I loved this book. Dr. Anna Fox, a child psychologist has not left her house for the past 10 months. She is separated from her husband and daughter and her only real contact is with her psychiatrist and physiotherapist.

She spends her day drinking wine to wash down her medication and photographing her neighbours. She also plays online chess, loves black and white movies and gives advice online to other agrophobics.

One day whilst watching her neighbours she sees something she shouldn’t…

Really well written, and a great page turner – I was hooked from start to finish

Goodness what a rollercoaster of a ride. I did find so many parts to be slow going especially at the beginning but once it started it zoomed into being and I didn’t guess the ending.

Hitchcockian thriller, some good suspense and claustrophobic scenes

Sometimes 3 stars, sometimes 4.

Like James Stewart in Rear Window (regularly referenced), Dr Anna Fox is confined to her house and windows, looking out at her neighbours for some way of connecting with the outside world. We know though that her confident she is self-imposed, ten months after a family separation, leaving her a long way from her husband and daughter. She cannot force herself to leave her home.

A psychiatrist herself, who works with patients similar to herself online, she is aware of her own circumstances but cannot (or will not) do anything about them.

With a downstairs lodger and a cat her only semi-regular contact, Anna is relieved when a new family moves in across the road, with a teenage son an parents, and she meets the mother of the family, Jane, and makes a connection. Yet soon after this, using her camera to watch their goings-on, she is horrified to watch what appears to be a murder in their house. But everybody denies that Jane ever existed.

Is she hallucinating on her strong medication? Are they lying? Was Jane real or an illusion? Is Anna living next door to a murderer?

Yes, it’s a tense prospect, you want to solve the mystery and find out if it’s all in Anna’s mind or not. There is also the clear indication that Anna may not be a reliable narrator.

I found the first big twist obvious from the get-go, but the scenes showing just what Anna has been through were incredibly moving and hard to read. The final conclusion and reveal was a little underwhelming, though I think it would work well on screen, as I think it was probably designed for.

Thrillers aren’t my favourite genre, they get a little ‘samey’ for me, though this caught my attention as I love Hitchcock films and concepts. It’s tense and well built-up, with red herrings and several possible suspects, and is a solid example of the genre, with appreciative nods to the great director’s films (among other classics that Anna watches) included.

With thanks to Netgalley for the advance e-copy, provided for review purposes.

I was so excited to read this one! As soon as I read the synopsis, I was already hooked, a thriller with an interesting plot-line, an unreliable narrator and a Hitchcockian/Rear-Window vibe.

This story follows Anna, an agoraphobiac (something which adds a strong psychological element to the story for me), who hasn't left her own apartment in ten months, however she lives a life outside of her apartment through observing her neighbours through her apartment window. This leads to Anna witnessing an attack in her new neighbour's apartment, but when she reports what she has witnessed, no one will believe her, not even the police. Anna begins to think her medication could have messed with her head and questions whether she can trust what she saw, or whether there is a reason that others refuse to believe her!

I liked Anna as a character, although the whole, unreliable narrator thing is very overdone in thrillers these days, Finn did this very well, and I enjoyed the confusion over whether we could trust anything that the main character was saying or thinking. I also liked the fact that Anna was a child-psychologist, with a psychological disorder. I thought her character was very interesting, and developed throughout the book.

In terms of the writing, I was pleasantly surprised, the book was well-paced in my opinion, it started out slow and then quickly became a complete page-turner! A.J. Finn also has some talent which makes you question EVERYONE, anyone could be involved, and although some twists were predictable, the final result was one that I was not expecting, at all!

Overall, I would highly recommend this book for both thriller-addicts like me, and also for those looking for their introduction to a decent, gripping thriller. I can't wait to see what you all think, and to read more of A.J. Finn's stuff in the future.

Full Review Here: https://thereadingruby.blogspot.com/2018/01/book-review-woman-in-window-by-aj-finn.html

Truly brilliant. This is a tense, tightly written thriller. At times I couldn't turn the pages quickly enough. I kept thinking that I knew what was going to happen next .....but I never did. I can't say too much for fear of giving away the plot so I will just say..Read it!! You won't regret it.

