Synopsis:
Getting in is easy. Getting out is murder.
Four young Wall Street rising stars discover the price of ambition when an escape room challenge turns into a lethal game of revenge.
In the lucrative world of finance, Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are at the top of the game. They have mastered the art of negotiating and finalizing deals, and celebrate their success in style.
But living a life steeped in extreme luxury comes at a cost.
Ordered to report to a high rise building that is still under construction, they believe that they have been summoned to participate in a team-building exercise. The competitive quartet step into the elevator en route to the seventieth floor.
When the lights go off and the elevator doors won’t open, they quickly realize that they have not been directed to appear for an ordinary competition. They are trapped in a game of survival.
In the dark elevator, the colleagues must put aside their bitter rivalries and work together to solve cryptic clues that they are convinced will set them free. But during the course of the game, their individual dark secrets come to light. The terrible acts they’ve committed in their ruthless pursuits for success revealed, tempers fray, the clues turn outright deadly, they must solve one final chilling puzzle. Which one of them will kill in order to survive?
“Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive.”
Review:
The Escape Room is the debut thriller from author Megan Goldin, an Australian journalist who has reported from the Middle East and Asia for news outlets such as the Associated Press, Reuters, and Yahoo. She also worked as a news editor.
Escape rooms have become extremely popular over the past few years. Contestants are locked in a room together, provided clues, and must solve riddles or puzzles in order to escape. Goldin says that inspiration for The Escape Room was cemented as a result of reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. That book made her “look at the corporate world through the prism of evolutionary biology as a modern-day human habitat. Instead of hunting and gathering and living in caves, it’s penthouses, Hermès, and plush Wall Street offices. And instead of bringing back bison from the hunt, it’s junk bonds and bonuses.” Thus, Goldin decided to examine the world of finance, megawealth, office politics and workplace culture, and pervasive and ongoing sexism through the lens of an escape room in which the stakes couldn’t be higher. She wanted to “explore what would happen if you strip down all the pretense of the camaraderie and reveal all the office politics and machinations.”
At the heart of the story is Sara Hall. In a compelling first-person narrative, Sara relates her experiences at Stanhope and Sons. She is hired shortly after completing her MBA summa cum laude, but not from an ivy league school. And that leaves her scrambling despite her grades, excellent references, and successful completion of an internship. But she survives the rigorous interview process and lands the job. During the new employee orientation, the firm’s message, “pummeled into us was that our world revolved around money: making it, accumulating it, spending it — in that order. It was Stanhope’s version of the Holy Trinity.” Sara finds herself making a lot of money, but without a life. The firm provides plenty of perks, but demands complete loyalty and “blind, cultlike reverence.”
Sara’s narrative alternatives with a third-person moment-by-moment description of what transpires in the elevator. Vincent is the manipulative team leader who initially attempts to reassure his three subordinate employees that the exercise will last only one hour, at the end of which they will all be released whether they have solved the riddles presented to them or not. An hour elapses during which hot air blasts into the elevator in which a screen lights up with messages and clues. The door cannot be opened, there is no way to escape the influx of suffocatingly hot air, and the participants’ cell phone batteries are being drained as they use the flashlight apps to illuminate their surroundings. One hour turns into many hours, as the clues become more troubling and their fear more pronounced.
Sam Bradley has served as Sara’s mentor over lengthy, expensive lunches. He wanted to be a human rights lawyer, but has over time transformed into a cynic, sacrificing his ideals and values in the name of making money. He knows that he has become a slave to his demanding wife, Kim, as well as his own ego. And he is going to miss the flight to Antigua that Kim has made “a test of his commitment to their marriage.” Sylvie is enmeshed in an affair with a married man who has made it clear that if she fails to meet him in Paris their relationship will be over. She is beautiful, stylish, and has learned to navigate a male-dominated profession by perpetually displaying an expression “a few degrees short of a resting bitch face.” She is not a friend to other women. Jules is an alcoholic whose job performance has declined as a result of his drinking. All four of them are aware that the firm is considering layoffs due to recent failures to cement critical deals. They are all aware that they have “red targets on their backs” and, accordingly, not appearing when summoned for the escape room exercise was not an option.
As the hours drag on, revelations of secret machinations, betrayals, and resentments ratchet up the tension and potential for dire consequences in the elevator. The mystery at the heart of the characters’ dilemma? Who has ordered them there and why? Are they going to be released? Or is the mastermind behind the deadly game determined to eliminate the players?
