End of Story by A.J. Finn is a mystery about a mystery author who saves all its suspense for the end. This is an interesting novel where I was hooked by the premise right away, then the book takes 200 pages to get interesting and for something to happen. I liked A. J. Finn’s debut of The Woman in the Window but only saw glimpses of the twisty excellent writing at the end of End of Story. I read the last 200 pages in 4 hours and it took me 12 days to read the first 200 pages. I wanted this novel to hook me the way The Woman in the Window did but I was left very unfulfilled. The book has a focus problem the most intriguing storyline is a reader interviewing a reclusive mystery writer who almost stopped writing after his wife and 12-year-old child went missing and thought that the author murdered them. The problem is that the reader is a horrible interviewer and doesn’t really ask questions when she should. The interviewer and the mystery writer’s oldest daughter Madeline are the perspectives that the story is told from. Madeline is an unreliable narrator and might be crazy or schizophrenic her chapters are hard to read because they are all over the place sometimes. The climax was one of the book’s only bright spots but it was written very unbelievably with 3 reveals in a roll with a detective present that is trying to stop more murders from happening while a character has a weapon in hand. The book being about a mystery writer quotes a lot from other mystery writers notably Author Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler, Alexander Dumas, Anton Chekhov, and Agatha Christie. End of Story was published on February 20, 2024.

Plot Summary: Nicky is a reader of mystery novels her favorite is Sebastian Trapp a reclusive author who has not written a new novel in 15 years. There was a disappearance from a 1999 New Year’s Eve of Sebastian’s 12-year-old son and his wife and mother to the son. The case remains cold with most believing that the mystery writer killed them both. 5 years ago Nicky found a mistake in one of Sebastian’s novels and wrote the author about it and to her surprise they started a communication that has lasted 5 years by mail when he invited her to his estate to tell his story before he goes since he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Nicky doesn’t reveal that she knew Cole, the young missing son, through pin pal in school, and knows more than she lets on about the Trapp family leading up to that New Year’s Eve night.

What I Liked: The premise for the novel is good and intrigued me right away. I found the mystery surrounding Cole and Hope disappearing very interesting. I loved the throwaway character of Betty who runs the diner and hears everything. The ending explained a lot I liked most of the reveals but thought it should have been in a different scene not with one character holding a weapon and characters taking 20 minutes to tell their side of the story while the detective does nothing to get the weapon. I did like all the literary quotes. I do like Sebastian’s drawer of all the weapons from Clue: the Game in it.

What I Disliked: The first half of the book is boring for such an interesting premise for a mystery. I hated the characters of Jonathan and Freddy and how they were written at the beginning I thought Jonathan was 12 instead of 35. Madeline I eventually liked but I hated the way her character was written. The ending I went over in what I liked and how unbelievable it is that a detective would just let a character have a weapon without trying to get it out of their hands.

Recommendation: End of Story was a big drop-off in quality after the excellent The Woman in the Window. A.J. Finn can still write a good reveal but what is missing is the hook and the focus of the story. I can not recommend my followers to read A.J. Finn’s second novel End of Story.

Rating: I rated End of Story by A.J. Finn 2.3 out of 5 stars.

Ranking: I have read all of the books A. J. Finn has written and ranked them in order from most favorite to least: 1) The Woman in the Window, and 2) End of Story.