I really enjoyed Lisa Unger’s new Christmas novella, so I decided to check out her latest. This will be an audiobook review of The New Couple in 5B by Lisa Under, complete with spoilers and ending explained!
Written and edited by Jen Ryland. Last updated on:
The New Couple in 5B by Lisa Unger
To be published on March 5, 2024.
Audiobook read by Vivienne Leheny. 12 hours 8 minutes. Produced by Harlequin Audio. Thanks to LibroFm for the advance listening copy. I listened to this book in February 2024.
Jen’s Quick Take on The New Couple in 5B
- Spooky “murder building” setting
- Really kept me guessing
- Paranormal elements
- Past/present narrative that alternated between a current and past resident
- Got a little wacky at the end
Plot Summary for The New Couple in 5B
Rosie and Chad Lowan are struggling creatives in New York City. He’s an actor, and she’s a writer. But Chad’s uncle dies, leaving his luxury apartment not to his own daughter, but to Chad. Rosie, who needs a new idea for a book, decides to research and write about their new building, the Windemere.
But Rosie discovers that there have been many tragic deaths at the Windemere. She could swear she sees ghosts, and has the feeling someone is watching her.
Review of The New Couple in 5B
In a nutshell, I thought The Couple in 5B had a cool premise and a spooky paranormal vibe, but that things got a bit chaotic at the end.
As for the audiobook listening experience, I think the narrator did a great job with both male and female voices. However, between the past/present timeline (there are chapters narrated by Willa, who lived in the building with her husband in the 1960s), the paranormal elements, and all the craziness at the end, I got a little confused. There will be spoilers but if you’ve read this I could use a double-check!
In more detail, I loved the Rosemary’s Baby feel of The Couple in 5B. The book gave me a great sense of the Windemere, a luxury doorman building on Park Avenue in the 30s.
For present day novel comparisons, this reminded me a bit of Lock Every Door by Riley Sager (about creepy goings-on at a luxury Manhattan apartment building) and The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (about a sinister Parisian apartment building.) Ironically, both of these books also got a little wacky at the end. I also have an entire post on Thrillers Set in Creepy House and Buildings, if you love this sort of thing!
What I did enjoy about The New Couple in 5B
Rosie was an appealing and relatable narrator. There were some characters in the book who were clearly up to no good and others I had my eye on.
There was an overarching sense of menace and suspense.
I don’t usually love paranormal elements, but I thought they were well done!
But there was a lot going on: the past/present timeline, Rosie’s tensions with her family, Chad’s dark past, the creepiness surrounding Uncle Ivan and his daughter, and Rosie and Chad’s relationship.
Spoilers for The New Couple in 5B and the Ending Explained
BEWARE: Spoilers Below
So, as I said above, I got a bit confused at the end. HELP ME if you can fill in the gaps.
Ella and Charles Aldridge were the main villains, convicted of killing Xavier and Dana, plus kidnapping and drugging Rosie, Chad, Max, Sarah, and Olivia with fentanyl. (But were they guilty of all this?)
Abi/Aby the Windemere doorman (a guy, but unsure of the spelling as I listened) was being blackmailed by Charles and Ella to help them in their crimes. Abi was (SHOCKER!) also the lover of Willa back in the 1960s. Was he the one who killed Ella and Charles’s son Miles (because Miles knew that Willa and Abi were having an affair? How old is Abi, anyway? His mother is in a nursing home, but even if she’s in her 90s, he was pretty young during the affair.)
Max, Rosie’s close friend and her former editor, was having a secret relationship with Olivia, the lawyer. But they broke up.
The Big Twist
It was no surprise to me or other early readers on social media that Rosie’s husband Chad is a scheming pathological liar and serial killer. He:
- is a Chad. Sorry to all real-life Chads 🙂
- lied to Rosie about the fact that he didn’t know Lillian, Ella and Charles’s daughter.
- killed Betty, Ivan’s nurse, to cover up the fact that he
- manipulated Ivan into giving him the apartment and then
- killed Dana before she could reveal to Rosie that he
- killed his girlfriend Bethany
- and possibly Bethany’s brother, who was blamed for the crime.
- and even his own parents.
Question for You:
Rosie was COMPLETELY clueless about all this. Completely! How do we feel about this?
In addition, Chad was the one who gaslit Rosie by destroying the letter from Ivan to Dana.
Okay so what was with all the ghosts?
Ghost Willa tries to warn Rosie about Chad when she figures out that yes, he is a serial killer. On Instagram I discussed with a friend how we all knew a character named Chad had to be no good!
Ghost Miles tries to help Chad kill Rosie? Did Abi really kill him or was it an accident?
Please give me your thoughts in the comments!
Really want to read those spoilers but the show me button doesn’t show me the spoilers, just an ad w a sign up. I’m not signing up for anything to read them. Please unlock! Thank you
Hi Molly!
Thanks so much for the feedback, which I genuinely appreciate! The protected spoilers are on the newest books only. Since this book has been out a month, it is on my to do list to remove the protection this weekend.
The protection is not an ad, but a sign-up for my newsletter.
Just to explain: I LOVE spoilers too but they are time-consuming to write. In the past month the Google algorithm has been extremely harsh to small, independent bloggers like me and many of us are wondering if and how we can keep going. My ads help cover the cost of running a website and the protected spoilers help me collect emails so I can let you know about new posts and new spoilers! If Google stops showing you the posts of small bloggers like me, a newsletter is one of the only other ways I can let people know about my content. It makes me sad, too!
I was thinking of doing a post or a newsletter asking for feedback on the spoiler protection and offering other options that would help me keep this site going, like a spoiler membership or a password protection on spoiler posts for newsletter subscribers.
Thanks again for your comment. My main goal is to be helpful to readers, so I really value your input.
Jen, I love your reviews and would have loved to sign up. Google never worked for me but put me in a constant cycle unable to agree and unable to find out what to do. The Facebook option just had me sign in – and worked well. Just checked FB option worked fine and I got signed up.
Hi Ellie and thanks so much for the feedback. I am glad you were able to access the spoilers and hope you enjoy my emails.
I am really hoping Google comes to their senses and realizes that people don’t want AI content they didn’t ask for.
I was so excited when the audiobook finally became available on Libby, but ultimately it was a DNF for me. I got a little over a third of the way in and when I saw there was still almost 8 hours left I just couldn’t do it—I was so sure I knew the main twists that it was hard to be super invested in any of the characters or what was going to happen. (Based on the spoilers you provided I was right.) I also felt like Rosie wasn’t that interesting a character, and every time it switched over to the Willa chapters I kind of zoned out. Based on what I did get through it just felt like the book didn’t need to be nearly as long as it was.
I’m sorry it wasn’t for you! I also did the audiobook and I agree, sometimes with audio it’s hard to stick it out if you’re not really feeling the book. I didn’t love the past/present format either. But I do love the “house/apt with a dark past” trope, so overall I liked the book.