Summer Reading: The Woman in the Window

I have been reading a lot this summer! At least once a day I will sit in one of the three reading areas that I have in my house, grab one of the books on my summer reading list, and then not even notice that two hours have suddenly gone by! It makes me so happy to have time to read what I want! I actually read the second book on my list, The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn, in less than two days because I could not put it down! Anna Fox was once a renowned child psychologist before a mysterious accident derailed her life. She is separated from her husband and daughter and now lives alone in her New York brownstone suffering from severe agoraphobia and a drinking problem. She spends her days counseling others in an agoraphobia chat room, playing chess online, learning French, watching classic black and white noir films, and spying on her neighbors through the window. She becomes obsessed with watching a new family, the Russells, across the park and eventually she sees something violent happen to one of them. She reports the incident to law enforcement but the Russells deny it and no one believes her. Police officers reveal a huge plot twist which, along with her abuse of prescription drugs and her excessive drinking, discredits everything she says. Even she begins to doubt what she saw, thinking she might be remembering the plot of one the films she was watching. But what if what she saw actually happened? The chapters are extremely short which makes the action move quickly and the tension builds and builds to a conclusion I honestly didn't see coming. Anna is a very compelling character (she reminds me of the unreliable narrator in The Girl on the Train) and Finn does a great job of showing her claustrophobia and frustration, especially when she begins to doubt her own reality. As a classic film aficionado myself, I really enjoyed the references to all of the noir thrillers, especially Hitchcock's Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt, Vertigo, Spellbound, Suspicion, and George Cukor's Gaslight, because they mirror events in the narrative. In fact, this novel feels a lot like a Hitchcock film with characters who cannot be trusted, escalating tension, and a climactic plot twist! It is a brilliant psychological thriller and I highly recommend it!  Incidentally, I cannot wait for the movie version which is due to hit theaters in October!

Note:  Have you read The Woman in the Window?  What did you think?