The Apartment Across the Hall by Jack Dane

They say you can’t pick your neighbors… but can you survive them?

When Salem Ripley moves into her apartment in New York City, she’s disheartened to find it isn’t exactly like the pictures. Still, with her past, she’s lucky to find a place at all.

Her neighbor across the hall is tall, dark and handsome. After seeing his beautiful girlfriend, Salem can’t help but obsess over the couple and their perfect life.

Then Salem sees her neighbor with another girl. And another. And another. The strangest part? She never sees the women leave.

Salem should ignore it.. After all, it’s really none of her business. But she can’t shake the strange feeling that something is wrong–and that lives are at stake. She has no choice–she has to find out what’s going on in the apartment across the hall…

Review

The Apartment Across the Hall dives into the dark side of what can lurk behind closed doors: We follow Salem, who recently moves to a New York City apartment, and becomes entangled in a disturbing situation (to say the least) involving her new secretive neighbour, Victor.

Dane’s writing is engaging and does a good job at creating a sense of unease within the walls of Salem’s new living situation, with tension gradually building throughout the first half of the book as Salem notices some clues that eventually lead her to start investigating what’s going on with Victor and her attempts to warn others.

The plot, though suspenseful, goes into a bit of OTT territory and some things were not entirely believable.

I love the symbolisms though, some examples like:

The numerous layers of paint on the building’s doors and walls representing the hidden history and concealed truths of the apartment.
The recurring motif of blood as a potent symbol of violence and hidden trauma.

While the story does require some suspension of disbelief, The Apartment Across the Hall is a solid psychological thriller that has great character development that you rarely see in thrillers these days.