Cannonball Read introduced me to Riley Sager and I’ve become a huge fan. That’s why Lock Every Door was such a disappointment.
Jules Larsen has recently lost her job, her boyfriend, and her apartment. She’s been sleeping on her best friend’s couch while unsuccessfully looking for a new job. Desperate for money and a new place to live, she answers an ad for an apartment sitter at the luxurious Bartholomew. The Bartholomew is a small apartment building in Manhattan, known for its strange history and celebrity residents. The rules are simple: no visitors, no spending the night away from her apartment, and no bothering the other guests. In exchange, she gets a huge apartment with a view and a generous salary. But after a fellow apartment sitter disappears in the night, Jules begins to suspect that this job really is too good to be true.
Where to begin? First, Jules should have been extremely wary after some of the questions in the interview. She should have gone to the police after the other sitter disappeared, and if not then, once she got evidence of hinkiness at the Bartholomew. I know some people will say she was desperate and not thinking clearly, but then why did she break the rules on her first freaking day? Her actions just made no sense to me. And then the big reveal. It was awful, terrible, horrible, ridiculous, and so cheesy. If the ending had been good, maybe I could forgive the rest. But it was insulting how absurd it was.
I’m giving it two stars instead of one because the set-up had potential and the writing was good.
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