The New Couple in 5B (25 in 2025 #12)

Author: Lisa Unger
Title: The New Couple in 5B Publisher: Park Row Date Published: 03/05/2024

Read Dates: 06/06/2025- 06/07/2025
Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

The New Couple in 5B is a mostly single POV thriller told from the perspective of Rosie, a true crime writer. She and her husband, struggling actor Chad, inherit a luxury apartment from Chad’s’ uncle. The building, the subject of Rosie’s next book based on a history of deaths, is too tempting to pass up. The couple moves in, only to find that not everything at the Windermere is what it seems!

This was my first Lisa Unger book and I really enjoyed it. I was able to guess some of the twists, and others kept me guessing. I enjoyed the occasional glimpses into the past (a handful of chapters told from the perspective of a former resident in the building) and the unexpected nature of the story!

Rosie and Chad Lowan are barely making ends meet in New York City when they receive life-changing news: Chad’s late uncle has left them his luxury apartment at the historic Windermere in glamorous Murray Hill. With its prewar elegance and impeccably uniformed doorman, the building is the epitome of old New York charm. One would almost never suspect the dark history lurking behind its perfectly maintained facade.

At first, the building and its eclectic tenants couldn’t feel more welcoming. But as the Lowans settle into their new home, Rosie starts to suspect that there’s more to the Windermere than meets the eye. Why is the doorman ever-present? Why are there cameras everywhere? And why have so many gruesome crimes occurred there throughout the years? When one of the neighbors turns up dead, Rosie must get to the truth about the Windermere before she, too, falls under its dangerous spell.