Book Review: Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

I enjoyed reading this one, as I enjoy everything he writes, although I must confess that I found this one more eye-rolling in it’s big reveal then either of the previous books he has written. I understand that he takes on Horror Story / movie tropes and stereotypes and then gives them his particular spin. It’s one of the things I enjoy, since I find myself too much of a scaredy-cat to watch those movies, but thoroughly enjoy the types of tales that they tell. His books are a perfect antidote to that, because somehow even though my imagination is incredibly vivid, what I conjure doesn’t disturb me in the same way as what I watch on a big screen.

This one began brilliantly, as they all do. The setup, pacing, characters, and setting we’re all perfectly designed to make the hairs on the back of your neck come to disturbing attention. I honestly had no idea what the secret behind the Bartholomew was going to be. When it was revealed, I actually laughed out loud at first, because I couldn’t quite believe this was what he went with… He tied it all together well, again as he always does, and the lesson about the divide between rich and poor was well taken. Still, it felt like I had read this before – his reveal is/is related to the reveal in a handful of things I’ve read recently. While that is purely coincidental it meant that it didn’t have the resonance for me as a reader that it might have if I hadn’t read what I have recently…

All of that aside, if you are looking for a wholly immersive and engaging Thriller / Horror Story, you can’t do much better than a Riley Sager novel. He has a fantastic knack for crafting extremely believable female protagonists and for helping them discover what I have referred to in previous reviews as their backbone of titanium – which always seems to exist in a hyper-state within a shell that seems too fragile to exist on its own… He is wonderfully evocative in his imagery and sets a scene like few others. This may not have been my favorite, but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable story.

Thanks to Penguin First to Read for my review copy. The book releases in the U.S. on July 2, 2019.