In “The New Couple in 5B,” author Lisa Unger brings us a tale which will remind those of us of a certain age of Ira Levin’s work, namely “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Sliver.” As I was reading this very gripping novel, I kept thinking about those intriguing and slightly horror-filled novels, and how echoes of those came to my mind.
We really like main character Rosie Lowan, who left her childhood in the rural south, where her father was a “preacher” and her mother read cards and told fortunes. She felt that her family were all scammers, even though she experienced things that she can’t logically explain. She moved to New York City, studied, and became a writer with one published book under her belt that did respectably well. She met an extremely handsome actor named Chad, and it was love at first sight.
Her best friend Max is also her editor. She and Max started in publishing together, and after she left the publishing house to try writing her book, they remained best friends as well as having a writer/editor relationship. Max wasn’t really a fan of Chad, but Rosie feels it’s because he wanted to take their relationship to another level, while she didn’t reciprocate those feelings. She’s in love with her husband, and they are trying to start a family. For the past few years, they’ve been caring for Chad’s Uncle Ivan and staying with him, taking care of him as he was dying. Surprisingly, he left his apartment in an historic building on Park Avenue to them both instead of leaving it to his estranged daughter, Dana.
Dana is furious and shows up at Rosie’s apartment. She tells Rosie about the bequest and also threatens to tell her things about Chad she claims Rosie doesn’t know. In fact, after Rosie and Chad move into the new apartment, Dana contacts her and tells Rosie to come visit her, but not to tell anyone at the apartment building about it. “Don’t trust anyone,” she cautions Rosie. Rosie follows her advice, but when she and Max arrive at Dana’s studio, Dana is hanging from the ceiling, dead.
People begin dying all around Rosie and Chad. First Chad’s uncle died, then Dana. Then one of the tenants who was going to share some information about the building with Rosie at coffee the next day, falls from the top of the building. The nurse who had helped care for Uncle Ivan also mysteriously disappears. There’s also the tragic story of the couple who lived in that apartment before Ivan, and Unger slowly shares their heartbreaking story with us to its dramatic conclusion.
In the meantime, Rosie is investigating the building because it features largely in the new book she is writing about haunted buildings in New York. And Rosie has seen strange things in their building, including the ghost of her neighbor’s son who was killed when he was young — the same neighbors who are overly friendly, organizing dinners and astrology nights at their apartment. In fact, Rosie and Chad’s apartment had been part of that neighbor’s until they partitioned it off in the 1960s and sold the smaller half.
Rosie is also made uncomfortable by Abi, the rather mysterious doorman, who seems decades younger than his age. He is everywhere and seems to never leave the property. The recently installed security system includes monitors so that all the residents have to do is say, “Hey, Abi,” and he responds. (Shades of Siri!) Rosie is convinced that the cameras in the hallway record everything even though Abi insists that there are no recording capabilities. There’s also the case of the missing box of documents that Abi helped her carry downstairs to a cab when she went to visit Dana. The box included a letter from Ivan to Dana. When Rosie arrived at her destination, she found that the box was not in the trunk of the cab where she thought Abi had placed it. And Abi denied ever seeing it. When the box mysteriously turned up back inside her apartment, the letter was missing.
Is Rosie going crazy, or are those around her conspiring to make her think that? As she learns incriminating information about her husband, Rosie doesn’t know whom to turn to. And we are breathlessly along for this thrilling and dangerous ride. When the twists come, we still know enough to brace ourselves for more. And are we glad that we did, because the final twists are truly stunning. I really enjoyed reading this one – time flew by as I was reading late into the night.
Please note: This review is based on the advance reader’s copy provided by Park Row Books, the publisher, for review purposes.