I realized why the firm gave us such generous perks and pay. It was to skew our moral compass so that we wouldn’t hesitate, wouldn’t flinch, when we had to be ruthless. ~~ Sara in The Escape Room
Sara is an empathetic character — idealistic and committed to her career. Close to her parents, her desire to succeed is motivated not only by her own ego. Her father has been ill for many years and her earnings make it possible for her to ensure that his medical costs are covered, as well as care for her mother. At the outset, Sara is naive and unprepared for the cutthroat environment into which she is thrust. And she is understandably excited about her new career and her future. Sara describes the friendship she develops with Lucy, a brilliant member of the team who is mentored and protected by Vincent. He tells Sara that she is “on the spectrum” and “awkward in social situations.” But the two women develop a camaraderie as Sara comes to realize that Lucy is “the most sincere person in the entire team” which “said more about the team than about her.” Goldin credibly and heartbreakingly demonstrates the evolution of their friendship and its profound impact upon several characters, but primarily Sara. And Sara’s gradual disillusionment, disappointment, and regret. She acknowledges that “you block out the things you don’t want to see. All I saw that first year at Stanhope was that I’d made it to the big time.” Her pain is understandable, palpable, and in Goldin’s deftly-crafted story, compelling. Every reader will empathize with Sara at the moment she experiences “the first twinge that maybe I didn’t belong” at Stanhope.
The Escape Room is engrossing and clever. Aside from Sara and Lucy, Goldin’s characters are despicable and morally bankrupt. She explains how some of them devolved to their current loathsome state, and challenges her readers to consider whether they can or should be redeemed — if they survive. The story is replete with shocking revelations about the characters’ behave that explain and inform their circumstances. It is a captivating mystery, but it is also a savvy exploration of the characters’ relationships, alliances, and motivations that have delivered them to the challenge they must face together. The Escape Room is an unvarnished, unapologetic indictment of the misogyny and sexism that still permeate American workplaces, and a morality tale about greed, competitiveness, and an obsession with success . . . at any cost.
The pace of The Escape Room is unrelenting. The jaw-dropping conclusion may likely disappoint readers Goldin skillfully convinces to emotionally invest in her characters and their well-being, but it is undeniably inventive and, on some levels, deeply satisfying. There are many themes worthy of discussion which makes The Escape Room an excellent choice for book clubs. It has already been deemed one of the best books of 2019 for good reason, and bodes well for readers anxious to read more from Goldin, a talented and provocative new voice in fiction.
Excerpt from The Escape Room
ONE
THE ELEVATOR
Thirty-four Hours Earlier
Vincent was the last to arrive. His dark overcoat flared behind him as he strode through the lobby. The other three were standing in an informal huddle by a leather sofa. They didn’t notice Vincent come in. They were on their phones, with their backs to the entrance, preoccupied with emails and silent contemplation as to why they had been called to a last-minute meeting on a Friday night at an out-of-the-way office building in the South Bronx.
Vincent observed them from a distance as he walked across the lobby toward them. Over the years, the four of them had spent more time together than apart. Vincent knew them almost better than he knew himself. He knew their secrets, and their lies. There were times when he could honestly say that he’d never despised anyone more than these three people. He suspected they all shared the sentiment. Yet they needed one another. Their fates had been joined together long before.
Sylvie’s face bore its usual expression, a few degrees short of a resting-bitch face. With her cover-girl looks and dark blond hair pinned in a topknot that drew attention to her green eyes, Sylvie looked like the catwalk model that she’d been when she was a teenager. She was irritated by being called to an unscheduled meeting when she had to pack for Paris, but she didn’t let it show on her face. She studiously kept a faint upward tilt to her lips. It was a practice drummed into her over many years working in a male-dominated profession. Men could snarl or look angry with impunity; women had to smile serenely regardless of the provocation.
To her right stood Sam, wearing a charcoal suit with a white shirt and a black tie. His stubble matched the dark blond of his closely cropped hair. His jaw twitched from the knot of anxiety in his guts. He’d felt stabbing pains ever since his wife, Kim, telephoned during the drive over. She was furious that he wouldn’t make the flight to Antigua because he was attending an unscheduled meeting. She hated the fact that his work always took precedence over her and the girls.
Jules stood slightly away from the other two, sucking on a peppermint candy to disguise the alcohol on his breath. He wore a suave burgundy-and-navy silk tie that made his Gypsy eyes burn with intensity. His dark hair was brushed back in the style of a fifties movie star. He usually drank vodka because it was odorless and didn’t make his face flush, but now his cheeks were ruddy in a tell-tale sign he’d been drinking. The minibar in his chauffeured car was out of vodka, so he’d had to make do with whiskey on the ride over. The empty bottles were still rattling around in his briefcase.
