One of my personal goals for 2021 is to finally make more time to read slightly older books that I missed when they were first published. This past week, I made a dent in my list of books that fall under this category by devouring Megan Goldin’s thrilling debut novel THE ESCAPE ROOM, which was first published in hardcover in 2019. In this engaging, page-turning suspense novel, Goldin puts a clever spin on the concept of a “locked room mystery”—here, locking a group of ruthless Wall Street hot shots in an escape room where the game isn’t just complicated, it’s deadly. When four rising stars in an elite investment banking firm are invited by their company’s HR department to participate in an escape room challenge, they find it odd, sure, but they are quick to comply. Anything to climb the corporate ladder. But the group quickly discovers that this is no ordinary escape room, and that the stakes in this game are higher than any of them could have imagined. Page-turning pacing and loads of entertainment value make THE ESCAPE ROOM a dark and sinister delight to read; a cast of wholly unlikeable yet vividly crafted characters brings this story to life, and keeps readers on their toes, unsure of who (if anyone) they can trust. Megan Goldin’s debut thriller delivers clever entertainment and devious plotting, the kind of book that you can read in in one or two sittings.