A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window unfolds in a claustrophobic Harlem brownstone where sight can’t be trusted and memory refuses to behave. Its cast—neighbors, family, cops, and a too-charming boy—forms a lattice of red herrings and quiet horrors that probe perception versus reality, grief, and deception. Every relationship is a test of trust; every confession arrives with a question mark.
Main Characters
Dr. Anna Fox
Anna is the isolated, agoraphobic child psychologist whose window becomes both her refuge and her downfall. A consummate observer fueled by wine, pills, and classic films, she narrates a reality filtered through trauma, making her both keenly perceptive and profoundly unreliable. Her fixation on the new neighbors across the way—especially the woman she believes is “Jane Russell”—pulls her back into the world just as her own carefully maintained delusions about Ed and Olivia begin to crack. As the police dismiss her account and the Russells undermine her sanity, she pushes forward on instinct, eventually unmasking Ethan’s predatory games and surviving his attack. By facing the truth of her family’s deaths and stepping outside at last, she reclaims agency and begins to separate what she sees from what is true.
Ethan Russell
Ethan enters as a shy, gentle teenager seeking connection and quickly becomes Anna’s most trusted visitor—exactly as he intends. Behind the soft voice and vulnerable posture is a calculating predator who curates personas (including “GrannyLizzie” online) to gather secrets and stage-manage everyone around him. He manipulates Anna’s loneliness, exploits his parents’ fear, and eliminates his birth mother, Katie, when she threatens the life he controls. The slow reveal of his violence reorients the entire mystery: the Russells’ secrecy reads not as guilt for murder, but terror of their son. His final confrontation with Anna—poised, taunting, and lethal—ends with his fatal fall, exposing the monster concealed by a boy-next-door mask.
Supporting Characters
Alistair Russell
Alistair is the stern, evasive adoptive father whose privacy, temper, and legal threats mark him as a prime suspect. His hostility masks a father’s panic: he knows what Ethan can do and chooses concealment over accountability. Ultimately, his complicity in covering up Katie’s murder collapses under the weight of the truth.
Jane Russell
The name “Jane Russell” hides two women: the warm stranger Anna meets (Katie in disguise) and the “real” Jane, Ethan’s adoptive mother. The real Jane projects composure while living in fear, upholding the family’s lie to shield Ethan and preserve their fragile order. Her participation in the cover-up—including delivering the final stab to Katie after Ethan’s initial attack—reveals the cost of protection at any price.
Katie
Katie is Ethan’s biological mother, a recovering addict who reaches out to reclaim a relationship with her son—and pays with her life. Misrecognized by Anna as Jane, she is the “woman in the window” whose brief warmth and sudden disappearance ignite the plot. The proof of her existence becomes the fulcrum that flips delusion into reality.
Ed Fox
Ed is the loving, pragmatic husband who exists only in Anna’s mind, a voice on the phone conjured by grief to keep devastation at bay. His steady counsel and gentle concern reflect the marriage Anna lost, not the man still living. When the truth of his death emerges, Anna’s inner world—and the novel’s narrative—reframes in an instant.
Olivia Fox
Olivia is Anna’s eight-year-old daughter, a tender presence whose imagined calls offer comfort and routine. She embodies the depth of Anna’s loss and the psychic contortions of a grieving mind. Accepting Olivia’s death becomes the first step toward Anna’s healing.
David Winters
David is Anna’s secretive tenant whose criminal record and taciturn manner make him an easy suspect. His brief entanglement with Katie and proximity to Anna keep him in the frame until evidence clears him. Ultimately, he’s less a villain than a mirror—someone trying to outpace a damaged past.
Detective Little
Detective Little is the patient investigator who treats Anna with dignity even as he doubts her. He balances skepticism with care, confronting her with painful truths while still answering her call when it matters most. By the end, his belief in her immediate danger helps expose the real threat.
Minor Characters
- Detective Norelli: Little’s brusque partner whose skepticism hardens into a blunt, devastating delivery of the truth about Ed and Olivia.
- Dr. Julian Fielding: Anna’s psychiatrist, a steady clinician who contextualizes her condition and gently presses exposure therapy.
- Bina: Anna’s physical therapist and friendly lifeline to the outside world, ultimately unconvinced by Anna’s claims.
- Wesley Brill: Anna’s former mentor and lover whose affair with her triggers the argument that precedes the fatal crash.
- “GrannyLizzie”: Ethan’s invented elderly persona on the Agora forum, a lure he uses to extract Anna’s secrets and breach her privacy.
Character Relationships & Dynamics
At the center is Anna versus the Russell household. Anna watches, suspects, and tries to help; the Russells close ranks, projecting normalcy and insisting she’s delusional. This tug-of-war—her intuition against their stonewalling—keeps her isolated until Ethan drops the mask and confirms the danger she sensed all along.
Within the Russell family, fear breeds complicity. Alistair and Jane fear their son more than the law, choosing secrecy over safety and transforming into enablers. Katie’s attempt to reconnect threatens that fragile balance, prompting Ethan’s violence and the parents’ cover-up that follows.
Anna’s inner circle contrasts care and doubt. Detective Little’s measured empathy competes with Norelli’s hard-edged skepticism, reflecting the system’s struggle to read an “unreliable” witness. David’s presence muddies the waters as a credible suspect, while Bina and Dr. Fielding represent the practical and therapeutic scaffolding of recovery that Anna both needs and resists.
Finally, Anna’s imagined conversations with Ed and Olivia create a private echo chamber that both comforts and deceives her. That internal relationship—grief masquerading as dialogue—shapes how she interprets the world outside her window, blurring evidence with longing until the truth forces its way in.