Review: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

Title: The Paris Apartment

Author: Lucy Foley

Year published: 2022

Category: Adult fiction (thriller)

Pages: 368 pages

Rating: 4 out of 5

Location: (my 2022 Google Reading map): France

Summary: 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.

Review: I enjoyed the other Lucy Foley book I read (My The Guest List reveiw), but was a bit wary beginning this one as I have heard mixed reviews. I read it on my plane flights to New York this week and it was a good book for that.

I did not enjoy this one as much as The Guest List, but it was still a good read. It reminded me of Riley Sager's Lock Every Door (which was excellent) with both being set in an old building where the neighbors are all key players.

I wanted Jess to figure out what was going on, I wanted her brother Ben to be okay, and I wanted the other strange inhabitants of the house to get what was coming to them. So I cared about the characters, it just took a bit too long to reveal what was happening and I felt like it went in a direction that was totally unexpected (a good thing), but seemed out of character with the first part of the book.

I do feel like the novel deals with some good issues, but I don't want to say what they are since that will give away the story. And, I definitely got caught up in the last 70 page or so, wanting to know what would happen.

Challenges for which this counts: none