Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book featuring an amateur detective


TW: Missing persons, homelessness, poverty (this is a thriller/suspense book where bad things are happening, but I don't want to list them as to not ruin the book, but are synonymous with other similar titles)


Can Riley Sager do any wrong? This is his third novel and the third one I've read, because I. Cannot. Get. Enough. Each of his books thrills even more than the last, and I have to say that Lock Every Door is my new favorite novel from Sager. I thank Book of the Month for getting me hooked in the first place.





This novel follows Jules, a 20-something in NYC with no family, a crappy ex-boyfriend, and no job. When she comes across a Craigslist ad that directs her to her dream apartment (also setting of her favorite novel), it seems too good to be true. For three months and $12,000, all Jules needs to do is apartment-sit. But there are some weird stipulations that her best friend is totally creeped out about, and the apartment building does have a kind of mysterious past. They say if it's too good to be true, it probably is. And that may just be the case in this situation. 



When I started reading this book, I was immediately hooked. Sager writes compelling characters that are so easy to connect with, and it seriously just pulls you in. You are no longer a reader. You are there in each and every scene, living out these quite horrific situations. Sager is just as talented and terrifying as Stephen King without being quite so dense in storytelling. It makes for a perfectly enjoyable, though anxiety-inducing, reading experience.

Lock Every Door was twisty and turny from page one. I didn't know what to expect or who to trust, and that made the novel so intriguing and impossible to put down. I could never figure out what was going to happen next, and I just needed to know what was going on. The situation was too perfect to be anything good, but there was no big indicator to reveal what was actually happening. But the characters are written well, with a strong sense of development (specifically for the main character).






Starting out, the story was reminiscent of An Anonymous Girl, but quickly began to remind me of the television show 666 Park Avenue (does anyone else remember that show - I hate that it was cancelled). It also very much reminded me of AHS: Hotel, which totally feels like cheating because it's mentioned within the book, but is likely a large influence on the book.

I really loved this book and I would highly recommend it, and any other Riley Sager novels.


Goodreads rating: ★★★★★














*I received this book free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions, as always, are 100% my own.