Review: Lock Every Door

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager is a dual perspective suspense thriller where a recently homeless and otherwise unattached woman, Jules, agrees to a highly paid apartment sitting position in a notoriously exclusive and expensive complex in New York. Jules initially doesn’t think anything out of the ordinary is happening, but when her chipper downstairs neighbor mysteriously leaves in the middle of night without so much as a goodbye, things start to take a turn for the worse. 

Synopsis

Our story begins when Jules is touring the apartment from the ad she found online. She’s told by the building manager Leslie that The Bartholomew has a “no empty condo” policy and they are currently in need of an apartment sitter since the current tenant passed away. Jules is just amazed and happy to be there, especially because her favorite book, Heart of a Dreamer, was set in this very building that she thought she would never see the inside of. During her interview for the position of apartment sitter, Jules reveals that not only was she recently laid-off from her job, but that the same day she found her boyfriend cheating on her in their shared apartment and had to move out because only he was on the lease — leaving her homeless and unemployed in less than 24 hours. We also learn that Jules’ immediate family is no longer in the picture: her parents dead and her sister missing for years. One would think sharing these facts would deter a building manager from hiring Jules for fear of squatting, but instead she lands the job on the spot. 

Jules’ friend Chloe, who’s couch Jules has been crashing on, upon hearing the news is immediately skeptical and unsupportive, telling her that her grandfather was always spooked of the place and the place had seen way too many creepy misfortunes in the past. Still, undeterred and in need of the $12,000 promised for living in the luxury condo, Jules proceeds with moving in.  

The true horror of this story doesn’t lie in its somewhat fantastical nature, but in the fact that this horror story plays out every day in the form of the poor man’s monkey paw

This is where the second perspective comes in: Jules from the future in a hospital bed after getting hit by a car. She begins to tell the doctors how she escaped from The Bartholomew. We cut back and forth to this perspective every few chapters or so, each revealing a bit more about what has happened. 

Back in the present, Jules is at The Bartholomew for move-in day and she’s told the rules: 

1. No bothering or speaking to the residents 

2. No visitors or guests at any time 

3. You must sleep in the apartment every night 

4. Pay is issued at the end of every week in cash 

   
   

Jules is initially a bit wary of the rules, but Leslie assures her that they have sound reasons for the rules being in place; namely the notoriety of the permanent residents attracting weirdos and looky-loos as well as apartment sitting being the job, so leaving the space unattended for the night would not fulfill role requirements. Jules accepts the explanation and settles in to her temporary new home and notes how much money she has left, which is not much. She then finds a note in her dumbwaiter from her downstairs neighbor: a poem and a handwritten “hello” on the back.  

After an expensive trip to the grocery store, Jules bumps in to her downstairs neighbor Ingrid... literally. In the confusion of the lost groceries, Jules is cut and bleeding, leading her to meet the resident doctor of the Bartholomew, Nick, who patches her up and makes small talk, during which Jules explains that her name isn’t a nickname but a given name, something she has yet to tell anyone at the Bartholomew. 

Ingrid sends up another note asking for the two of them to meet, and subsequently apologizes in the park just outside of the Barthlomew with a hot dog. She then insists the two be friends and meet every day in the park at noon after nicknaming Jules JuJu, to which Jules agrees (to the nickname and the meetings). Later that night, Jules hears a scream coming from the dumbwaiter and goes to Ingrid’s apartment to check on her. Ingrid acts suspiciously, but after being assured several times that nothing is wrong and no one screamed, Jules goes back to her apartment — only to find the next day that Ingrid has mysteriously “moved out” shortly after their talk in the middle of the night, without a trace. 

Every detail had a purpose and was used to make the mystery more compelling, having it slowly unfurl in a way that kept tension perpetually growing

Jules can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong, given her past with her missing sister, and makes it her duty to investigate Ingrid’s disappearance, talking to any and every resident and employee that will speak to her and eventually calling the police with little to no success. That’s when Jules finds a phone left in the heating grate from a previous apartment sitter who has also gone missing. This leads Jules further down the rabbit hole of her investigation. Along the way she employs help from Nick, Her favorite author and another resident of the building: Greta, and an apartment sitter a few floors down: Dylan. 

