The Apartment

By: S L Grey

Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith, Fiona Hardingham

A haunting thriller about a troubled married couple whose vacation to Paris leads them into a nightmare.

Mark and Steph have a relatively happy family with their young daughter in sunny Cape Town until one day when armed men in balaclavas break in to their home. Left traumatized but physically unharmed, Mark and Steph are unable to return to normal and live in constant fear. When a friend suggests a restorative vacation abroad via a popular house swapping website, it sounds like the perfect plan.

They find a genial, artistic couple with a charming apartment in Paris who would love to come to Cape Town. Mark and Steph can't resist the idyllic, light-strewn pictures and the promise of a romantic getaway. But once they arrive in Paris, they quickly realize that nothing is as advertised. When their perfect holiday takes a violent turn, the cracks in their marriage grow ever wider, and dark secrets from Mark's past begin to emerge.

Deftly weaving together two complex and compelling narrators, S. L. Grey builds an intimate and chilling novel of a disintegrating marriage in the wake of a very real trauma. The Apartment is a terrifying tour de force of horror, of psychological thrills, and of haunting suspense.

©2016 S L Grey (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Gripping, creepy as hell, and the dread will linger for days afterwards." (Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining Girls and Broken Monsters)

"Dark and deeply disturbing. Trust me - this tense and frightening piece of horror is not for kids - or for the faint-of-heart. I'm still shuddering." (R. L. Stine, New York Times best-selling author of Goosebumps and Fear Street)

" The Apartment is a perfectly crafted, deeply unsettling thriller: a portrait of a marriage unraveling, of the haunting and the haunted, and the idea that grief might be a door that can let other horrific things in. This book had me turning on all the lights, checking under the bed and in the closet, and savoring every terrifying page." (Jennifer McMahon, New York Times best-selling author of The Night Sister)

W onderful reader

This story is built around a common
premise. It brings no surprises, no appealing characters, no real answers
to what that thing hiding with the mol dy dust bunnies is or how it does it's ugly, dirty, smelly nasty job.
Without the female reader, this book would earn only a 2. She does so well, I
hung on through the entire reading - just in case the author created something
better than it is. Save your money.

The Apartment

Good listen, good story, keeps you coming back. narrators are good. kind of strange but still good.

Damn.

A paranormal psychological-thriller that reads like an inside-out murder-mystery. I don’t even know what that was, but I’m here for it.

So Perfect.

I am not a fan of audio books as I find the pace too slow. Not the case here. I played it while unpacking and arranging my own new apartment. Simply brilliant. This book is perfection. I can't imagine a person who enjoys psychological crime thrillers being less than thoroughly engaged with this novel. "The Apartment" is gripping, tantalizing, fun, smart...you name it. Enjoy.

hard to make the back of the head look alive

Good stuff all the way around. Genuinely creepy atmosphere and imagery. It very much did get under my skin. A little slow here and there, but I don't mind a little slow. And I don't need an exploding vehicle every other page. Look elsewhere if you do. But I'm telling you, don't pass this one up. You'll be missing out on a case of the creeps.

Deliciously Creepy

This one grabs at the throat fairly quickly and doesn't let go until the shocking end.

The Apartment

Not what I was expecting. The story left me feeling like a lot was missing.

Both narrators do a very good job reading.

A creepy thriller - not as scary as I hoped

This was an interesting story, got creepy at times, but not much horror as I wanted. A little all over the place but I really wanted to know what was going to happen!!

Creepy and Enjoyable

What did you love best about The Apartment?

The protagonists are a married couple with a small daughter who live in Capetown and are recovering from a break-in at their home. Their decision to do a house-swap with a Paris couple seems like the perfect much needed vacation on a budget. These are well-drawn characters who we really get to know throughout the story, but that doesn't mean they are always good people all the time- a. It naive, a bit unstable, but that's what keeps things interesting.

Have you listened to any of Nicholas Guy Smith and Fiona Hardingham ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, and both narrators are always good. I especially enjoy Fiona Hardingham.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There were some great moments when the couple is in Paris. Very atmospheric and mysterious, between the apartment and the general ambiance of the city in winter.

Any additional comments?

Shocking revelations from alternating POV characters really serves to emphasize the relationship between two people who probably don't know each other as well as they think. Overall a great read and kept me engaged with creepy traditional horror aspects along with good characterization- I recommend this one!

Entertaining read

I enjoyed everything about the book until the last chapter. The last chapter felt rushed and I was left feeling like I missed something. I was disappointed and the story felt incomplete. But overall I enjoyed this book.