END OF STORY

On his deathbed, a famous mystery novelist invites a knowledgeable fan to come write his life story.

After a long career of bestsellers, Sebastian Trapp hasn't produced a book in decades, since his wife and son disappeared under mysterious circumstance following a New Year's Eve party. Twenty years later, with three months to live, he has one tale left to tell: the story of his life, which may or may not include answers to the questions surrounding the disappearances—for which many believe he is responsible. Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction and a longtime correspondent of Trapp's, is his appointed amanuensis; she takes on the task with relish only slightly diluted by concern for her own longevity. Trapp's current San Francisco household consists of his erstwhile assistant and now second wife, Diana; his adult daughter, Madeleine (a failure-to-launch whose point of view alternates with Nicky's); and the latest edition of a French bulldog named Watson, whose many taxidermic predecessors are lined up in Nicky's assigned bedroom. There's also Sebastian's brutish nephew, his British buddy, his widowed mother (his brother also died mysteriously around the same time as the other two), a couple of colorful cops, and a corpse in the koi pond that is revealed on page 1 but not found until halfway through, clearly intended to goose the page-turning. If you enjoyed Woman in the Window (2018), be warned that this novel is its opposite. While the debut had truly breathtaking forward momentum but a somewhat ludicrous solution, this time we have an unbelievably leisurely build during which we pursue patent red herrings, read a lot about the weather and geography of San Francisco, and are hopefully impressed by quotes and references to Christie, Chandler, Hammett, etc. "The past isn't gone: It's just waiting," a catchphrase of Trapp's, is certainly the case. Unfortunately it waits too long.

If only the clever ending were worth the trouble it takes to get there.