Thank you Harper Collins for letting me read this. Psychiatrist Anna Fox is battling with agoraphobia, self medicating and drinking far too much. Has she witnessed a murder or has she imagined it. This was a page turner for me from page one and had to stay up into the early hours to finish. A great debut thriller from A J Finn, looking forward to her next. A well worthy five stars.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, particularly it's theme roughly based on a Hitchcock film. It was written in a similar style, but the storyline was bang up to date, very cleverly thought out and rivetting. As with all similar novels, all is not what it seems. I couldn't put it down. The culprit was a surprise which is always good, I usually work it out myself quite quickly, although I knew pretty much early on the situation with her estranged husband and daughter. I love the inclusion of conversations with her husband. The main character was believable and very interesting, I wish I had got to know her. Excellent novel, I highly recommend it..

The Woman in the Window had me hooked very quickly. The tension starts to build slowly and the main character Dr Fox gets more stressed and confused as the plot unfolds. I liked the many references to old black and white movies and only wished I was familiar enough with them to make links between the storylines.

I’m not surprised that a movie is planned as it reminded me of Girl on a Train. It’s hard to believe is a first novel as it’s so accomplished. I will read more by A. J. Finn.

A woman sees a murder from her window but no one will believe her. Her agoraphobia has lead to her life being lived through old films, websites and spying on neighbours, so perhaps she is confusing fact with fiction?

A good thriller bar two points.

Please can we stop calling books 'The woman......' or 'The girl.......' It has been done, whether said female is on a train, in black, white, tattooed, before, upstairs, in Cabin 10 or even wearing a pearl earring, please just stop.

Secondly, I guessed the plot twist regarding the husband and daughter straight away. I am normally the last person sniff out the clues but this particular technique has been used in 'We need to talk about Kevin' and 'Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine', so even I saw it marching towards me. This is frustrating as it is not the main story, it serves as a side dish of distraction which I was glad to see the back of when the real excitement started.

To be released on 25th January in the UK this debut novel has already caused quite a stir. Apparently it is in development as a film by Fox, and the book has been sold in 38 territories worldwide. Not so bad for a book that hasn’t yet been released. Told from the point of view of Anna, our unreliable (and very drunken) narrator, this one keeps the reader guessing at every stage. The chapters are very short, the clues are scattered abundantly and I found it very readable. It won’t be winning any literary prizes but it will be winning over fans of Gone Girl, Before I Go To Sleep, and The Girl on the Train. Definitely something to keep you occupied on that boring commute to work and something that you won’t want to put down. I think I need more books like this in my life! For its entertainment and engagement this one gets a very strong 4/5

This book grips you from page one probably one of the best psychological thrillers I have read for a long time.
The author takes you through Dr Anna Fox day and her solitary routines and little by little the truth starts to become clearer I never expected the twists and turns this author takes you on. Very clever sophisticated writing for her first novel.
I was so hooked I read it over two days and was still gasping in shock until last few pages
Never for a second did I think it would end this way a total shocker

Ann suffers from Agoraphobia and has been trapped in her own house for 10 months - during which she has lived her life through the people she watches through her window.

However one night she thinks she witnesses a neighbour being murdered... and is forced to reconnect with the world outside her house.

This is a good thriller with lots of plot twists even if some are pretty obvious!

Simply loses one star for me as it seems to take a while to really get going.

Without a doubt more than a little reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window but in a modern day setting. I've just finished this book and absolutely loved every single thing about. So clever and so well written. I really didn't want this to end. You must read this book if you don't read another book this year! My thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for the advance reader copy.

The fact that Dr Anna Fox is a fan of the classic black and white thriller certainly adds to the mood of this book. When Anna sees something whilst looking around the neighbourhood using her camera as a telescope / binoculars just smacks of the wonderful Rear Window.

I was drawn into the book from the start. I have read a couple of reviews stating that it’s a slow starter but for me, I was drawn in from the start. The fact that Anna was a child psychologist who now has mental health issues is very interesting. Even more so when you discover that Anna doesn’t live with her husband and daughter. Although they seem to speak on the phone quite often and have a good relationship. What on earth happened to cause this? Which then makes you ask how reliable is Anna? She is agoraphobic and hasn’t left the comfort of her house for almost a year. She offers advice on a forum for other agoraphobes, plays online Chess and keeps an eye on her neighbours through a camera.

