The Escape Room
Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are the elite of the finance world—ruthless, wealthy, and entirely unapologetic. But their extravagant lifestyles hide a steep moral price. When the fiercely competitive quartet steps into a high-rise elevator for a corporate escape room challenge, the power cuts out, the doors lock, and the real game begins. Trapped in pitch blackness, they are forced to decipher cryptic, deadly clues that systematically expose the horrific secrets behind their climb to the top. Pushed to the brink, the colleagues must face one final, terrifying question: who among them is willing to commit murder to make it out alive?
- Vincent - Senior VP at Stanhope and Sons
- Sylvie - Employee at Stanhope
- Sam - Employee at Stanhope
- Jules - Lawyer at Stanhope
- Sara - New employee at Stanhope
- Eric - Former employee at Stanhope
- Lucy - Employee at Stanhope
- Cathy - Lucy’s mother
- An elevator takes Vincent, Sylvie, Sam and Jules to the 70th floor.
- A screen lights up with the message, ‘Welcome to the escape room, your goal is to get out alive.’
- The first clue comes on the screen, ‘Gone but not forgotten Sara Hall.’
- The second clue points to Eric.
- The third clue says ‘How much do you trust each other?’
- They find an envelope containing their annual bonuses and the differences in amounts cause a lot of friction.
- Before: Sara gets a job working on Vincent’s team at Stanhope.
- Sara and Lucy become friends, but Lucy asks Sara to keep it a secret at work.
- Lucy is found dead in her bathtub from electrocution - it’s ruled suicide.
- A year later Cathy dies in a hit and run.
- Sara reads in Lucy’s diary that, a few days before her death, Eric sexually assaulted and threatened her at work.
- Then she was sexually assaulted again in an elevator leaving work that day.
- Lucy called Sylvie for help but Sylvie told her to suck it up and not file a complaint.
- When Sara tells Vincent about the diary entry he tells her to stop making unfounded accusations.
- In the coming weeks, Sara is shut out by her co-workers and intentionally given impossible deadlines.
- Her performance suffers to the point she is fired.
- Present: Sam confesses to Vincent that Eric drugged Lucy and had two interns sexually assault her in an elevator at work.
- Jules was in the elevator when it happened, and Sylvie was the one who put the drug in Lucy’s drink.
- Before: Sara finds writing on a record Lucy left her that proves insider trading was taking place at Stanhope via a shell company called The Circle Inc.
- There were also bank details listing Sam, Jules, Sylvie, Lucy and Vincent on the account.
- Present: Sam tells Vincent that the day after her assault, Lucy told him she was going to the cops and come clean about the insider trading and tax evasion they were involved in via The Circle.
- Sam drugged Lucy, dictated the suicide note, then plugged in her tablet and threw it in the bathtub with her.
- Sam also paid a man to run over Cathy when she called Stanhope after Lucy’s death asking questions about The Circle.
- Before: Sara fakes her death by disappearing and emailing her roommate while posing as a relative, claiming that Sara had died in a car accident.
- Sara got a fake ID as Stephanie Anderson and a job in IT at Stanhope.
- Sara orchestrates Vincent, Jules, Sam and Sylvie being locked in the elevator to punish them for Lucy’s death, ruin their careers and steal all of The Circle’s money.
- Present: Jules lunges at Sylvie with a broken piece of glass and she fires two shots.
- One kills Jules and the other ricochets around the elevator, hitting Sylvie in the abdomen and Vincent in the chest.
- Sam picks up the gun and waves it around when the elevator doors open, and he is shot by police.
- Sara steals all of The Circle’s money and is living a life of luxury.
This book shifts back and forth between the high-stakes situation inside the elevator and Sara's past at the offices of Stanhope and Sons. Even though it is heavily marketed around the elevator trap, it isn't truly a locked-room thriller. The bulk of the narrative focuses on Sara and her time working at Stanhope. The interactions between the trapped characters felt pretty flat compared to Sara's backstory, making the elevator scenes much less engaging than I expected.
The pacing held my attention for a good chunk of the story, helped along by the medium-length chapters, but the momentum eventually stalled out. I was invested until the last hundred pages or so. By that point, the ultimate twist was glaringly obvious, and instead of hitting us with a sharp reveal, the narrative just dragged. The final fifty pages were especially drawn out because the author went into way too much detail explaining the exact setup that got everyone into the elevator in the first place, which killed any remaining tension.
The character development was just okay across the board. I never found myself fully invested in the outcomes for any of them. There were also several dangling plot threads that felt like missed opportunities. I also wanted a deeper dive into Vincent and Lucy's dynamic. Vincent clearly had a soft spot for her, and I kept waiting for a special connection to be revealed but none came.
If you like corporate greed tropes, dual timelines, and toxic workplace thrillers, then you might enjoy this book.
- Lucy - Dead - Electrocution orchestrated by Sam
- Cathy - Dead - Run over by a man hired by Sam
- Sylvie - Dead - Hit by a ricochet bullet she fired
- Jules - Dead - Shot by Sylvie
- Vincent - Dead - Hit by a ricochet bullet fired by Sylvie
- Sam - Alive - Last seen exiting the elevator after being shot by police
- Sara - Alive - Living in luxury after getting her revenge
- Alcholism
- Sexism
- Suicide
- Sexual assault
- Death of a parent
- Murder
ISBN: 9781250219664
Publication Date: July 7, 2020
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
