Riley Sager’s new thriller, Lock Every Door. is dedicated to Ira Levin, and as I read this twisty, dark novel of questionable neighbors in a too-good-to-be-true NYC apartment building, I suddenly remembered who that is. Ira Levin wrote Rosemary’s Baby. 

Just like in Rosemary’s Baby, the suspense in Lock Every Door comes from who you can trust, not from any gore or violence. Jules lands a dream job as a housesitter in a gorgeous Manhattan co-op, although there are some kinda weird rules, she agrees to them for the sake of free rent and income. Skyhigh rents and the very real instant opportunities in New York make this a reasonable opening. It’s also the setting of Jules’ favorite novel, and I’d definitely take a strange temp job to live rent-free at, say, the Dakota.  (Actually, I would take all kinds of weird temp jobs, so I might not be a good example.)

But things start to turn strange and upsetting almost as soon as she moves in. The cavernous apartment full of expensive furniture starts to feel strange at night, a realistic reaction for Jules, who’s been sleeping on a friend’s couch. But some of the sounds don’t make any sense… There are other transient young people house-sitting for other absent owners, and there are strict rules about never speaking to the resident owners and never inviting any guests to the building.

Without revealing any of the layered, suspenseful plot, I’ll say that I bought every part of the setting, no questions asked. Of course the co-op members all inherited their apartments from wealthy grandparents, who were naturally all part of the same social circles, and of course there are endless new arrivals in New York, with no friends or family, delighted to find a house-sitting position.

While there’s murder and injuries, any real grossness happens off-camera, so this is another readable gore-free thriller for me. If you like this book, then check out The Girl Before for another too-good-to-be-true apartment, or just read Rosemary’s Baby again.

This post is my addition to this month’s BookWorms Monthly over on AtHomeALot.