Lucy Foley's Novel "The Paris Apartment" - An Intriguing Tale of Love and Mystery

Paulrbuzz: I say another as I came to this after reading The Guest List, which was also very good. Both novels attest to Foley's ability to surprise while she weaves an absorbing tale. I also appreciate her character development. There are always gray areas as there are in all of us. Definitely a recommendation. Someplace to let yourself sink into.

United States on Dec 06, 2023

Ian: A very good novel. Short chapters kept me interested throughout. The characters held your interest and did not confuse the story. Overall a very good read.

United Kingdom on Dec 05, 2023

Cindy Adair: Wow! What a tangled web of secrets and deception! The author does a masterful job of weaving a story that keeps you guessing. Just when you think you know what happened, there’s a twist.

The story centers around a young woman coming to stay with her brother in Paris. He is renting an apartment in a several story building. When she gets there, he has gone missing. The story is told from the views of six different characters who all live in the building. With so many views (each a new chapter), it takes a minute to really follow the story, but once you settle in, the story takes off.

This was a well written mystery thriller and I definitely recommend it!

United States on Dec 04, 2023

MJ Smith: This was my first Lucy Foley mystery. Her writing style is a great style, each chapter stated in the first person, but switching back and forth, giving you a fascinating perspective as you keep seeing what happened through the perspective of all the main characters. And, the story is delightful murder mystery, our heroine, Jess, is the gutsy, nosy, bold, sister of the missing person, who refuses to back off. Jess is written so well. Flawed and filled with shortcomings, unsure of exactly what is going on, but street smart and tenacious as a bloodhound on the scent. Foley also gives some very smart twists in the story that also added a little more believability in terms of motives and how the crime unfolded. After the story Lucy Foley gives you incite into what inspired this story, and I really enjoyed reading that as well, as you could definitely see the influences of Alfred Hitchcock, Georges Simenon, and others.

United States on Nov 22, 2023

Adam Manning: 🔆REVIEW🔆

𝑴𝒂𝒚 𝑭𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝑺𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒚!!

𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰:
I LOVE THIS BOOK! I thought about this book when I wasn’t reading it, my mind would wonder about what would happen next and what the final scene would entail. It was an easy read and I didn’t want it to be over. This was my first @lucyfoleyauthor novel and I purchased her two previous novels before I finished this one. I am suddenly a huge fan!

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐝:
➖The setting, I love all things Paris and while I don’t feel it made a huge part of the book I enjoyed it.
➖The story wasn’t one that felt forced. The story unfolded gently and with good pacing.
➖The characters were very diverse and they all surprised me in one fashion or another. The concierge was my favorite.
➖I really enjoyed the ending

𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐍𝐢𝐭𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠:
➖There weren’t as many intense scenes as I had hoped for originally. This isn’t necessarily negative but I was hoping my blood pressure would have been raised a few more times.
➖In hindsight I wish the hidden door, the...

United States on Oct 23, 2023

patricia: Kept me wanting to read it. Every chapter revealed something different with lots of twists in story.
The characters are described well as is the place they live.

United Kingdom on Oct 18, 2023

Sammi Davies: Jess goes to Paris to visit her half brother Ben, but when she arrives he's disappeared. Whilst trying to find out what has happened to Ben she meets the other residents of the apartment building and piece by piece tried to unravel the secrets.

Told from multiple points of view, you get to know and understand each characters thoughts and backstory.

I love a good whodunit and this was exactly that. Everyone is a suspect and you don't know who to trust. I felt fully immersed in this story from the way it was written and become really invested in the characters.

I feel this was giving Only murders in the building meets Emily in Paris vibes.

United Kingdom on Sep 11, 2023

Montag: This trend of writers starting of books with a really, exciting premise to hook the reader only to deliver an average story has to stop. The novel starts off really good. The premise is amazing - really suspenseful and great. But that soon dies quickly. The story is incredibly slow paced. I was like 200 pages in and still focused on one scene - like it’s so so so slow paced, it hurts your brain. This wasn’t a murder mystery at all (like it’s advertised) it was a disappearance case. All the characters chapters are written in the same way, they are all very different - young girl, a elderly lady, a man, a mother - there is no reason why they should all speak the same. No twists at all, the ending was guessable as Ben’a body was never found and no murder was confirmed until 40 pages before the ending. There’s no sense of urgency from Jess, who is looking for her missing brother - she doesn’t seem to care at all so why should I? She rarely speaks about their childhood and her love for him to interest the reader in their relationship. It’s like she doesn’t really care much. The book is readable, it’s not that bad but it’s not that good as well. We need a book like...

United Kingdom on Aug 04, 2023

little bookworm: When Jess arrives at a beautiful old apartment block in Paris to spend some time with her older half-brother Ben, only to find he has mysteriously disappeared, she knows instinctively that something is not right. Settling into his 3rd floor apartment, she tries to get a feel for the place and its other inhabitants, the snobbish socialite who has the pentfloor apartment, odd Mimi, drunken Antoine, Ben's old University friend Nick and the watchful concierge. The more she observes them all and discovers their secrets, the more she suspects one among them may know more than they are letting on about Ben's disappearance, and when she stumbles upon a story that Ben was investigating, the pieces of the jigsaw slowly begin to fit together. However, the closer she gets to finding out what happened to Ben, the more danger Jess finds herself in!

I know that Foley's last novel, The Guest List, was quite popular, however, where I had found myself slightly disappointed in that book after all the hype, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed her latest offering. There are certainly similarities in her writing style in both books, with short, snappy chapters that help to build the tension and...

United Kingdom on May 20, 2022

Camila RussellCamila Russell: Told in short chapters through multiple POVs, in the latest Lucy Foley’s thriller we follow Jess Hadley, a bartender at the Copacabana bar in Brighton, England, who finds herself in a difficult situation in which she needs to leave everything behind. So she decides to go to Paris to visit her half-brother Ben.

While Jess is on her way, her brother leaves her a message giving her instructions on how to proceed when she gets into the building. But when Jess finally arrives, Ben is nowhere to be found. His apartment is much more she could have imagined. How Ben could afford such a fancy apartment being a freelance journalist? He also left his wallet behind and Jess decides to ask around his whereabouts.

The reader is left in the dark for most of the story. It is impossible not to be reminded of the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building, without the podcast element, while reading this novel. Just like in the series, everyone living in this building becomes a suspect. The building holds a lot of secrets, and secret passages, and the protagonist soon realizes that things are not what they seem.

The characters are well developed. Foley gives us a background...

United States on Mar 26, 2022