Happy Publication Day! End of Story by A.J. Finn

EXCERPT: Bleak House Tuesday, June 23

In a moment they’ll find her.
Find her where she floats, fingers splayed wide in the marbling water, hair spread like a Japanese fan. Fish glide beneath it, push through it; skate along the line of her body. The filter hums. The pond simmers, shimmers. She trembles on the surface. Fog prowled the ground earlier this morning – San Francisco swirl, velvet- thick and chill – but now the last of it burns off, and the courtyard basks in light: paving stones, sundial, a chorus line of daffodils. And near the pond, that perfect circle sunk near the wall of the house, with its glowing fish, its lily pads like stars.
In a moment a scream will crack the air.
Until then, all is silent and all is still, except for the shiver of the water . . .

ABOUT ‘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.

MY THOUGHTS: I can do no better than provide a (slightly) abridged quote from End of Story – This is a story without heroes. Perhaps without villains as well. A story where identities are slippery. Where the mystery and the violence are mostly within you, and where the clues almost ineluctably lead you someplace you don’t want to go. We’re all in that story. Life is a thriller. The ending is fatal and the conclusion is final.

AJ Finn sucked me right into the narrative of this story then, at the end, spat me out, probably with a self-satisfied smile on his face. And he should be self-satisfied. End of Story is a blinder. I felt like I was living it along with Nicky. I agonised over what had happened to Cole and Hope, where they had gone and, if they were indeed still alive, who they could possibly be.

The characters – what can I say about the characters? Elegant. Charming. Enigmatic – definitely. Damaged also. They give the impression of a bevvy of swans gliding serenely about, but underneath . . . they are completely different people, struggling to keep afloat, to stay on an even keel.

I can’t praise End of Story enough. It is atmospheric, enchanting, absorbing, twisty, exciting, entertaining and shocking. The ending is unexpected. It is brilliant. At various times during reading I cried, I exploded with laughter (the bon mots are unparalleled), forgot to breathe, cried out ‘No,no,no,no – don’t do this!’, and bit the soft flesh between index finger and thumb go relieve the tension.

End of Story is not simply a book – it is an experience, one I am going to partake of again, slowly this time, savoring every nuance, every word, rather than gorging on it like a box of favorite chocolates, as I have just done.

It has been a long stretch between books, Mr Finn, but End of Story was worth the wait.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#EndOfStory #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: A.J. Finn, pseudonym for Daniel Mallory, has written for numerous publications. A native of New York, Finn lived in England for ten years as a book editor before returning to New York City.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction, via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of End of Story by AJ Finn for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own opinions.

End of Story is due for publication 29 February 2024.