We know that she’s on a cocktail of medication, she drinks Merlot as though it’s water and you begin to wonder what did she actually see? Did she even see anything? Is it all just a figment of her imagination?

This book really does keep you in suspense. Or rather, it kept me in suspense. This isn’t the kind of book that I normally read so maybe I’m not the best judge but it kept me wondering about what was going on. You get just enough snippets of information about Anna’s past to keep you coming back and want to know how it’s all going to end.

I find it hard to believe that this is a debut novel. It’s written so well and with so many twists and turns. and I shall certainly look out for more by this author in the future.


Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.

Any new psychological thriller that comes out nowadays always seems to get labelled 'the next The Girl on the Train'. Now I haven't read that book, nor seen the film, so luckily I can't make such sweeping comments. Surely an author wants to be plauded for their work for the right reasons, not to comment on whether they live up to a different author's bestseller?

Anyway, that aside, The Woman in the Window is brilliant. I read it in a day and a half - the usual case of 'I couldn't put it down'. The plot twists and turns, there are surprises around every corner, it's dark, and to churn out another overused phrase, it kept me on the edge of my seat. Anna is a child psychologist. She lives alone in a large house, apart from a tenant who rents out her basement. She has a husband, Ed, and an 8 year-old daughter Olivia, but they live away from her, although she speaks to them everyday. Anna is suffering from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) which has led to acute agoraphobia. She has not left her house for ten months. To pass the time indoors she keeps herself busy: she plays online chess; is taking an online French course; she gives out advice on an online site she has set up for other sufferers of agoraphobia; she watches many film noir and Hitchock thrillers; and she drinks many bottles of red wine, often until she is in a stupor. She also likes to people watch from her windows, especially her new neighbours across the road - the Russels. But one day she witnesses a terrible act that will change her life forever.

The best psychological thriller I have read in some time.

I struggled with this one I'll be honest. Great writing so it wasn't that. I just found it overly long and repetitive in places. I struggle at the best of times with novels which take place in one person's head but I was ready to go knock on this woman's door and tell her to get a grip.She was on meds, ok, but the drinking? I get so bored with this in novels and it did turn me off quickly. The end was twisty but not for me I'm afraid.

Anna spends her days watching old black and white movies and spying on her neighbors. She is agoraphobic and hasn’t left her house for 10 month now. She drinks too much and pops in pills like candy. So nobody believes her when she witnesses a murder through her window in the new neighbor’s house. She is just the crazy lady who never leaves her house and is drunk all the time. So did this murder happen or is she going insane?

The book develops very slowly. It is confusing at first because we don’t get much information why Anna is trapped in her house by her anxieties. The pace only picks up later in the book. There is a lot of repetitive and way too many references to those old classic black and white movies. Actually I liked the writing. Anna’s agoraphobia and her tragic loss are written extremely well and touching. The twists are not so shocking. I really saw most of it coming. But that’s not a bad thing and the end was surprising.

I am a bit torn with my final opinion. The book starts very slow and it lasted a while until I was hooked. If you would have asked me halfway into this book how I would rate it I would have said “2 Stars”. As I said the book started to pick up pace very late but then it was quite gripping. I also liked the writing and how the author drew us into Anna’s phobia. Anna’s trauma which led to her condition is heartbreaking and I found it hard to read. But the story was also sometimes drawn and at the end everything was hush hush. Somehow the story did not run smooth and had definitely some rough edges. There are times when it was totally captivating and then it slowed down and drifted off.

I read that this book will be turned into a movie. I can totally imagine that. I did not dislike the book, I only started to enjoy it after 50% into it. I think it was quite unusual and I give it a solid 3 stars.

This is great psychological thriller in the true sense of the word, the main character being a psychologist. The story follows a woman who has agoraphobia and spends her time watching her neighbours through the zoom lens of a camera while drinking an awful lot of wine. then she sees someone being killed. At least she thinks she does.

