Anna Fox, suffering from a severe form of agoraphobia (a fear of open spaces, including a fear of going outside), sees a murder committed from the window of her house (sees the bloodied victim, but unfortunately does not see the killer) and tries to get justice, but it turns out not so easy. The woman, who has not left her house for almost a year, who is being treated by a psychotherapist, who mixes pills for a mental disorder with alcohol, is clearly an unreliable witness. No one believes her. Of course not: judging by the descriptions given, if anyone in the book needs help, it is the heroine herself, who spends her days and evenings peeping at her neighbors from the windows of her house, watching endless movies and a glass of wine….

Every once in a while, she changes her sphere of influence and interests and becomes – who do you think? – A psychotherapist!…This moment in the novel, of course, surprised me the most and even alarmed me. A person who can not help himself, there is something to advise other people on the Internet, and other people listen to this advice and act on it. There is obvious unprofessionalism. It’s the same as a fitness trainer with an overweight and flabby body or a hairdresser with untidy hair. And, by the way, these guesses actually came true, not the way I thought they would, but still… One of the main threads to unravel the mystery of this terrible crime was this – Anna is clearly not a professional child psychologist, she can not distinguish the clear reasons for people’s behavior, their motives, their future actions, in hell, she does not understand people!..Of course, I pity the people she “consults” over the Internet – they could probably find a better specialist, more competent. But the worst thing here is something else: it is her professional mistake will create a threat to her life … Curiosity and compassion, she calls the main tools in her business, but forgets about the observation, a mistake will cost a lot …

An incredibly suspenseful horror detective, with a dynamic plot and some cool and rather unexpected plot twists. Read carefully: the book can cause paranoia if you’re overly impressionable (everyone is watching each other all the time here). Always close your curtains tightly (you never know what kind of perverts are walking around outside or in the house next door), do not trust your first impression of strangers (it can be deceptive, which the author convincingly, even too convincingly shows us) and on no account mix alcohol with antidepressants.

The post “The Woman in the Window” by A.J. Finn appeared first on Book Garden.