This was the hardest book I have ever read due to the lack of format. I appreciate an ARC is never going to be perfect but this was so bad. Whole paragraphs and pages repeated all the way through the book and the acknowledgements included in the last chapter so I wasn’t actually aware the book had finished.

However the story itself is excellent and I look forward to buying this book and reading it in a simpler and far more enjoyable way. It was a real thriller of a story with a twist I didn’t see coming.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

Jules is in a bit of a pickle at the moment. She has lost her job, her boyfriend (not a great loss as he is a complete toerag) and her home. When she answers an ad looking for an apartment sitter in one of New York's most infamous buildings Jules is desperate but has little confidence in getting the gig. The Bartholomew is wonderfully luxurious building where the rich and famous live and have lived for a hundred years. But there are rumours and stories about all sorts of dark and deadly happenings there during the buildings life. Even whispers that the building may be haunted, not hard to believe with its Gothic exterior and numerous gargoyles. So Jules is amazed and thrilled to be offered a three month position looking after one of the apartments, but not so thrilled by the numerous very strict rules she must follow. It seems that previous apartment sitters at The Bartholomew (of which there have been many) have found the rules too much to put up with as many have left the building before the end of their contract, never to be heard of again...

This is another wonderfully twisty mystery from Riley Sager, possibly my favourite to date. I did guess what was going on quite early on but that didn't spoil the story for me at all. A really good read with great characters and a very engrossing plot.

This book reminded me, in the best possible way, of those creepy 1970s made for tv horror films. The ones where you are screaming at the tv, "no, don't do it", but the protagonist does it anyway. In this case, it's a girl called Jules who is promised a jaw-dropping salary if she abides by the strict rules of her apartment sitting job. The building and inhabitants are odd, verging on sinister, but the creep factor really ramps up when she learns that other apartment sitters have vanished without a trace. The tension had the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention as she attempts to find out what happened to the missing people, and the ending was fantastically over the top.

I really enjoyed the story and eagerly await what devious delights the brain of Riley Sager will focus on next.

My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

**Please note that the copy I received was very hard to read because pages of text were repeated. I have tried to give a star rating that isn't unfairly biased because of this **

Das Buch beginnt mit einem kurzen Kapitel, in dem man eine zunächst unbekannte Frau kennenlernt, die von einem Auto angefahren wurde und schwer verletzt im Krankenhaus erwacht. Sie kann sich an den Unfall selber nicht erinnern, ist noch ganz unklar im Kopf, aber froh dass sie dem Barts entkommen ist.

Dann springt die Geschichte fünf Tage in die Vergangenheit. Man erfährt, dass das Barts das historische Gebäude Bartholomew von 1919 ist und in der Nähe vom Central Park liegt.

Hier leben nur die Reichen und Schönen. Jules hat sich als Apartmentsitterin beworben. Es handelt sich um die Wohnung einer verstorbenen Dame. Die Erben streiten sich noch um den Besitz und benötigen solange jemanden, der die Wohnung hütet. Sie soll für die drei Monate unglaubliche 12000 Dollar bekommen. Das ist alles, was sie braucht, um ihr Leben wieder auf die Reihe zu bekommen. Sie glaubt selber nicht, dass sie in ihrer jetzige Situation den Job bekommen wird. Jules hat wegen einer Umstrukturierung vor zwei Wochen ihren Job als Assistentin verloren und als sie durch die Kündigung zu früh nach Hause kommt, erwischt sie zudem noch ihren Freund mit einer Anderen. Durch die Interviewfragen während des Vorstellungsgespräches lässt uns die Autorin gleichzeitig geschickt mehr über Jules erfahren. Sie hat nach dem Verschwinden ihrer Schwester Jane vor vielen Jahren und dem späteren Tod ihrer Eltern keine Familie mehr. Zur Zeit übernachtet sie bei ihrer einzigen Freundin Chloe. Völlig unerwartet wird sie doch ausgewählt. Jules freut sich über die Chance ihres Lebens. Chloe ist skeptischer und vorsichtiger, vermutet einen Haken. Sie hat Gerüchte gehört, das Gebäude soll verflucht sein, der Erbauer soll sich selber vom Dach gestürzt haben.

