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A review by hales230
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
dark
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I was incredibly excited for this book when I first heard about it. I'm one of Those People who feels that their life was changed by their study abroad experience, and I try my hardest to not be insufferable about it, but gosh do I love books set in Paris, and this was in many ways exactly what I expected it to be in that regard. I'm not sure if I'm a little biased because the city is so familiar to me already, but I really felt like I was there - Lucy Foley knows how to set a scene.
This is an interesting, sort of locked-room mystery, and I was hooked from the beginning. Jess needs to get out of the UK immediately, so she calls up her brother, Ben, and asks if she can come stay for a while. He agrees reluctantly, but when she gets there, he's not answering the door or his phone. He's left her a weird voicemail, and it's all she has to go on. She tries to get some answers from Ben's neighbors, but they're a strange, unfriendly bunch, and she's starting to get a bit freaked out.
Lucy Foley definitely has a formula - I've read The Guest List as well, and it's similar in that there's a Thing that's happened, and you see the perspectives of a group of people who all seem suspect in some way or another, and a bunch of secrets become uncovered along the way before you get to the big secret of how/why the Thing happened. It may be a bit formulaic, but that doesn't mean she doesn't do it well. I really liked the pacing of this book - honestly better than The Guest List. It felt like we were uncovering secrets at a normal rate, not it all just sort of getting thrown in in the last quarter of the book, like I sort of felt with The Guest List. The layers get peeled back in a much more satisfying rate in The Paris Apartment, in my opinion.
And the characters, ugh. I didn't particularly like any of them, but they sure were interesting. Jess and Ben have a complicated past that was really interesting to unravel, especially not actually knowing Ben, just hearing about him from the other characters. Sophie -the socialite - was the consummate parisienne. Besides the whole dark secrets that all these characters have going on and the absent husband, she reminded me a lot of my wealthy Parisian host mom - it's an archetype, and Foley really nailed it, but still gave Sophie a lot of interesting depth. Nick - the nice guy - is the type of character I never fully trust in these types of books (everybody always has some deep dark secret), but he was really interesting and even though I found him a bit predictable, still a good counter to Jess' character (also, lol that his name is Nick Miller and her name is Jess - Lucy Foley, did you do this on purpose? She mentions that Jess can't Google Nick because all that shows up is New Girl, but I wonder if Jess was coincidental or not). The other characters - Camille (the girl on the verge), Antoine (the alcoholic) and the concierge (who is never named) - had me intrigued too (less so Antoine, since he isn't one of our narrators, but nonetheless) -but Sophie, Nick, and Jess hooked me the most, I'd say.
Serious spoilers!! Read at your own risk!! I have to add in some parts about what I did and did not see coming. I totally did not guess that the Meuniers were a family, and just like Jess, I was like omg how did I NOT see this??????? It made SO much sense once it was explained. I did, however, guess that Nick was gay very early on. The vague mentions of Amsterdam had me convinced that him and Ben either hooked up or killed someone. The wine as a front for what basically amounts to prostitution was crazy - I figured it was some sort of front, but I didn't fully see that coming. And then at the end, I don't know how I didn't consider very seriously that Jaques was also dead until I read Nick unsettled, staring at an alive Ben, wondering who the heck he just buried - like literally I feel like I should've seen it coming but alas I didn't think that hard about the missing patriarch, mostly because he seemed terrible. I did view Nick as the red herring of who she sort of wants you to think did it, and thought that it was Mimi, and I was both right and wrong there, I guess. Right perpetrator, wrong victim. The twist with the concierge was the perfect addition for her character, too - it made SO much sense and I liked the way it tied all of them together, and you understand why she's lived like this for so long.
This is an interesting, sort of locked-room mystery, and I was hooked from the beginning. Jess needs to get out of the UK immediately, so she calls up her brother, Ben, and asks if she can come stay for a while. He agrees reluctantly, but when she gets there, he's not answering the door or his phone. He's left her a weird voicemail, and it's all she has to go on. She tries to get some answers from Ben's neighbors, but they're a strange, unfriendly bunch, and she's starting to get a bit freaked out.
Lucy Foley definitely has a formula - I've read The Guest List as well, and it's similar in that there's a Thing that's happened, and you see the perspectives of a group of people who all seem suspect in some way or another, and a bunch of secrets become uncovered along the way before you get to the big secret of how/why the Thing happened. It may be a bit formulaic, but that doesn't mean she doesn't do it well. I really liked the pacing of this book - honestly better than The Guest List. It felt like we were uncovering secrets at a normal rate, not it all just sort of getting thrown in in the last quarter of the book, like I sort of felt with The Guest List. The layers get peeled back in a much more satisfying rate in The Paris Apartment, in my opinion.
And the characters, ugh. I didn't particularly like any of them, but they sure were interesting. Jess and Ben have a complicated past that was really interesting to unravel, especially not actually knowing Ben, just hearing about him from the other characters. Sophie -the socialite - was the consummate parisienne. Besides the whole dark secrets that all these characters have going on and the absent husband, she reminded me a lot of my wealthy Parisian host mom - it's an archetype, and Foley really nailed it, but still gave Sophie a lot of interesting depth. Nick - the nice guy - is the type of character I never fully trust in these types of books (everybody always has some deep dark secret), but he was really interesting and even though I found him a bit predictable, still a good counter to Jess' character (also, lol that his name is Nick Miller and her name is Jess - Lucy Foley, did you do this on purpose? She mentions that Jess can't Google Nick because all that shows up is New Girl, but I wonder if Jess was coincidental or not). The other characters - Camille (the girl on the verge), Antoine (the alcoholic) and the concierge (who is never named) - had me intrigued too (less so Antoine, since he isn't one of our narrators, but nonetheless) -but Sophie, Nick, and Jess hooked me the most, I'd say.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Trafficking, and Murder
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Suicide
Minor: Emotional abuse and Homophobia