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A review by afterplague
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
mysterious
slow-paced
- 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? No
2.5
I had high hopes for The Paris Apartment. I've previously read two of Lucy Foley's books and I enjoyed them both a lot! I gave both The Guest List and The Hunting Party four stars. So when I heard this book getting a lot of praise I couldn't wait to pick it up.
Unfortunately, this one turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. The primary issue is the pacing. In my opinion, nothing really meaningful or even intriguing happens until the 60% mark of the book. That's a lot of pages where I'm sitting around and waiting for something to happen. It's probably the nature of the protagonist compared to her other books.
Jess is not affiliated with the people in the apartment building at all, when her other novels revolved around a close knit group of friends with a lot of history. There is history between those in the apartments as they've been neighbors for a while, but they're all hiding something. The reader doesn't really get to understand their relationships to each other until, again, around the 60% mark. It just leaves the first half of the novel floundering a bit, and it made it really boring.
Jess is in Paris after an altercation forced her to leave London in a hurry, but when she arrives at her brother Ben's apartment, he's not there. There's also no trace of a body. It's a pretty interesting set up! I enjoy not having concrete evidence of exactly what happened. It does mean that it's a little more of an "interview" based investigation, but those can be enjoyable as well.
The characters are pretty interesting. Once we get to the halfway reveal we get to know a lot more about them, and they all start displaying motive as the killer. They each had distinct personalities, and each of the perspectives were valuable within the context of the story. Jess as a protagonist is fine as well. She's a woman who grew up hard, and is unafraid to do what she needs to in order to survive. I liked the skills that she displayed, like picking locks and knowing when she's being followed, and her ability to read people was good.
The atmosphere was good as well. The apartment building feels very gothic, a grand old thing that used to be beautiful. I like that a lot! The setting made Jess feel more trapped in her predicament and more isolated in who she could go to for help. The writing was also good. I don't really have anything notable to say about it.
A little spoiler section below so be warned.
I was really impressed by the twist that all those in the separate apartments were actually part of the same family. Sophie and Jacque in the penthouse are the parents, and Mimi, Antoine, and Nick are their adult children. That twist got me pretty good.
Unfortunately, the twist of who the killer was did not. At about the 25% mark, I made the prediction that there was no one killer. They all did it, Murder on the Orient Express style, and I was mostly correct. The surprising twist of who the victim was turned out to be pretty unexpected though.
The plot also takes a strange turn from being about this one murder to being about a hidden brothel that traps women into working for them by taking their passports. Honestly, it's a good plot point and a very good reason the family would want to shut Ben, a journalist, up. It just felt a little bit out of place as a last act reveal because it's SUCH a big secret. There's police corruption involved and politicians and secret family reveals, and it just starts to become a bit of a tangled up knot.
There's also a lot of mentions of these protests/riots, but I don't believe they were ever important to the story. They had nothing to do with the mystery, and they didn't impede the investigation at all. It was kind of pointless filler.
Overall, I think that the book was a little boring, and a bit too convoluted at the end. It's not going to stop me from reading Foley's work in the future, but this one was a miss for me.
I would recommend if you're a patient reader who enjoys the build up to a reveal. That is not me, though.
Unfortunately, this one turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. The primary issue is the pacing. In my opinion, nothing really meaningful or even intriguing happens until the 60% mark of the book. That's a lot of pages where I'm sitting around and waiting for something to happen. It's probably the nature of the protagonist compared to her other books.
Jess is not affiliated with the people in the apartment building at all, when her other novels revolved around a close knit group of friends with a lot of history. There is history between those in the apartments as they've been neighbors for a while, but they're all hiding something. The reader doesn't really get to understand their relationships to each other until, again, around the 60% mark. It just leaves the first half of the novel floundering a bit, and it made it really boring.
Jess is in Paris after an altercation forced her to leave London in a hurry, but when she arrives at her brother Ben's apartment, he's not there. There's also no trace of a body. It's a pretty interesting set up! I enjoy not having concrete evidence of exactly what happened. It does mean that it's a little more of an "interview" based investigation, but those can be enjoyable as well.
The characters are pretty interesting. Once we get to the halfway reveal we get to know a lot more about them, and they all start displaying motive as the killer. They each had distinct personalities, and each of the perspectives were valuable within the context of the story. Jess as a protagonist is fine as well. She's a woman who grew up hard, and is unafraid to do what she needs to in order to survive. I liked the skills that she displayed, like picking locks and knowing when she's being followed, and her ability to read people was good.
The atmosphere was good as well. The apartment building feels very gothic, a grand old thing that used to be beautiful. I like that a lot! The setting made Jess feel more trapped in her predicament and more isolated in who she could go to for help. The writing was also good. I don't really have anything notable to say about it.
A little spoiler section below so be warned.
I was really impressed by the twist that all those in the separate apartments were actually part of the same family. Sophie and Jacque in the penthouse are the parents, and Mimi, Antoine, and Nick are their adult children. That twist got me pretty good.
Unfortunately, the twist of who the killer was did not. At about the 25% mark, I made the prediction that there was no one killer. They all did it, Murder on the Orient Express style, and I was mostly correct. The surprising twist of who the victim was turned out to be pretty unexpected though.
The plot also takes a strange turn from being about this one murder to being about a hidden brothel that traps women into working for them by taking their passports. Honestly, it's a good plot point and a very good reason the family would want to shut Ben, a journalist, up. It just felt a little bit out of place as a last act reveal because it's SUCH a big secret. There's police corruption involved and politicians and secret family reveals, and it just starts to become a bit of a tangled up knot.
There's also a lot of mentions of these protests/riots, but I don't believe they were ever important to the story. They had nothing to do with the mystery, and they didn't impede the investigation at all. It was kind of pointless filler.
Overall, I think that the book was a little boring, and a bit too convoluted at the end. It's not going to stop me from reading Foley's work in the future, but this one was a miss for me.
I would recommend if you're a patient reader who enjoys the build up to a reveal. That is not me, though.