
Thriller
The Woman in the Window
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Join now.Each year thousands of members vote for our Book of the Year award—congrats to The Woman in the Window!
We love supporting debut authors. Congrats, A.J. Finn, on your first book!
A shut-in spends her days spying on her neighbors. One day she witnesses something terrifying ... Or does she?
Fast read
Psychological
400+ pages
Now a movie
For readers of Gillian Flynn and Tana French comes one of the decade’s most anticipated debuts: a twisty, powerful Hitchcockian thriller about an agoraphobic woman who believes she witnessed a crime in a neighboring house.
It isn’t paranoia if it’s really happening ...
Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.
Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare.
What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.
Twisty and powerful, ingenious and moving, The Woman in the Window is a smart, sophisticated novel of psychological suspense that recalls the best of Hitchcock.
Her husband's almost home. He'll catch her this time.
There isn't a scrap of curtain, not a blade of blind, in number 212—the rust-red townhome that once housed the newlywed Motts, until recently, until they un-wed. I never met either Mott, but occasionally I check in online: his Linkedin profile, her Facebook page. Their wedding registry lives on at Macy's. I could still buy them flatware.
As I was saying: not even a window dressing. So number 212 gazes blankly across the street, ruddy and raw, and I gaze right back, watching the mistress of the manor lead her contractor into the guest bedroom. What is it about that house? It's where love goes to die.
She's lovely, a genuine redhead, with grass-green eyes and an archipelago of tiny moles trailing across her back. Much prettier than her husband, a Dr. John Miller, psychotherapist—yes, he offers couples counseling—and one of 436,000 John Millers online. This particular specimen works near Gramercy Park and does not accept insurance. According to the deed of sale, he paid $3.6 million for his house. Business must be good.
I know both more and less about his wife. Not much of a homemaker, clearly; the Millers moved in eight weeks ago, yet still those windows are bare, tsk-tsk. She practices yoga three times a week, tripping down the steps with her magic-carpet mat rolled beneath one arm, legs shrink-wrapped in Lululemon. And she must volunteer someplace—she leaves the house a little past eleven on Mondays and Fridays, around the time I get up, and returns between five and five thirty, just as I'm settling in for my nightly film. (This evening's selection: The Man Who Knew Too Much, for the umpteenth time. I am the woman who viewed too much.) I've noticed she likes a drink in the afternoon, as do I. Does she also like a drink in the morning? As do I?
Pretend you haven’t already read that the screen rights sold before it even hit bookstores, or that the author received a seven-figure advance. And ignore the comparisons—you knew they were coming—to Girl on the Train and Gone Girl. The Woman in the Window is a great psychological thriller that lives up to the months of hype it’s been getting.
Anna Fox, once a successful child psychologist, lives alone in her Harlem townhouse spying on her neighbors, mixing psychotropics with red wine, watching old films—Hitchcock’s Rear Window, which this book is loosely based on—and chatting on message boards. Early on we learn that Anna suffers from agoraphobia (fear of crowed spaces), brought on by a traumatic incident, rendering her unable to leave her home without having a panic attack.
When a new family moves in across the street from her front window, Anna begins watching them through her Nikon. Then, one night, she sees a terrifying crime occur in one of their bedrooms. But here’s the twist: Anna, who has been drinking and popping those aforementioned pills all night, can’t prove that what she saw really happened. And no one, not the police or her neighbors, believes her.
Debut author A.J. Finn is already an old pro at characterization. When Anna finally ventures outside and her mental state spirals out of control, we’re right in that terrifying spiral with her. It seems like every thriller these days features an unreliable narrator—and Anna Fox is one, too—but unlike many recent thrillers, The Woman in the Window’s plot twists are genuinely surprising, and not just shocking for shock’s sake. Film buffs, too, will love the references to Hitchcock and other classic films.
With each short chapter, Finn leaves you wanting more. I read this one in one sitting, then couldn’t help but draw shut the curtains in my apartment.
Samantha L.
Bellerose, NY
A slow start but once it takes off 300 pages fly by while you guess the end wrong every time. SO easy to underestimate in first 100-150 pages. Suspenseful, unnerving, and immersive. 10/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Samantha S.
Ben Wheeler , TX
100 stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️Suspenseful, with just enough allusions and “maybe” clues to keep you 100% engaged and solving it wrong! Great job on that “hair on the back of your neck feeling” Creepy & chilling!
Addie D.
Waterbury, CT
The ending on this - what a twist. I had a feeling but wasn’t sure. You’re thrown into such doubt about Anna & what’s reality & what’s not right to the last 20 pages. I felt her frustration & sadness
Elizabeth L.
Byron, IL
I couldn’t put it down. Finished it in less than two days. It’s hard not to feel sympathy towards the main character as you watch her mental health deteriorate throughout. Filled with so many twists.
Monica H.
Thousand Oaks , CA
I loved this book! Its one I wouldn’t have picked up on my own without it being an option in BOTM club, and I’m so glad it was! Such an amazing psychological thriller without feeling like it was one.