I though the writing was lovely and flowed very well with some beautiful descriptions and the main characters was drawn in minute detail, maybe to the detriment of some of the other characters. But perhaps that was intentional as this is a woman who is shut in her home, unable to go out.

It was an intriguing story and about two thirds of the way through, it looked like all the anguish had been for nothing and believe me, there is anguish a plenty in here because our MC has a bit of a tragic story, and then... and then we got a humdinger of an ending, with an OMG moment that had me going back and re-reading to make sure I'd got it right.

I really enjoyed this book, although I have marked it down a star just because at some stages there was far too much wine drinking and internal dialogue and not enough momentum to the story. Also, being an outdoors person, the tragedy part was not believable. She would not have survived 33 hours in snow. But if you can put those things to one side, then it's a great tale.

I have totally had my life on hold whilst I finished this book. The beginning was interesting and enjoyable trying to unpick the setting and what had happened and who the characters were, but boy does it pick up speed as you read on! The one part I felt I would like to have read more about is Anna herself, her character is so real but I feel there are physical parts about her I am missing, like what she actually looks like, we find out her age and a few more aspects but I wanted to complete the picture in my head and it was lacking some elements. There are some fabulous twists and turns and amazing suspense, some I could unpick and I wasn't totally surprised by the last one, however I was fascinated to find out the whys and the hows. I loved the way you learned more about the main character, Anna, as the story unfolds, with the help of flashbacks and memories. The situation she is in is desperate and I felt like I wanted to help her. The world (and life) from her window kept me fascinated and wanting to read on - gripping and fascinating - a story well told!

This is the one. Think Hitchcock, New York Noir, and a life teetering on the edge of a dark hidden past and a claustrophobic, terrified future. With the same title as the 1944 Fritz Lang movie starring Edward G Robinson, which was named by Paste online magazine as the best noir film of all time, and a lead character, Anna, who spends her days sinking strong psychotropic pills and watching black and white movies, the connotations of this book are deftly playful, opening up a dimension that's at once wry, wistful and dark.

When a genre's been around the block and back again, and you feel like you've read every twist and turn that anyone can rustle up on a dark and stormy night you get jaded. There are no thrills or surprises left, and the nights you stayed up till four a.m. rubbing your eyes and scratching through one last page ... they're gone. Consign them to the days of your misspent youth and forget about it.

Then this book comes along and you open it one Sunday afternoon. And the next thing you know it's four a.m. on Monday and you've got work in four hours – but you finished the last chapter and feel faintly triumphant as the dark noir atmosphere, along with the faint afterglow of an imaginary old and flickering black and white TV, follows you upstairs to bed.

Anna's life as an extreme agoraphobic, suffocatingly claustrophobic but comfortingly known, safe and controllable, comes to parallel the old black and white movies she loves after she witnesses something she should never have seen, and a dark shadow, as well as her own past, begins to unwind around her. The dual threads of the book – her past and the growing menace of the present – twist together, always overlaid with the old noir movies she watches over and over obsessively and the wine and pills on which she grows ever more reliant.

Finn ratchets up the tension inch by inch, slowly at first then Boom! – all the things you've been half-wondering about the likeable misfit recluse Anna suddenly fall into place – but you're only halfway through the book, and Finn has barely started to reveal the real shocks and tensions. Finn is not just a master of pacing and action, and a magician with the reveals, which come out of leftfield but feel so right – of course! Of course it was that! Of course she— but he's also a master of character – and his characters are so very real, their actions and motives all too believable.

There were one or two plot points that tested my suspension of disbelief, but there was so much else to love about the book, and the writing really is so spot-on, that I could look past them– I was too wrapped up in the story, and too drawn in to the characters, to try to second-guess what was coming or to be distracted from the central story.

Finn's writing is lush and clever, conjuring up atmosphere, place, and time; the characters are intelligent and warm, and the plot is as tight as a drum – I fell deeply into the book and, as with all brilliant books, was ready to believe that these were real human beings, real lives, and that this was happening right now. The background thread running through the novel – the old black-and-white movie references – is a genius hook that reeled me in and made it a truly top-notch thriller read. I'm positively jealous of anyone who hasn't yet read this – who will reading it, mesmerised by its darkly glittering noir gems, for the very first time.