Over hyped and a weak blend of old movies….  **

With endorsements from Stephen King and Gillian Flynn, I was expecting more from this novel. What I found was a mediocre blend of the Alfred Hitchcock movie Rear Window, the 1984 film Body Double, and a character mirroring  Rachel from The Girl On A Train. The cover is even a ripoff from the poster for Body Double.

Finn must have watched Rear Window and noted the types of people James Stewart observed and copied them into this novel, with only slight modifications. The book description calls this “a smart, sophisticated novel of psychological suspense that recalls the best of Hitchcock.” I would call it more of a ripoff of Hitchcock.

Body Double is one of my favorite movies and Finn takes the basic idea as one of his “twists”. Anna Fox, his main character is Rachel from The Girl On A Train, a woman whose observations are blurred by alcohol. The only difference being location.

The only thing that kept me reading was curiosity. I was curious to see if Finn had anything new to offer. He didn’t. His use of old movie references were the only good parts, because most of the films he refers to I have seen.

This one gets two stars. It should be one but one of my New Year’s resolutions is to not be so harsh.