Title: The Paris Apartment
Author: Lucy Foley
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: February 2nd, 2022
Standalone/Series: Standalone
Genre: Adult Fiction – Thriller – Mystery
My rating in stars:
My rating in words:
I really liked it!
WHAT IT’S ABOUT:
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List comes a new locked room mystery, set in a Paris apartment building in which every resident has something to hide…
Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.
The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.
The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge
Everyone’s a neighbor. Everyone’s a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.
MY THOUGHTS (spoiler-free):
“It’s a beautiful building, but there’s something rotten at its heart. Now he’s discovered it, he can smell the stench of it everywhere.”
I actually did it. I read a book that did not feature any swoony romance or epic dragons. I read a thriller, my first thriller in maybe YEARS and… I quite enjoyed it!
Lucy Foley’s books have been whispering to me for ages, but I’ve been wondering whether thrillers were really my cup of tea. But then one day I decided to just go for it and I picked up her latest release, The Paris Apartment. It’s a story about Jess, who gets into some trouble at home and decides to travel to Paris and stay at her half-brother Ben’s place for a while. But when she gets there, Ben is nowhere to be found. What she does find is an empty apartment, a weird bleach stain on the floor, a cat with bloody paws and a bunch of unwelcoming neighbors. Cue the mystery.
The story is told from multiple POV’s. Of course we have Jess, who was a very intriguing main character. Jess is an orphan who spent her childhood in foster care and has quite the traumatic past. But she’s also tough and resilient, if a little reckless. And then the story is also told from the POV of multiple other people living in the building: Sophie, the rich lady in the penthouse apartment; Mimi, the 19-year old artist; Nick, the nice guy; and The Concierge, the old lady who takes care of the building and sees everything. Every single one of them is suspicious and every single one of them seems to know more than they’re telling.
The tone is tense and eerie from the beginning. I quite liked the writing, it was suspenseful and kept me guessing until the very end. Admittedly, the story did start quite slow and not much happened at first other than one creepy situation after another, but once the first reveal is there, the story quickly moves towards the shocking conclusion and I couldn’t put the book down.
As I’m not a regular thriller reader, I’m not sure if I would review this the same as other bloggers who have more experience with thrillers, but for me it was a great first experience. I really enjoyed The Paris Apartment and thought it had the perfectly eerie atmosphere and was filled with the right amount of tension and suspense for this scaredy cat. I’ll be checking out more Lucy Foley for sure, and maybe even branch out to some other thriller authors. Recommendations are always welcome!
Tell Me:
Have you read The Paris Apartment? What did you think about it?
I’ve enjoyed Lucy Foley before, so I’m excited for this one! I don’t read many thrillers these days, either, but it sounds like this one delivers!
I need to try more Lucy Foley because I definitely enjoyed this one. Hope you’ll love this one too!
I loved that you loved a thriller. I need you to read Tarryn Fisher and A.R. Torre. I think those are thrillers that might work for you.
Thanks for the recs! I just added some of their books to my TBR 🙂
YAY!!
Just so you know, I think Fisher’s self-published are better than her newer traditional stuff. It is darker, though. But people seem to love her newer stuff, too.
Oh I saw so many of her books, it was hard to choose where to start! I think I added An Honest Lie and The Wives to start with.
I loved this one!!!
It was such a nice read!
I really want to read this one. I’m glad you enjoyed it. 😀
Hope you’ll love this one too!