With much investigating, Jules finds out the truth of the building: The residents of the building are a part of some sort of underground human trafficking and sacrifice ring and there’s a serial killer on the loose in the Bartholomew. Jules tries to contact Ingrid one last time, despite never receiving a response before, and Ingrid answers. But it immediately becomes clear that the person on the other end is not in fact Ingrid and is possibly the killer, so Jules issues a test that only Ingrid has the answer to: what is her nickname? The texter then says “trick question: Jules isn’t a nickname” which reveals the killer to be... Nick. 

Jules ends up finding Ingrid at a homeless shelter, where Ingrid fills in the blanks about the day she disappeared, explaining how and why she left, and how she made it out alive. The conversation leads Jules to the realization that Dylan is still in The Bartholomew and is in grave danger, so she goes back to warn him, since he isn’t picking up the phone. She enters to find that not only has Dylan been taken, but that Nick is in her apartment waiting for her with a stun gun. Which leads us back to present day where she is seen fleeing The Bartholomew and getting hit by a car: only Jules just believes she escaped — she hasn’t. 

Lock Every Door lulls you into a false sense of security having the second perspective be of when Jules “escapes” and is “safe” from the horrors of The Bartholomew, only to pull the rug out from under you and plunge you into despair

It turns out after Jules was hit, she was taken back into the building for the true purpose of the human trafficking and sacrifice: an organ farm for the elite and wealthy. And the kicker? Greta, her favorite author, is getting her kidney. Jules is constantly drugged and doped up so she can barely move her limbs to escape, since Nick and the others in the building intend to take her liver and her heart next. But because Greta has taken a warped liking to Jules, she warns her of her last chance to escape and Jules takes it; starting a fire as a distraction and locking every door behind her as she makes her way out of the makeshift hospital. On the way out she meets Nick once again who attempts to stop her from leaving, only for Jules to stab him in the stomach and start burning the rest of the building down as she leaves the Bartholomew. 

Jules escapes with one less kidney, a new friend, a dog, and knowing she’s uncovered the misdeeds of The Bartholomew — for which everyone involved are all sentenced and jailed, save for Greta who managed to vanish without a trace and Nick who leaps off of the building roof the night Jules escaped and dies. 

Lock Every Door Review

Whew, that was a long one, but this story is just so jam-packed with details that so much had to be said. Given that... I absolutely loved it! I started listening to this book midday and did not put it down until literally 1 am. I was that hooked! The writing style had truly creative and beautiful descriptions, and the mystery was done extremely well. One of my pet peeves in mystery/suspense/thriller books is when the narrative tells you something and then either completely forgets about that detail or even worse, contradicts it entirely, Lock Every Door did the opposite. Every detail had a purpose and was used to make the mystery more compelling, having it slowly unfurl in a way that kept tension perpetually growing. It was a masterful understanding of the principle of Chekov’s Gun in micro and macro scale.

It feels like if I read it again, even more would stand out and slot into place of the mystery, instead of contradicting important details. The ending was also well done. When I say I am picky about endings, I mean it. Many books have lost a star or two in my internal ratings because I felt the ending didn’t stick the landing, but this book kept me guessing until the very end and left me with a pretty satisfying ending. Although the ending was a bit “tidy” for what felt like the underlying message of the book, which I will elaborate on later, it still felt well executed enough that I could excuse it. 

Here’s yet another thing I’m picky about that was done well: dual perspective. Often times I feel like there’s no real narrative need for them, instead it feels like a cheap tactic for authors who don’t know how to write compelling third perspective to have their cake and eat it too; but when dual perspective has a purpose...it has a purpose. Lock Every Door lulls you into a false sense of security having the second perspective be of when Jules “escapes” and is “safe” from the horrors of The Bartholomew, only to pull the rug out from under you and plunge you into despair in knowing that not only did she NOT escape, but that she is in the thick of the danger! It’s a use of dual perspective that I hadn’t seen before, and am eager to find more of. 

