Book Review: "The Paris Apartment" by Lucy Foley

 *Spoiler warning!*

Somewhere between 3 to 3.5/5 stars

The Paris Apartment was an entertaining mystery/thriller taking place in a posh Paris apartment. My rating is based on my being spoiled by The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and that some of the twists were a bit easier to guess. All that notwithstanding, I found myself absorbed by the story.

Everything was sketchy as soon as the story opens. 

Our protagonist, Jess, has come to Paris to visit her half-brother, Ben. She has escaped from a rather toxic employment situation in England and seeks to reconnect with the brother she hasn't seen in a while. There may or may not have been cash theft involved. Jess grew up in the foster care system. Ben was adopted, but she was not. She feels abandoned, but she still cares about Ben. Jess is no angel, scrappy and reckless, yet readers will find themselves rooting for her to solve the mystery of this story.

Jess arrives at her brother's address, but he's not answering. Of course, Ben is not there to buzz her in. He seems to have vanished into thin air. She has nowhere else to stay, so ends up getting herself into the apartment building with the help of one hostile resident and her own ability to pick-lock doors. 

Every apartment resident she meets over the course of a tense couple of days treat her as if she's dangerous, and tend to start at her questions of where her brother, Ben, is. Let's just say they all gave off airs of hiding something. It definitely kept me guessing.

Let's take inventory. There's the reclusive Mimi, with serious psychological issues. (Serial killer in waiting?) She lives in one of the apartments with her more outgoing, party-girl roommate, Camille. Then there's Antoine, an abusive drunkard, whose wife, Dominique, is leaving during the time this story is set. Antoine's seeming opposite, the Cambridge-educated Nick, seems to be the most normal of them, although he is clearly troubled. Finally, living in the top-floor penthouse, there is Sophie, and her frequently absent husband, (and raging misogynist) Jacques. 

Me @ Jacques: 

Jess enlists the help of a few people to help her untangle the mystery: Nick, who'd been friends with Ben in their Cambridge days and seems to want to help, and Ben's journalistic contact, Theo. (Although, I was screaming at Jess not to trust Nick, because he was clearly hiding something, like everyone else in the cursed apartment building, even if he was a "nice guy." If there's anything I've learned from the few mystery/thrillers I have read, is to trust no one. Even Theo, I had questions about.) Turns out Ben was working on some sort of investigative piece that he had pitched to Theo before his mysterious disappearance. 

This is where some things started to click for me in the story. Rich people don't like people like Ben digging into their business. This premise made the story all the more realistic, notwithstanding that in the background, the Yellow Vest protests were happening in other parts of Paris. 

The whole atmosphere becoming sinister and almost echoing each other. There was the obvious violence of the loud street protests and the more silent, but no less violent happenings in the shadows. This is proven by Jess's various excursions into both the rich and poor sections of Paris in search of clues.

Although, I gotta say, the author clearly set up that Ben had been hurt or worse by someone in the apartment building. I was saying to myself, "Ah yes, one of you silenced Ben and the rest of you are covering." But when what ultimately had happened was explained, I was not expecting the twists (in retrospect, I should have) involved.

Ultimately, The Paris Apartment was a decent enough story to keep me occupied, a good literary escape into a city I have not had the opportunity to visit yet.

--BookOwl