No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich or famous or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen’s new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan’s most high-profile and mysterious buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is taken in by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind.
As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly, disturbingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story—until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.
Searching for the truth about Ingrid’s disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew’s dark past and into the secrets kept within its walls. Her discovery that Ingrid is not the first apartment sitter to go missing at the Bartholomew pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building’s hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent.
This was a fun read… But not a very good read.
A lady down on her luck…could not be further down on her luck …incredibly down on her luck becomes a flat sitter. My point here being that its somewhat overly explained about how badly this young lady has it – oh and how very plain she is. The initial part of this book over pressed this point with several explanations on how terrible her life was. I understand that the author is trying to paint a picture on why she is in this situation but it felt over done.
“The elevator resembles a birdcage. The tall, ornate kind – all thin bars and gilded exterior. I even think of birds as I step inside. Exotic and bright and lush. Everything I’m not.”
She takes on the very overpaid role of flat sitter, and ends up in a creepy yet beautiful building with an amazing penthouse apartment. This building is full of rules, rich people and as she discovers, horrifying secrets. The young lady in question makes dubious decisions (as a lot of main characters do I guess). Harasses a lot of people and gets overly involved in a mystery that I kind of thought had I been in the same situation I probably wouldn’t have bothered looking into (I’m not a bad person I promise).
It was a little slow in the middle, lots of tease about what the big secret could be and who it would involve. But it ended up dragging a tiny bit – slowly being fed information that seem to have very little relevance to the ongoing story line.
I enjoyed the characters who lived or worked in the Bartholomew they had depth and the interactions with them worked well. I enjoyed the description of the building, its history and bizarrely her interactions with the environment (shout out to her telling off the gargoyle for pushing her off the roof) and there were odd humorous parts that made me laugh.
The twist at the end was something that I appreciated but mainly this was because the ending that was hinted at would have been truly awful and a bit of a let down. Therefore, when it went in another direction I was very pleased.
The ending had beleivability issues however, I think you have to give authors some artistic licence (especially with thrillers) and I feel comfortable stretching real life a little to go with the story and I was happy to do with this book.
Relatively fun thriller, quick read, don’t expect too much.
2 out of 5 biscuits