The Escape Room by Megan Goldin

The Escape Room

by Megan Goldin

Hardcover, 368 pages

Expected publication: July 30th 2019 by St. Martin's Press (first published May 28th 2018)

Goodreads synopsis:

Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are ruthlessly ambitious high-flyers working in the lucrative world of Wall Street finance where deception and intimidation thrive. Getting rich is all that matters, and they'll do anything to reach the top.

When they are ordered to participate in a corporate team-building exercise that requires them to escape from a locked elevator, dark secrets of their team begin to be laid bare.

The biggest mystery to solve in this lethal game: What happened to Sara Hall? Once a young shining star—”now gone but not forgotten”.

This is no longer a game. 

They’re fighting for their lives.

***

4.5 Stars

This book begins with us getting a good look into the life of Sara Hall. Her struggles and worries as she tries to get a job at Stanhope and Sons financial firm. She needs the money to help pay her dad’s medical bills. Her first interview at Stanhope is a bust and while in the elevator leaving she meets Vincent. She takes a chance and gives her resume to him and weeks later she finally has her dream job. Vincent is the leader of one of the financial teams in Stanhope and Sons. His team consists of Jules, Sylvie, Lucy and Sam. This is a tight knit group and getting along in Stanhope is all about business and image. It is cut-throat and her co-workers are not her friends. It is like working in a pit of vipers.

Lucy is the lone standout of the group. She is super smart and is probably the single person keeping the firm making money. She has a sixth sense about how money works. Sara befriends her. But they can only be friends out of the office. Them knowing she and Lucy were friends would not work out well for either of them. When Lucy is found dead from an apparent suicide, Sara knows there is definitely something wrong at Stanhope.

The Escape Room jumps back and forth between the story of Sara Hall and the four members of Vincent’s team being stuck in an elevator doing what they believe to be experiencing a team building challenge. They are in an escape room. Stanhope is notorious for throwing challenges at them at any time of the day or night. But this challenge turns deadly as the clues they uncover lead them to distrust each other more and more. If any of them survive by Monday morning it would be a miracle.

This is a suspense-filled roller coaster ride. UN-PUT-DOWNABLE! I spent over half the book wondering what Sara Hall had to do with any of what was happening in the secondary storyline. I had no clue. But I knew what I wished would happen. I wished Vincent had been a nicer guy. I wished he and Sara had gotten together romantically. But that wasn’t to be for this book and in this world. The ending is worth waiting for and I marveled at how long it took to not only set it up but the patience of making the escape room trap perfect. I almost wish there was a book two. After the Fallout of the Escape Room.

Great read. Check it out.

Highly recommended.