Book Review: ‘The Paris Apartment’ by Lucy Foley

Having read and enjoyed Lucy Foley’s previous books, ‘The Hunting Party’ and ‘The Guest List’, I was pleased to pick up ‘The Paris Apartment’ – another standalone mystery/thriller. Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read the book in exchange for an honest review.

The story centres on Jess, a young woman visiting Paris to stay with her half brother, Ben (as well as running away from her life in England). He lives in a luxurious apartment block but – when she arrives – Ben is missing. The other residents of the block are not helpful – and some are downright hostile to Jess and about Ben. As Jess struggles to piece together the events surrounding Ben’s disappearance, she also begins to uncover some shady secrets about the residents of 12 Rue des Amants…

I think this might be my favourite of all Foley’s books. I started reading with no expectations about what would happen – and I kept reading with no clue what was coming next. There are just so many twists in this story that already starts with a mysterious disappearance.

The chapters are narrated by lots of the different characters, although the main narrator is Jess. I liked that the characters were all quite distinct, which made the book easy to read, even if they did occasionally fall into caricatures of French people, e..g. the chic older woman, the wild young woman, the gentleman wine connoisseur. Jess was easily the most relatable as she blundered her way through situations she didn’t understand.

Foley plots the narrative well, with plenty of cliffhangers and revelations to keep any reader going. There were some slightly unbelievable elements, but I don’t want to detail them here in case they are spoilers! Instead, I recommend you just go with it and enjoy the ride – it’s a lively, fun and fairly light read.

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Header photo by Dragonfly Ave on Unsplash