The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley – Book review

Question: What’s the best book to read when you have Covid? Answer: The Paris Apartment – Lucy Foley’s brilliant new psychological thriller. I wanted a book that would instantly distract from my current woes, have a fast-paced, linear plot I could follow with ease and a clever, addictive, storyline. The Paris Apartment came up trumps!

Opening sentence: His fingers hover over the keyboard.

Let’s take a trip to Paris

Jess needs to leave her life in Brighton ASAP, so she takes up her half-brother Ben’s offer to stay with him in his Paris apartment.

Ben is a journalist, known for charming his way into – and out of – most situations. The siblings aren’t exceptionally close but they do look out for each other. Jess is looking forward to spending time with Ben, so is a little perplexed when he fails to materialise… She has to use her cunning to get into the apartment, then employ some detective skills to find out just where her half-brother has got to.

Just what is happening in The Paris Apartment?

Like her first book The Hunting Party, there was Agatha Christie inspired storytelling running through here – from the tense atmosphere, to the multiple POVs and twisting plot.

It’s a beautiful building, but there’s something rotten at its heart.

We also have a cast of characters living in the apartment building – Sophie and Jacques in the penthouse, then Nick, Mimi, Camille and Antoine in the other apartments – and from their guarded, jumpy demeanours, it’s soon obvious that there’s more than meets the eye happening in this swanky building…

As Jess uses her wits and determination to uncovers things, things get very tense indeed. I won’t go into any more detail as I don’t want to reveal an inadvertent spoiler – the thrills in the plot are a big part of this reading experience.

When someone tells you to stop looking, it normally means you’re on the right track.

The Paris Apartment does have a slower start while it sets the scene, but it lays its sinister cards down so well, then ramps up the pace as secrets are slowly revealed. I enjoyed the claustrophobic atmosphere and unexpected curveball towards the end – perfect escapism.

• Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC;
• Get your copy of The Paris Apartment here
• Published by HarperCollins 3rd March 2022;
• 320 pages;
• My rating: