A special thank you to Edelweiss, NetGalley, Macmillan, and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you also to St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to be a part of the Blog Tour.
Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are high-rollers in the world of finance. They are relentless in their pursuits and are masters of their craft and their lavish lifestyles are proof of their successes. But this life of luxury comes at a great cost—a grueling schedule and oftentimes unrealistic expectations and deadlines.
The four are called in for an after-hours meeting on a Friday night. Given the out-of-the way location, and their recent failure to close on too many lucrative deals, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam fear that they've been summons as a result of their poor performance and that they are going to be made redundant. Vincent informs them that they are actually there to participate in an escape room challenge. Agreeing that it is smart to be on their best behaviour before bonus day, and their competitive personalities getting the best of them, they pile into the elevator. But when the doors shut and they are plunged into darkness, it quickly becomes apparent that they are trapped.
Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive.
What starts off as a game turns into survival. Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam need to put aside their differences and work together to solve clues in order to be freed. But when the game reveals the secrets they've been hiding from one another, they realize that the terrible things they've done to get them where they are come at a high price. The final puzzle: which one of them will kill in order to survive?
Goldin's debut is a stomach-dropping ride. Alternating between past and present, the cast of characters are completely ruthless and will stop at nothing to succeed. They are fuelled by the rush that comes with making high-profile deals and will do anything that the company asks of them. Despite the unlikeable characters, or in spite of them, this story is totally compelling.
There are a few times where the reader has to suspend their disbelief, and in this case I'm willing to overlook it because it was so enthralling! Also, there were pockets in the narrative where it got repetitive and a touch (dare I say) predictable. But because it was so entertaining, I was completely captivated.
Whether it is a commentary on corporate finance, or greed itself, the writing is clever and razor-sharp and I can't wait for more from Megan Goldin.
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MEGAN GOLDIN worked as a correspondent for Reuters and other media outlets where she
covered war, peace, international terrorism and financial meltdowns in the Middle East and Asia.
She is now based in Melbourne, Australia where she raises three sons and is a foster mum to
Labrador puppies learning to be guide dogs.
Q & A With Megan Golden
How did you become inspired to write The Escape Room?
There were a number of inspirations that led to me writing
The Escape Room. First of all, I’d had
my third baby and, for the first time since my working life began, I'd taken a year or so out of the
workforce to be with him. When I started looking to go back to work, I interviewed for a job for
which I should have been a serious candidate as my experience closely matched the job
description and I'd done something similar before for a similar company. Instead, the interviewer
ate snack food throughout the interview with, let's just say, very bad table manners. He crunched
particularly loudly every time that I spoke. I drew on this experience when I wrote about the job
interview from hell that Sara Hall went through in
The Escape Room. It made me feel powerless.
I told friends about what happened and they shared with me their own horror stories in the
workplace. It made me want to explore sexism in the workplace in my next novel. It also
inspired the idea of a revenge theme. I liked the idea of someone who is beaten down by the
system making a comeback.
Around that time I was also stuck in an elevator. I’d gone shopping with my kids. I had a cart full
of food. The elevator stopped and the lights went off. It took a couple of minutes until we were
able to get out but it was a dark, cold, and frightening couple of minutes in that elevator. I’d been
thinking about a setting for this thriller revenge story that I had in mind. It struck me that the
elevator was a perfect setting. I was fired up by the challenge of setting a novel in an elevator. It
also served my purpose well. I wanted to put my characters in a pressure-cooker atmosphere
where animosity would build as they learned each other’s secrets. An elevator was perfect.
What was your research process like when writing about the financial industry in the
U.S?
When I research my books, I apply journalism skills acquired over the years. That means
immersing myself in whatever information I can get ahold of. I read books, newspaper articles,
elevator manuals, and even journal studies on human psychology. I also followed forums for
investment bankers and others working in the financial industry and some of their social media
feeds. I spoke with people who worked in the world of finance and also drew on material that I’d
collected in the past. For example, there were big name investment banks in my previous office
building and I’d often overhear bankers and brokers chatting in the elevator about their personal
lives and work, or in my condominium building where many of them lived. I tend to write and
research at the same time as I don’t plan my novels other than the story arc. As the story evolves
on the pages while I write, I’ll stop writing for a few hours and branch out to research whatever
might be relevant for the novel. In the case of
The Escape Room, that included issues such as
‘game theory’ and things as mundane as technical manuals about elevator safety mechanisms
and issues related to guns and ballistics. The research is one of the fun parts of writing a novel. I
get to learn new things and it breaks up the intensity of writing.
Are there any authors that you most look up to?
There is an endless list of authors, from crime and thriller writers, to literary fiction, classics, and
non-fiction. Now that I am writing myself, I tend to analyze other books as I read. I look at plot,
structure, character, voice, and various other writing techniques. Even as a journalist, I always
saw writing as a constant process of learning and refining. I think it’s a lifelong endeavor.
Among my favorites is John le Carre. I consider his novels master classes in suspense writing
and I often reread them. Yuval Noah Harari's series, starting with
Sapiens, was another
inspiration behind
The Escape Room, as I’d been reading it and watching Yarari's lectures on
Youtube. It made me look at office culture through a prism of evolutionary biology. Offices are a
modern-day human habit and the backbiting office politics is really a case of survival of the
fittest.
If The Escape Room was to become a movie, which actor or actress would you like to play
some of the roles?
Well, a close friend just suggested Bradley Cooper for Vincent! Or perhaps Colin Farrell, Ryan
Gosling or Jesse Eisenberg for Sam and Jules. As for actresses, maybe Jennifer Lawrence for
Sylvie, or Anne Hathaway or Margot Robbie for Sara Hall. Lucy could be Emily Blunt.
Do you have any upcoming projects you’re working on?
I am working on my next book. It's also a thriller and it addresses contemporary themes but it's
quite different from
The Escape Room. I'm a little hesitant about how much to divulge at this
point until it's done.
Anything else you’d like to add?
I'm extremely touched by all the support and feedback that I've been getting from so many
bloggers and reviewers who are passionate about
The Escape Room and who love the characters.
Thank you all so much.
