Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I heard that this novel was the breakout debut novel of 2018, written under a gender-neutral pseudonym by a male editor of thrillers at a major publishing house. It was, reviewers said, steeped in film noir, well written, fast paced, original, and a love letter to classic Hitchcock films. It has, of course, already been optioned as a film, probably starring Reese Witherspoon. SIGH. I read thrillers regularly, and have read all of the classic mysteries (including every Agatha Christie novel, all of Sherlock Holmes, Dorothy Sayers, et al.), and I assure you that The Woman in the Window is a typical domestic thriller. The protagonist is unreliable, she’s a tortured soul, she’s an alcoholic downing buckets of Merlot and popping pills left and right, she’s a pathetic and dull basket case who can’t leave her sprawling home and spends all day on the internet, drinking, and spying on her neighbors. She thinks she witnesses a crime but can’t rely upon her sad, wine-soaked brain; hence no one buys her rantings about the neighbors trying to whack one another. Or not. Blah blah. It bores me simply typing up the plot summary of this novel, which amounted to nothing more than a Rear Window/Girl on the Train copycat. I understand that unreliable female narrators sell, but please give readers some credit. We’re not total dupes. More importantly, we are sick of these women who can’t get their sh1t together and are always drunk and falling apart. Give us a female narrator with some grit, some backbone, some moxy, and drop her into a truly original and engaging story. It may not become a bestseller (God knows why not), but it will certainly earn 5 stars from this disillusioned reader. I’ve reached my limit of recent lame thrillers.