As they waited for their meeting, they all had the same paranoid notion that they’d been brought to a satellite office to be retrenched. Their careers would be assassinated silently, away from the watercooler gossips at the head office.
It was how they would have done it if the positions were reversed. A Friday-evening meeting at an out-of-the-way office, concluding with a retrenchment package and a nondisclosure agreement signed and sealed.
The firm was considering unprecedented layoffs, and they were acutely aware they had red targets on their backs. They said none of this to one another. They kept their eyes downcast as they worked on their phones, unaware they were the only ones in the lobby. Just as they hadn’t paid much mind to the cranes and construction fencing on their way in.
Sam checked his bank account while he waited. The negative balance made him queasy. He’d wiped out all the cash in his account that morning paying Kim’s credit-card bill. If he lost his job, then the floodgates would open. He could survive two to three months without work; after that, he’d have to sell assets. That alone would destroy him financially. He was leveraged to the hilt. Some of his assets were worth less now than when he’d bought them.
The last time Sam had received a credit-card bill that huge, he’d immediately lowered Kim’s credit limit. Kim found out when her payment for an eleven-thousand-dollar Hermès handbag was rejected at the Madison Avenue store in front of her friends. She was mortified. They had a huge blowup that night, and he reluctantly restored her credit limit. Now he paid all her bills without a word of complaint. Even if it meant taking out bridging loans. Even if it meant constantly feeling on the verge of a heart attack.
Sam knew that Kim spent money as much for attention as out of boredom. She complained that Sam was never around to help with the twins. He’d had to point out that they’d hired a maid to give her all the help she needed. Three maids, to be truthful. Three within the space of two years. The third had walked out in tears a week ago due to Kim’s erratic temper.
Kim was never satisfied with anything. If Sam gave Kim a platinum necklace, she wanted it in gold. If he took her to London, she wanted Paris. If he bought her a BMW, she wanted a Porsche.
Satisfying her unceasing demands was doable when his job prospects were good, but the firm had lost a major account, and since Christmas word had spread of an impending restructure. Everyone knew that was a euphemism for layoffs.
Sam never doubted that Kim would leave him if he couldn’t support her lifestyle anymore. She’d demand full custody of the girls and she’d raise them to hate him. Kim forgave most of his transgressions, she could even live with his infidelities, but she never forgave failure.
It was Sam who first heard the footsteps sounding through the vast lobby. The long, hurried strides of a man running late to a meeting. Sam swung around as their boss arrived. Vincent’s square jaw was tight and his broad shoulders were tense as he joined them without saying a word.
“You almost didn’t make it,” observed Sylvie.
“The traffic was terrible.” Vincent ran his hand over his overcoat pocket in the habit of a man who had recently stopped smoking. Instead of cigarettes, he took out a pair of glasses, which he put on to examine the message on his phone. “Are you all aware of the purpose of this meeting?”
“The email invite from HR wasn’t exactly brimming with information,” said Sam. “You said in your text message it was compulsory for us to attend. That it took precedence over everything else. Well, we’re all here. So maybe now you can enlighten us, Vincent. What’s so important that I had to delay my trip to Antigua?”
“Who here has done an escape-room challenge before?” Vincent asked.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Sam said. “I abandoned my wife on her dream vacation to participate in a team-building activity! This is bullshit, Vincent. It’s goddamn bullshit and you know it.”
“It will take an hour,” said Vincent calmly. “Next Friday is bonus day. I’m sure that we all agree that it’s smart to be on our best behavior before bonus day, especially in the current climate.”
“Let’s do it,” said Sylvie, sighing. Her flight to Paris was at midnight. She still had plenty of time to get home and pack. Vincent led them to a brightly lit elevator with its doors wide open. Inside were mirrored walls and an alabaster marble floor.
They stepped inside. The steel doors shut behind them before they could turn around.
Excerpted from The Escape Room by Megan Goldin. Copyright © 2018 by Megan Goldin. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin’s Press. All rights reserved.
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5 Comments
I’m excited to read The Escape Room because I just love thrillers and this sounds soo good!
Wow! This sounds intense!
I like thrillers that have twists & turns. You don’t know where it will go next. 🙂
I have been dying to read this. The fact that it takes place in an elevator is intriguing.
I love the challenge of the idea.