Suspense | Book Chatter

The Women in the Window
By A.J. Finn
William Morrow Paperbacks, 9780062678423, March 2019, 464pp.

The Short of It:

If you enjoy unreliable narrators then you will be entertained.

The Rest of It:

The Woman in the Window is another book that everyone seems to have read. When it first came out, I took an immediate interest in it but then, for whatever reason it got pushed down to the bottom of my list. THEN, there was the controversy over its author. But when my local used bookstore had a copy sitting on the shelf, I grabbed it.

Dr. Anna Fox is a psychiatrist but suffers from agoraphobia. The reason for her agoraphobia is not revealed until much later in the story, but she spends her days watching old, black and white movies, spying on her neighbors from the safety of her home, and drinking buckets of Merlot. Just like every Hitchcock movie you’ve ever seen, she witnesses a crime. But when she reports it, no one believes her because she comes off as a drunk, mentally unstable woman. Which by all counts is not wrong.

There is more to the story, of course. I figured out the twist pretty early on but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book overall. I will say this, why so much booze? There is a booze reference on every page. Anna’s condition was enough to make her the unreliable narrator of our dreams but the constant mention of Merlot drove me absolutely nuts and reminded me a lot of the protagonist from The Girl on the Train.

The movie trailer looks really good:

It was a fun read. Deception everywhere. An unreliable narrator who drinks FAR too much but I liked her. I can see why so many picked this one up.

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Other Mrs. Miller
By Allison Dickson
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 9780525539247, July 2019, 352pp.

The Short of It:

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this one but what I got was an enjoyable, twisty read.

The Rest of It:

Phoebe and her husband live in a fairly well-to-do neighborhood. Mostly due to the fact that she came from money but not money that she likes to flaunt given that her father’s wandering eyes got him into a whole lot of trouble with young women all over. Although comfortable financially, her marriage is falling apart, she’s let herself go, and she wakes each day unhappy and anxious.

One morning, she notices a car parked across the street and the same car arrives daily. Could this be something related to her father’s dealings? As she becomes increasingly paranoid over this intrusion of privacy, a new family moves in across the street.

To Phoebe, this family provides a much-needed distraction until things get out of hand. Vicki and Phoebe get too close, too fast. Jake, Vicki’s eighteen-year-old son provides the type of distraction that an unsatisfied wife may seek but certainly does not need. All in all, both these families become entwined in a way that no one expects. I was honestly surprised at the direction the story took. It’s good, and twisty and fun. I am loving these types of books lately.

If you like a story that keeps you guessing, then pick up The Other Mrs. Miller soon.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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