Nach dem Anfang ist man schon sehr gespannt, wie die Geschichte sich entwickeln wird. Man hat schon einige Gegebenheiten im Verdacht, dass sie später eine Rolle spielen könnten. Dann werden Jules bei ihrem Einzug am nächsten Tag unerwartet strenge und seltsame Regeln mitgeteilt. Sie darf keine Besucher empfangen, die anderen Bewohner nicht ansprechen und ihren Aufenthalt dort nicht auf Social Media erwähnen. Die erste Zahlung von 1000 Dollar soll sie nach der ersten Woche in bar erhalten.

Man kann sich sehr gut in Jules hinein versetzen. Die Autorin führt eine ganze Reihe weiterer, interessanter Figuren ein. Die Zeitlinie springt zwischen kurzen Kapiteln in der Gegenwart, in denen Jules im Krankenhaus sehr langsam wieder mehr Herr ihrer Lage wird und den Tagen vor dem Unfall, in denen die Handlung unaufhaltsam dem Unfall entgegenstrebt. Das Buch ist sehr atmosphärisch und leicht gruselig. Das Gebäude wird fast zur eigenen Figur. Man rätselt mit und folgt Jules neugierigem Vorgehen gespannt. Zum letzten Drittel kommt es zu einem vorgezogenen Höhepunkt, der dem Titel des Buches gerecht wird. Der Roman lässt sich flüssig lesen, aber das Motiv, das mit einem heftigen, überraschenden Twist entblößt wird, ist mir für Thriller schon etwas zu oft benutzt worden und konnte mich nicht ganz überzeugen.

Blimey, this was bloody brilliant one of my favourite reads this year.
Eerie and Atmospheric from the onset, this had such an air of intrigue and a spooky mysterious vibe.
The Bartholomew, one of Manhattan's high-profile and exclusive apartment complexes,
Shrouded in secrecy and obscurity.
The residents here value their privacy more than most.
Enter Jules who life has thrown a curveball, she's jobless, newly single, homeless and broke so when a too good to be true job offer practically lands in her lap not only providing her with temporary accommodation but much-needed funds to get her back on her feet how can she say no.
It's really is simple all shes got to do is be discreet and follow a few easy rules while she's at it.
Apartment sitting in the swish Bartholomew is an actual dream come true.
But almost from the start, Jules senses something amiss in her temporary new home and when her newly made friend fellow sitter Ingrid vanishes into the night without as much as a cheerio Jules sense of unease intensifies.
When she starts to dig deeper into the very foundations of the Bartholomew Jules starts to uncover much more than she could ever imagine.
So this managed to grab my attention almost instantly and I read right through the night this really was a page-turner and i was on a sprint to the finish.
There's also the added mystery of Jane: Jule's sister vanishing as a teenager, this tragic occurrence somewhat explaining Jules utter tenacity when it comes to her missing new friend.
Told from Two time-frames; a countdown in days until we arrive at the present and the now time.
I was totally transfixed and invested here as this played out till its shocking conclusion.
My jaw was practically touching the floor by the time this finally came to a close.
Bloody brilliant from start to finish, loved every minute.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of Lock Every Door.

What an interesting book. I couldn't put down. A thriller, that takes a lot of intriguing turns and becomes something very sinister at the end. A really different read and one I really enjoyed.

When Jules is offered a dream job house sitting a beautiful large apartment she jumps at the opportunity – but what is the catch?

I really enjoyed The Last Time I Lied, Riley Sager’s last book (see my review here - https://www.kindig.co.uk/post/review-the-last-time-i-lied) so I was excited to receive the ARC for Lock Every Door. Skimming over the fact that the title actually has very little to do with the actual plot, I was a little disappointed with this offering.

Taken as a whole the plot is very good, it has a really climatic ending I didn’t see coming and an interesting premise – a dream job with menacing undertones. I also liked the damaged character of Jules who has suffered a lot in her life including a sister who has been missing for years which adds to the plot nicely. However, I felt the book was very slow moving and didn’t actually provide us with much to set the tone. The whole first 3/4s of the book take place in about 4 days and it didn’t feel like enough time to set up a believable horror/psychological thriller. The ‘scary’ rules that are put in place just seemed sensible to me rather than disturbing as they are portrayed. Jules, our main character seemed to be overreacting to everything in the first 3/4s of the book - someone goes missing sure, but a lot of time is spent over-analysing the rules, looking up the past history of a very old building and reading too much into every conversation. There isn’t enough horror, if that’s what it’s trying to portray or sinister psychology in any of the residents to actually make her motivations feel believable. As the book is written from her perspective I would expect her thought process to match her actions but that didn’t seem to be the case here.

