Dream Apartment

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager did not disappoint my hope for a creepy, suspenseful book.

Jules is an orphaned twenty-something who has lost her job, her boyfriend and their shared apartment all within a day.  The job offer to apartment sit in the exclusive Bartholomew building near Central Park seems too good to be true, although a little strange with its strict rules.  Her friend Chloe tries to warn her of the building’s cursed past, but Jules refuses to give up the chance to make a thousand dollars a week.

The story backtracks from present time, in which Jules is hit by a car while trying to escape from the Bartholomew just five days after moving in.  The story then moves back and forth between post-accident time to the days leading up to it.

Within her first few days, Jules befriends another apartment sitter (Ingrid) who suddenly disappears.   She realizes that others have gone missing before Ingrid.  More is discovered about the Bartholomew’s history as she begins digging into the missing girls’ whereabouts.  In the process, she gets close to a couple of the building occupants, who turn out to be not at all what they seem.

The author kept me guessing as to what was truly at play in the building.  At first I thought it was haunted which made me really excited.  I LOVE a good haunted house story.  Then I believed the events were tied to a satanic cult.  When the past catches up to the present, the story transitions into the days following the accident.  This is when readers find out what is truly going on at the Bartholomew, and if Jules is able to get herself out of its clutches.