3 Sentence Summary
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager is a buzzy mystery thriller that follows Jules, who takes on an apartment sitting job in one of the most mysterious buildings in New York City. It is a perfect combination of horror and gothic tropes that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The Bartholomew’s setting is both glamorous and eerie, making for an atmospheric read.
Summary Read Time: Less than 4 minutes
Actual Book Length: 381
First Published in: 2019
Below is the detailed yet quick The Last Mrs Parrish summary:
Part 1
Jules Larsen finds herself in the hospital after being hit by a car, relieved that she won’t be sent back to the Bartholomew.
Six days earlier, Jules had interviewed for an apartment sitting job at the upscale Bartholomew building with Leslie Evelyn. Despite her friend Chloe’s concerns about the situation, Jules, recently unemployed and betrayed by her boyfriend, takes the job, viewing it as a lifeline.
Jules moves into apartment 12A and meets Dylan, another apartment sitter, while learning about the building’s rules and peculiar history. In the building, she encounters Marianne Duncan, a famous actress, and Greta Manville, author of “Heart of a Dreamer.” She also meets Ingrid, another apartment sitter, who becomes her friend. Jules starts investigating her sister Jane’s mysterious disappearance, which the police attribute to her running away.
As Jules becomes more entrenched in the Bartholomew’s strange occurrences, Ingrid suddenly disappears, leading her to delve into the building’s dark past. She discovers the deaths of many servants during a flu outbreak and the suicide of the building’s designer. Jules finds a key to a storage unit and a note warning her to “be careful.” Inside the unit, she uncovers a gun, which Ingrid had been seeking.
Jules’s time at the Bartholomew takes a turn for the worse when a fire breaks out in the building. With the help of Nick, she rescues Greta and her dog Rufus before escaping the flames. Back in the hospital, Jules tells Dr. Wagner about her fear of the Bartholomew and asks for her phone to call Chloe.
Nick informs Jules that the fire started in apartment 7C after Mr. Leonard suffered a heart attack while cooking. Chloe sees Jules on the news and discusses Ingrid with her, believing her search is driven by unresolved feelings about Jess’s disappearance. Jules declines Chloe’s offer of cash, and instead has lunch with Greta, who suggests looking for Ingrid in homeless shelters and hospitals. Jules visits a shelter but doesn’t find Ingrid, so she shares her number with a woman named Bobbie who promises to keep an eye out.
Part 2
Jules has a surprise encounter with Andrew and pretends Nick is her boyfriend. She asks Charlie about security footage of Ingrid leaving, but he says the camera malfunctioned. Jules then visits Marianne Duncan, who seems to be hiding something and warns her to stop asking questions. Leslie also gives Jules a stern warning. Later, Jules and Nick sneak into Ingrid’s old apartment and find a copy of “Heart of a Dreamer.” Caught in the moment, they sleep together.
Jules then discovers a cell phone belonging to a missing woman named Erica Mitchell, the previous sitter for 12A. She contacts Dylan, who says Erica left in a similar manner to Ingrid. They find out that all the sitters have no family, and that the night Ingrid disappeared, she was supposed to meet Dylan to discuss Erica. Jules becomes suspicious of Greta after noticing that she, Erica, and Ingrid all received the same inscribed book.
Jules receives a suspicious text from someone pretending to be Ingrid. She suspects it’s Nick and starts to feel in danger. Jules continues her investigation and connects the Bartholomew to a satanic group called the Golden Chalice. She discovers that the group seeks young people as sacrifices, and meets Ingrid, who has been hiding.
Ingrid reveals that Leslie paid her to hurt Jules and that she escaped from Nick the night Jules interrupted them. Jules learns of a full moon that night and rushes to warn Dylan, but he’s not at the Bartholomew. When she tries to flee, she encounters Nick and ultimately escapes through the dumbwaiter, stunning Charlie in the lobby before running out and getting hit by a car.
Ending
In the aftermath, Jules learns that the Bartholomew’s residents were seeking organ donors among the apartment sitters. Nick reveals that his great-grandfather, Thomas Bartholomew, built the building as a haven for the rich. Jules is scheduled to have her organs harvested, but she manages to escape by setting off the fire alarm and locking her captors inside.
She starts a fire in Nick’s apartment, and as the building burns, she grabs a photo of her family and escapes. Six months later, the police have investigated and the Bartholomew is being torn down. Jules watches the first wrecking ball hit the building, still searching for information about her sister Jane.