Overall Lock Every Door has a great premise and interesting ending but the set up was too drawn out with not enough plot building to match the main character’s reactions. Thank you to NetGalley & Penguin Random House – Ebury Publishing for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars for this pulsating story! The atmosphere from almost the first page was intense, you just knew trouble lay ahead over the coming chapters.

I have to be honest and I did not enjoy this as much as the previous 2 novels but it was a really enthralling story that had me intrigued as to where it was heading at times (in a good way!).

Jules agrees to apartment-sit in an exclusive building, the Bartholemew, where the rich and famous reside. There are a number of rules to follow for this paid 'job' some of them quite strange in that she cannot talk to the other residents (to speak only when spoken to) or invite anyone to visit her.

There are 2 other people who are staying in apartments in a similar role to Jules and 1 goes missing in amongst stories of disappearances and Jules needs to figure out what is real or not and determine what is actually happening. I don't want to say too much as do not want to give anything away, suffice to say it's worth a read!

My many thanks to Penguin Random House UK (Ebury Publishing) via NetGalley for providing me with this advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a truly fabulous read! Lock Every Door was creepy, spine-tingling and left me feeling extremely unnerved. The darkness of the book was very unsettling and also provided a macabre atmosphere. This was very much a slow burn allowing me plenty of opportunities to think, analyse, and be totally wrong about what might happen next. I loved Riley Sager's writing style in this wonderfully atmospheric, well plotted, compulsive thriller with added touches of horror.

Lock Every Door was an extremely exciting and original read with many twists and turns. I had no idea that the very last twist would happen. A definite must-read!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Penguin Random House UK – Ebury Publishing via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING. Genuinely one of the best books I’ve ever read. Super creepy, disturbing and downright mysterious. I could NOT put it down. It was just so good.

3.5 Stars!

I am having a little bit of mixed feeling about this book. I have heard so many good things about the Author's other books that, when this one popped up on my NetGalley dashboard, I had to request it. Luckily, my request was granted and here we are...

Firstly, the premise of the story is so interesting and honestly, it read like part mystery and part horror. The story starts with Jules going for a meeting at this old, state of the art building called Bartholomew in Manhattan. She doesn't know what the job is about but she is desperate for anything as she was recently fired and is basically homeless. Therefore, when she is asked to be an apartment sitter which pays extremely well and feels just like being on a holiday, she accepts the offer even if, there are several rules to follow and even if it seems too good to be true. The story progresses from there on.

As Jules arrive in the Bartholomew, a building about which she has read books and living in which feels like a dream come true, she discovers that all is not well. There are stories about the Bartholomew that it is cursed and there have been disappearances. Several apartment sitter have gone missing in the past without any trace and when Ingrid, a fellow sitter and Jules friend disappears without a trace, Jules is determined to find the truth behind the mysterious disappearances. However, sometimes, the chase to find the truth comes out with a huge cost.

So, this is my first Riley Sager book and like I mentioned before, I am having mixed feelings about it. It wasn't bad because I read it in two sitting straight but I do feel that the wow factor was missing. The plot is well structured and very fast paced with lots of twists and chapter endings which compelled me to keep on reading, however, my problem lies with the fact that I predicted almost all the plot twists, which, didn't help. The chase to finding out the truth is thrilling but the ending felt over the top and somewhat contrived.

The MC is easily likable, although, sometimes, I did find her nosy but I get where she was coming from and the cause behind her paranoia. I really liked the supporting characters of Ingrid and Chloe and I am glad that Jules had so wonderful friends in such turbulent times of her life. Overall, Lock Every Door was a good read if not a great one. Someone told me that, the Author's other book are better than this one so, I might as well try those.

Spine-tingling fun!

4.5.

