Lock Every Door: A Novel

Content Warning: The source text references multiple deaths by suicide and deals with the psychological effects of trauma, loss, and grief. It also uses stigmatizing and potentially offensive language to refer to people experiencing mental illness.

Jules Larsen, 25, wakes up in pain in an unfamiliar place. Voices surround her. They tell her that she’s at a hospital. A man named Bernard explains that she’s been hit by a car outside the Bartholomew. Jules begs not to be sent back there.

Jules arrives at the Bartholomew, one of the oldest apartment buildings in Manhattan, after responding to an online ad seeking temporary tenants. She meets with a woman named Leslie Evelyn, who conducts her interview and tour. Jules immediately feels out of place. The Bartholomew is “one of [New York’s] most storied addresses” (6). Jules’s favorite book, Heart of a Dreamer by Greta Manville, is set here. Her sister, Jane, read it to her throughout her childhood.

Leslie lays out the Bartholomew’s ground rules. The people of the Bartholomew believe that an occupied building is most functional. The previous 12A tenant died, and they need someone to fill the space for three months.