebuild her life. |
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==Reception== |
==Reception== |
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Revision as of 16:10, 30 August 2020
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (February 2019) |
| Author | Dan Mallory writing as A. J. Finn |
|---|---|
| Published | January 2, 2018 |
| Publisher | William Morrow[1] |
The Woman in the Window is a thriller novel by Dan Mallory writing under the pen name "A. J. Finn".
Plot Summary
Anna Fox suffers from agoraphobia due to a traumatic car accident and lives a reclusive life. She has recently separated from her husband, who has custody of their daughter, but they frequently talk on the phone.
When the Russell family moves in across from her home, Anna meets each member of the family: Ethan, a reserved and polite son; Alistair, a controlling father; and Jane, a friendly woman with whom Anna shares many interests. Anna and Jane spend an evening together playing chess and drinking wine.
One evening, while looking out the window, Anna witnesses Jane being stabbed and calls the police. The Russells deny any sort of attack took place. The police don't believe Anna's story as Jane is alive and uninjured, but Anna insists the woman claiming to be Jane is not the same woman she meet before.
Anna has a number of encounters with the Russells and becomes more convinced that something is suspicious about them. After Anna receives an anonymous email with a picture of herself sleeping, she calls the police believing someone is in her home.
A detective confronts Anna with a tragic truth: that her husband and daughter died in the car accident which triggered her agoraphobia, and that she has been imagining her conversations with them. Knowing her medications can cause hallucinations, they discount her evidence of the murder as coincidences and theorize that Anna could have taken the picture and emailed it to herself. Anna realizes that the murder may have been a hallucination as well.
After finding the picture of herself sleeping on her phone, Anna finds a picture she had taken of the "Jane" she met and shows it to Ethan. He breaks down and tells her the truth of the situation: Jane and Alistair are his adoptive parents, and Katie, the woman who Anna assumed was Jane, is his biological mother. Katie tracked the family down in order to see her son again, but her frequent and unwanted visits led to an altercation with Jane which resulted in Katie being stabbed. Alistair and Jane hid the body and lied to the police.
Anna urges Ethan to talk to the police, but he convinces her that he will talk his parents into turning themselves into the police. Ethan later sends a text confirming he and his parents are going to the police.
That night, Anna realizes that Ethan mentioned something before that he couldn't have known. She is startled by Ethan's presence in her room where he confesses that he has psychopathic tendencies, that he has been sneaking into her home at night to watch her, and that he has stalked other women as well. Ethan also reveals that he was the one who killed Katie because of his resentment about the abuse and neglect he faced as a child under her care, and that his father knew, but kept it a secret to protect Jane.
Realizing that he intends to kill her as well, Anna catches Ethan off-guard, attacks him, and flees. He pursues her to the roof where, after a brief struggle, she pushes him through an old skylight to his death.
Alistair is arrested as an accessory to Katie's murder, and Anna slowly begins to rebuild her life.
Reception
The review aggregator website Book Marks reported that 38% of critics gave the book a "rave" review, whilst another 38% of the critics expressed "positive" impressions, based on a sample of 13 reviews.[1]
According to Alexandra Alter in The New York Times, the book is "strikingly similar" to the earlier published novel, Saving April, by Sarah A. Denzil, with "parallels [that] are numerous, and detailed." The book's publisher responded, "the outline of The Woman in the Window, including characters and main plot points, was fully formed by Sept. 20, 2015, before Saving April was released."[2]
Film adaptation
References
- ^ a b "The Woman in the Window". Book Marks. Archived from the original on February 17, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- ^ Alter, Alexandra (2019-02-14). "Similarities in 2 Novels Raise Questions About the Limits of Literary Influence". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-19.
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