Flat broke, unemployed, and homeless, Jules Larsen, is thrilled to be selected to apartment sit for three months at the grand, historical Manhattan building, The Bartholomew. Not only is the twelfth floor apartment luxurious and spacious but it's in a prime location on the Upper West side, overlooking Central Park. On top of that Jules will be paid $1000 a week for her trouble. Sounds like the ultimate, doesn't it? But pretty soon The Bartholomew will become Jules' worst nightmare, from which there is no escape.

Contains all the horror and gothic tropes that I love in this type of story – ominous dreams, strange noises at night, cryptic notes, secret nooks and crannies, a combination of unfriendly and over friendly neighbours, mysterious and sudden disappearances, and that's just for starters. The creepy, picturesque setting of the Bartholomew was as glamorous and seductive as it was eerie and claustrophobic, and as you would expect has a cursed history, of suspicious deaths.

Even though most of the book takes place over a 5 day period, It's a slow burn, with Jules excitement and gratefulness over scoring such a fantastic apartment morphing into fight or flight, her fear increasing the deeper she delves into the dark recesses of The Bartholomew. Trapped due to her dire financial circumstances, Jules feels she has few options, and is determined to stick it out, when most of us in the same circumstances would have fled.

Several of the twists I saw coming, and the baddies weren't any great surprise, but the reveal of what was actually taking place behind locked doors was a shocker! As I mentioned in my tagline, it's a light, not to be taken too seriously, read, but having said that does deal with some serious topics that will see you repulsed that there are people who think like that. It was kind of far-fetched, but in this case it worked – Riley Sager has a way of writing that sucks you in – resulting in an engrossing, entertaining, hard-to-put down read. Even the day-to-day routine of Jules as she settles into the apartment was conveyed in an interesting manner. Content wise, I would class it as thriller rather than horror - it's neither scary nor gory.

Not quite a good as Last Time She Lied – summer camp speaks to me more than gothic building, but it was nearly as good. A quick easy read that I motored through – the ideal choice for your summer beach read.

I'd like to thank Netgalley, Penguin Random House UK – Ebury Publishing, and Riley Sager for the e-ARC.

(reviewed on my blog and on goodreads)

The highly anticipated new novel by Riley Sager. I did read Final Girls a few years back and while I certainly found it very thrilling (‘page-turner’ hits the nail on the head) I found myself frustrated with some of the twists and turns in the plot. Mostly because I had begun to guess it correctly a few pages before the twist was revealed. So it was a a bit of a let down and more predictable than I would have liked. In the end though, I couldn’t wait to start reading this new book, set in New York City. Sager’s writing is fast paced, devoid of flowery imagery. The book mostly takes place in the Bartholomew, a gothic-style fictional (thank God) building, set in the middle of Manhattan. The building itself was hugely evocative and very creepy and all the descriptions of the place really did not help the feeling of foreboding growing within me. In fact, this book was chilling in the way horror slowly dawns on the reader. I thought that was very skilfully. With the vast majority of the story occurring within quite a constrained environment, I found myself feeling claustrophobic while reading. It definitely had an eerie Hitchcockian vibe to it.

The premise of the story, without wanting to reveal too much, is that our protagonist, Jules, gets the job of a lifetime. She will be paid 1000 dollars a week to be an apartment sitter in one of Manhattan’s most exclusive addresses. As she’s been struggling a fair bit and is veritably homeless at the start of the book, this comes as a welcome opportunity. But living in the apartment also comes with a long list of rules. No visitors. No disturbing the other rich and famous residents that reside in the Bartholomew, no intrusive questions, no nights spent out of the home.

But things aren’t quite right in the Bartholomew. She hears the faintest sounds at night, a scream in the early hours, and then her friend disappears…

This is another really good read by Riley Sager. The Bartholomew definitely holds many secrets. The ending as better than I was expecting.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Never have I read a book which was such a delicious combination of evil and thrill. The book literally knocked the socks off my feet. I was so excited, I had to remove them. Riley Sager has knocked this one out of the park. Every chapter was cleverly written to raise the suspense sky high. Evil was the great seducer, and Riley’s writing just paved the way for it to walk down the hallways of the building, Bartholomew.

Jules was hired as a house-sitter for 3 months with cash as payment. Down on her luck with no family or boyfriend or a home, she agreed. She met a couple of other house-sitters till one disappeared. Investigating on her own, she discovered the wickedness which had been seeping into the walls of the building over the years. What was it? What was the gorgoyle George hiding?