Not to mention, the voice actress reading this book was phenomenal. I like to read these books on audio because I’m a multi-tasker given the whole blog of it all, and while it’s usually fine I do prefer to read things myself since the audiobooks I’ve found have had pretty bland VAs, but this voice actress got me to really stop and listen. I got literal chills listening to her read Erika’s frightening last recorded words or Jules’ desperate voice when she finds Nick waiting in her apartment. She captures those moments so viscerally that you can’t help but be fully immersed. So, thank you Dylan Moore for being so exceptionally good at your job. 

The underlying message of the story also felt like a real exploration of what it’s like to be poor and unprotected in places like New York City and how the rich exploit the working class. The true horror of this story doesn’t lie in its somewhat fantastical nature, but in the fact that this horror story plays out every day in the form of the poor man’s monkey paw. Jules, Ingrid, Dylan, and even Erika (the sitter before Jules) can technically leave The Bartholomew at any time, they aren’t locked in their rooms or prisoners in the traditional sense — they are kept there with the promise of money they do not have and a place to stay. All of them were down on their luck: functionally homeless with little to no job prospects or money to their name, that’s WHY they’re chosen. Leslie and the building residents know that people like Jules would try to hold out as long as possible because they feel hopeless and have nowhere to go, so why squander the opportunity for stability just because the place is a little weird? They take advantage of their desperation and their poor life circumstances to profit from them. 

Everyone involved are all sentenced and jailed, save for Greta who managed to vanish without a trace and Nick who leaps off of the building roof the night Jules escaped and dies

This is where things start to fall apart a bit for me. Given that these rich and influential people have been doing this scheme for literal decades, and how dismissive the courts tend to be in even horrendous cases when it comes to the rich and famous, it feels somehow unlikely that every person involved, unless vanished or dead, faced guilty verdicts and time or their crimes. Almost fairytale in its conception. The reason why wealthy people get away with their crimes is because they often do it to people the world will overlook: POC, women, the poor, the disabled, anyone who society deems lesser. That’s why so many “undesirable” people go missing and their cases get dusty on the shelf. Given that these wealthy criminals in Lock Every Door were mainly older individuals as well, I find it extra hard to believe they weren’t just sent to actually cushy mental hospitals or low security prisons. For a narrative that feels so grizzled in its understanding of middle to lower class struggles and desperation, it feels almost naive in how these issues would be handled. 

Another small issue was that Jules feels slightly disjointed in her characterization at times. She seems timid and unsure of herself at pretty much every turn, but somehow still has the grit to keep asking questions knowing she’s being rejected and told to drop it, as well as make the bold moves necessary to try and save Dylan and Ingrid. She feels eternally forgiving while constantly bitter, and equally skeptical as she is inquisitive. On one hand it feels quite realistic, human beings are contradictory, we evolve and change and try different things; but on the other hand, it did make me feel a bit lost when gauging the character. Part of why this book took so many turns I didn’t expect is because Jules was constantly doing things I didn’t expect her to do based on how she acted just chapters before. Given that the book only spans about a week and a half, I think that’s pretty considerable. 

One last small gripe is that Jules’ friend Chloe knew Jules was in a weird situation, was afraid enough for her to tell Jules to come back to her apartment if she ever felt something was wrong... but never left a key for Jules to get in when she knew she was leaving for a place with no cell service? That just seems like an unlikely oversight for a concerned friend to make, especially one that we’re meant to believe is Jules’ closest-to-family best friend (which is already working my suspension of disbelief given how little she seems to actually show up in the book). 

Official Rating

But given how much I truly loved reading this book and the expert level of detail that went into the mystery and the tension building, Lock Every Door still gets a 5/5 from me.