I set out today to write a comparison of “The Woman in the Window,” last year’s literary thriller that had everyone talking, and “Copycat,” the movie that Dan Mallory was accused of essentially ripping off by The New Yorker in an expose […]

I finished the audiobook of “The Woman in the Window” on Feb. 4. Then I saw a Joyce Carol Oates Tweet, which led me to the New Yorker magazine profile of Dan Mallory, also known as A.J. Finn, who at one point in his bizarre literary life also wrote as his younger brother Jake, whose real name is John. Confused yet? As you can see, The New Yorker’s headline is appropriate for the piece: A Suspense Novelist’s Trail of Deceptions.

I’ve heard it said that journalists are the prostitutes of the literary world, turning quick tricks for low pay. I have a stronger appreciation for that joke having completed my first novel and got it about five yards away from the end […]