Review of "The Escape Room: A Novel of Suspense" by Megan Goldin

The investment bankers at Wall Street's 'Stanhope and Sons' have been flying high - closing deals and making megabucks -until recently, when business started to dry up.



Fearing for their jobs - and keenly aware that bonus time is approaching - a group of four bankers reluctantly agree to a team-building exercise on a Friday evening.

Group leader Vincent and his associates Sam, Sylvie, and Jules are summoned to an isolated high-rise building where they enter an elevator and discover it's an 'escape room' - a game where players work together to find clues and solve puzzles in order to escape.



A flatscreen informs them "Your goal is simple. Get out alive."



The elevator lights go off, there's no Wi-Fi, and phone signals are blocked, so the team members are in the dark and on their own. Under Vincent's direction the group finds a couple of random clues and cogitates over writings that appear on the flatscreen, but they don't make any progress towards getting out.



Still, the group is pretty sanguine, knowing escape room doors open in an hour no matter what. So the team members expect to continue with their evening plans. Sam is going to meet his wife and twins at the airport, to embark on their vacation; Sylvie anticipates flying out to see her boyfriend; and Jules plans to continue the drinking he began earlier in the day.

As the sixty-minute mark approaches, the group members spiff up, face the elevator doors, and wait. But the doors don't open!

After that things go from bad to worse. The heat in the elevator cranks up; the team members get thirsty; they start to fight amongst themselves; they blame each other for their situation; they make threats;



they become injured; they try to force the elevator doors open; and so on.



The action in the elevator alternates with chapters narrated by a woman named Sara Hall.....



.....a former employee of Stanhope and Sons who had been on Vincent's team.



We learn that, after graduating from business school, Sara had a hard time getting into the male-dominated banking field; was deeply in debt for student loans and her sick father's medical bills; had to work back-breaking hours; had a contentious relationship with her female teammate;



garnered smaller bonuses than her male co-workers; and more. It's clear that Sara is disgruntled about her experience at the Wall Street firm.

Meanwhile, the teammates in the elevator start to recall....and perhaps regret....some of their past behavior.

Most readers will probably know where this tale is heading, but it's still suspenseful, with plenty of twists and surprises.

Some parts of the book are hard to believe, but I enjoyed the story, which is off the beaten track.

Rating: 3 stars