Book Review — LOCK EVERY DOOR by Riley Sager
No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich or famous or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen’s new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most high-profile and mysterious buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is taken in by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind.
As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story . . . until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.
Searching for the truth about Ingrid’s disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew’s sordid past and into the secrets kept within its walls. What she discovers pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building’s hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent.
Published: July 2019
My ThoughtsRiley Sager fans, please move along. Nothing to see here.
Lock Every Door is marketed as a thriller. It’s not. This is slow-build suspense.
And I mean SLOW. We ease in with lots of foreshadowing. My thoughts as I read went like this:
Something’s going to happen!
No, wait. Not yet.
Now?
Nope. Keep waiting.
Finally! Something’s—
Again, no.
Then we have Jules, the main character. You know those B-rated horror movies, when you’re yelling at the lead character (always female) to stop being so stupid? That’s Jules.
The final quarter contains all the action, and this is where the plot fell off the rails for me.
I can get behind some wild horror or supernatural craziness. But this? Sager went for realism, which means I need to believe it could happen. I didn’t because…
Umm… Just, no.
I did love the setting, so there’s that.
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