if it seems to me that the book ended where another author might have chosen to begin it

Not only to you: matociquala said she'd have started it fifty pages from the end. I guess I'm more interested in the beginnings of things, perhaps? Someone (might it have been Vonnegut?) said that you should start a book as near the end as possible, but - nah. Or not always. Sometimes it's good to see the seeds.