Book Review: Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

“You’ve been offered a luxury apartment, rent-free. The catch: you may not live long enough to enjoy it…”

Published in 2019, Lock Every Door by Riley Sager follows Jules as she moves into a luxury apartment as an apartment sitter at the elusive Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most high-profile private buildings and home to the super-rich and famous. The rules: No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents.

Recently heartbroken and practically homeless, Jules accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind. But 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 – but the next day, her neighbour vanishes. And then Jules discovers that Ingrid is not the first temporary resident to go missing…

Rating:

A creepy and page-turning story, Lock Every Door is an addictive popcorn thriller which, while you may need to take some of it with a pinch of salt, is sure to have you racing through to uncover the mystery of what’s really going on here.

At first, the concept of this book is exactly the same as another story that I’ve read so this really dettered my enjoyment of it in the beginning. However, this book was written first so I tried to hold back my judgement, and I also hated the ending of the other book so I kept my fingers crossed that this one would soon improve.

Having read some of Riley Sager’s other books, I expected a big out-there twist and I loved the ending of this one. Had it been darker, I would have rated it higher as it was a little too straightforward. But overall, the atmosphere was really well described and I got a great sense of the unease that the building emanated.

I’m not going to think about the ending too hard as I’m fully aware that I would be able to pick apart some of the coincidences, but I found it very entertaining so I’m going to enjoy it for what it is.