The Escape Room: 'One of my favourite books of the year' LEE CHILD

by Megan Goldin

Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive.

In the lucrative world of Wall Street finance, Vincent, Jules, Sylvie and Sam are the ultimate high-flyers. Ruthlessly ambitious, they make billion-dollar deals and live lives of outrageous luxury. Getting rich is all that matters, and they'll do anything to get ahead.

When the four of them become trapped in an elevator escape room, things start to go horribly wrong. They have to put aside their fierce office rivalries and work together to solve the clues that will release them. But in the confines of the elevator the dark secrets of their team are laid bare. They are made to answer for profiting from a workplace where deception, intimidation and sexual harassment thrive.

Tempers fray and the escape room's clues turn more and more ominous, leaving the four of them dangling on the precipice of disaster. If they want to survive, they'll have to solve one more final puzzle: which one of them is a killer?

Praise for The Escape Room:

"High wire tension from the first moment to the last. Four ruthless people locked in a deadly game where victory means survival. Gripping and unforgettable!" Harlan Coben

"Fantastic. One of my favourite books of the year." Lee Child

"Amazing...a thriller set in an elevator [that explores] the vast territory of people's worst natures. A nightmarish look inside ourselves. Simply riveting." Louise Penny

"A sharp, slick, utterly engrossing thriller. This knockout debut hooked me from the first page and didn't let go." Cristina Alger, USA Today bestselling author of The Banker's Wife

• ISBN10: 1409189252
• ISBN13: 9781409189251
• Publish Date: 25 July 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
• Imprint: Trapeze
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[maggiefan]

A predictable, but still very interesting and fun thriller to read!

[pagesbycyndy]

This is a fast paced book that flips between past and present in a seamless manner, it is a thriller/mystery. The writing style of this author is so good that I was literally pulled in on the first page. It was impossible to even sympathize with Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam, the characters in the elevator that were part of the Escape Room team building exercise. I definitely felt like I was in the elevator with Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam as they tried to solve each clue as it was presented to them. The elevator is dark and things go downhill pretty fast for these finance wizards.

The story flips between the elevator and the story of Sarah Hall who worked at the company. I was intrigued by Sarah's story and enjoyed the mystery of trying to figure out what exactly was going on in the elevator. Between trying to figure out what happened to Sarah and what was happening in the elevator I was very entertained. While the ending was not a huge shocker it was appropriate and satisfying.

This book definitely is a thrilling ride!This review was originally posted on Cindy’s Book Stacks

[whisperingchapters]

"Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive."

The Escape Room deals with taking a few co-workers and sticking them together in an elevator for a "game". They think it's a team building exercise. What they don't know is that this game will bring out dark secrets from each one, dark enough to want to kill them. And the biggest secret/question of them all, "What happened to Sara Hall?"

How much trouble could four investment bankers get into in a locked elevator?

This book is told in two points of views. We have a third POV for the elevator scenes and then we have Sara's POV. Sara is a woman who knows she wants to work somewhere where she can get lots of money and be set for life. Her opportunity comes to work at Stanhope. What she doesn't know is that this place consumes you. It won't leave you any time for yourself. You're expected to work 365 days a year, to miss birthdays, miss a birth, anything.

Each and every one of us would have taken a bullet for the firm. If truth be told, I think that most of us would have killed for Stanhope.

Sara was so different from her colleagues. She didn't view Stanhope as the all and all. I loved being inside her head and seeing things from her perspective, which was so different than everyone else's. She was friendly, she cared. Stanhope hadn't completely taken a hold of her life... Yet.

If I keep talking, I'll spoil everything. This is one of those novels you have to go in blank. I will say that I loved reading about each character and why those specific characters ended in the elevator. I also loved that the author talked about discrimination in the work place towards women, as well as being unfair with the wages that each worker gets.

The Escape Room is an ingenious, sharp and clever mystery. I do wish the ending had been more... Complete? I can't say much or again, I will spoil everything. Despite the ending, I recommend this unrealistic, yet highly entertaining novel.

[Eve1972]

This book seems to have a lot of