Classic thriller gets a modern spin in ‘The New Couple in 5B’
In New York City, real estate can be a blood sport.
Rosie Lowan learns that all too well in “The New Couple in 5B,” the latest psychological thriller from bestselling author Lisa Unger.
Rosie, the book’s narrator, is a sunny young woman, but Unger wastes no time creating a sense of creeping dread around her. As the novel opens, Rosie is having a very bad day.
She and her dazzlingly charming husband, Chad, have been caring for his dying Uncle Ivan, a retired war photographer. Now that Ivan is gone, they need to get their fledgling careers back up to speed – Chad is an aspiring actor, and Rosie has written one successful true-crime book but is stalled on starting another.
Money is tight, and the rent just went up on their East Village apartment. But today Rosie is lunching at a posh restaurant with Max, her editor and longtime best friend, to talk about her new book proposal, and she’s hopeful.
Then he says, “There’s a lot to like here.”
Rosie worked in publishing before becoming a writer, and she tells us, “That’s publishing code for I don’t like it.”
Truth be told, she doesn’t like it much herself. But Max, ever the friend and skilled editor, talks her through some ways to get excited about the idea. Just as she’s perking up, a disturbing, perhaps deadly accident happens on Broadway, right outside the window they’re seated by.
Just coincidence, of course. Within minutes the victim is taken away and a restaurant employee is cleaning a smear of blood off the window. Just another day in New York City, right?
Rosie goes home badly shaken, only to find another unpleasant surprise. Chad has gone to hear the reading of Ivan’s will, not that they expect anything.
Ivan’s only remaining asset was the gorgeous, sprawling apartment he’d bought long ago in a swanky, century-old Park Avenue building called the Windermere. His only other relative is his longestranged daughter, Dana. Rosie has assumed that, despite the troubles between them, Ivan would leave the apartment to Dana.
But Dana shows up at Chad and Rosie’s place before Chad does, and she’s vibrating with fury: Ivan left his apartment to them.
For Chad and Rosie, that’s great news. Not only will the apartment be a splendid place to live, it’s worth millions. And there’s one more advantage: Rosie’s book proposal is for a history of the Windermere, not just the beautiful structure itself (built on the site of a church that burned down) but its “famous residents including a bestselling novelist, a celebrated sculptor and a young stage and screen star. It’s also had more than its fair share of dark events – grisly murders, suicides and terrible accidents.”
Now she’ll have an insider’s access while doing her research. She and Chad have already met some of the other residents while caring for Ivan. Rosie is especially intrigued by Abi, the reserved but elegant doorman who seems somehow to always be on duty and able to anticipate the tenants’ needs. He’s worked at the Windermere for decades and, Rosie is sure, will be a source for its secrets.
There are also the longtime neighbors across the hall from Ivan’s place, an older couple named Charles and Ella Aldridge, who enjoy hosting parties. They’re most welcoming to Rosie and even take an interest in her efforts to get pregnant.
But Dana’s anger doesn’t dissipate. Odd things happen. The old stories Rosie uncovers about the Windermere are even darker than she had supposed, and she begins to wonder about its present residents.
Then someone connected to the Windermere dies, and then someone else.
If some of this reminds you of “Rosemary’s Baby,” the classic 1967 horror novel by Ira Levin or the terrific 1968 movie based on it, it’s supposed to. Unger scatters references to that tale through her book like breadcrumbs – or bone fragments – and builds the same atmosphere of a young woman caught amid slowly enveloping terror, but she puts her own entirely modern spin on it.
Unger’s last book,”Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six,” took effective advantage of a remote mountain cabin as its setting. In this book, she brings just as much foreboding to the most urbane setting imaginable.
Unger skillfully weaves Rosie’s firstperson narration in the present with chapters set in the past that hold some of the book’s most effective twists. And she keeps the reader guessing as the threats escalate: Is the devil in the details at the Windermere, or just the evil that men do?
The New Couple in 5B
By Lisa Unger, Park Row Books, 375 pages, $28.99.