My first book by Riley; he was the brilliant mastermind who could paint the pages with fear and dread. I could complete the book in 4 hours as I couldn’t stop reading. Since the character could not leave the house at night, I knew something would happen then and the devil was in the building, soon on the way to pay her a visit. It was the anticipation and the routes of no-escape that kept me enthralled. Extremely thrilling!!

Riley Sager has done it again. I have been following his books from the beginning and Lock Every Door is my favourite and the best one yet.
Jules Larsen has just finished with her boyfriend after caught him cheating and she has lost her job. She has no money and doesn’t want to impose on her friend Chloe’s sofa anymore. She sees a job for an apartment sitter in the prestigious New York apartment building called the Bartholomew where high profile people live. The pay is twelve thousand pounds. The job seems too good to be true and when she is accepted, she finds out there are rules that she must abide by. There are not to be any guests. There is no leaving the apartment and she can’t post photos on social media.
When she moves in, she feels that something isn’t just right. She feels like she is being watched and she thinks there is someone in the flat when she is awakened in the middle of the night. The only consolation is that she makes friends with another apartment sitter called Ingrid. Who has similarities to herself. she is alone and her family are dead. Until she disappears and Jules goes out to find out what happened to her.
This is creepy, atmospheric tense thriller from Riley Sager that is so addictive it just makes you want to keep on reading. The author does not give too much away until the very end Loved it 5 stars from me.

This had definitely some „Rosemary’s Baby“ vibes. This is a fun book to read. The story is weird and very far-fetched. But at the same time it is very addictive and gripping.

Some things are just too good to be true. Jules lost her job and her boyfriend at the same day. She crushes on a friends couch when she sees a job advertisement which is almost unbelievable. She gets paid a lot of money just to live in a luxury apartment on New York’s Upper West Side. Similar to the infamous The Dakota building is the Bartholomew. Here reside the wealthy and famous who love their privacy. And they don’t want an apartment to stay empty. So Jules will receive a ridiculous amount of money just to live in one of the spacious apartments with a breathtaking view onto Central Park. She can’t believe her luck. There are some strange rules coming with the job, though. She is not allowed to spend one night not in the apartment, visitors are also not allowed and she is not supposed to speak to other tenants. But it seems really like the answer to all her problems. She has a roof over her head for the next three months and at the end she has money to start her life anew. But within 5 days everything turns into a nightmare.

I am a huge fan of “Rosemary’s Baby”. Both the film and the book. This book gave me the same feeling. Something is very off at this building and its tenants. I enjoyed reading it although in the middle it lacks a bit of action while Jules is running endlessly around asking about another apartment-sitter who has gone missing. This is my third book from Riley Sager. I liked “The Final Girls” but it did not blow me away. “The Last Time I Lied” was my favorite so far. I think it was better than this one. But I still liked “Lock Every Door” very much. I liked the creepy atmosphere and the so long successfully kept secret that lingered there. 4 satisfied stars from me for this entertaining book. Keep it up, Mr. Sager!

My first experience with Riley Sager’s books and I’m already a fan. As I’ve already said, I have the weird fear of unlocked doors. Simply every single door that has direct contact with the outer world has to be locked. Simple as that. This book spoke to me spiritually.

Bad formatting of this book made it difficult to read this book first of all.

I found the idea compelling, but the start was a bit too long. Plus, the characters' decisions and motives got very convenient and unbelievable through the end. So, I'm afraid it wasn't for me. But, I can see it being a thrilling read for many.
Thanks a lot Netgalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Have read all 3 of Riley Sager's books now and I want more MORE!!
Totally enjoyed his last thriller 'The Last Time I Lied' and hoped this one will live up with the expectations on the author and guess what? I did more than that! What a brilliant storytelling that could keep the readers all night to finish the book in one sitting!!

Riley has delivered a fine thriller with a touch of horror element to the plot which just adds cherry to the cake. It's really heartbreaking to learn how unemployment haunts young people to stay homeless and the crowded shelters for women, children and elders are just a sad thing to see in the glimmering New York City.

If you're a fan of dark and engrossing thrillers, Riley Sager is a name to be on your list and his books are a must read. Many thanks for my review copy in exchange of my honest opinion. 5 Fucking stars from me!!!