Genre: Mystery
Trope: Locked Room
Format: 🎧
Pub Date: 2.22.22
Star Rating: ☆☆☆

Summary:

“Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge

Everyone’s a neighbor. Everyone’s a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.”

Review:

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

Well.. this was interesting!

I went into The Paris Apartment without any real idea as to the plot of the story, and I’m glad that I did (aren’t I always, though?) mainly because there was A LOT that happened in this locked room mystery. If I had read the synopsis, I might have been left with an idea of the story’s direction, which would’ve been a bad thing. Right? I’m really not sure because this story was all over the place.

There were so many character POV’s that I wish I’d had a map of the building and who lived where, as I think it would’ve helped me get into the book faster. One of the earlier reveals did help the story make sense and solidified any questions I had about character connections.

Speaking of characters, they were an absolute mess. They were so unlikeable that I would’ve loved to shut them all in a room together and let them fight it out. I don’t want to say much for fear of giving it away, but they all need to work on getting their lives together.

I think that some of the story could’ve been made shorter. I made it to the 50% mark and was shocked because I didn’t know the book had another 50% left. In hindsight, there was more of the story to tell, but I was a bit ready for the book to be over.

There were frankly too many topics that this book attempted to cover, and, again, I’d list them out, but it would give away the majority of the plot, so I’ll leave that alone and provide you with some of my quick takes from The Paris Apartment:

🗺️ Needed a building map of who lived where
🤏🏼 Short chapters
🗣️ Multiple POVs
🐌 Slow-burn mystery/drama
🙃 Dysfunctional family
🔀 Twisty ending – I predicted 50% of them
🎧 Recommend the audiobook

❌- sex trafficking

If you enjoyed reading Lucy Foley’s other books (The Guest List and The Hunting Party), I recommend reading The Paris Apartment.

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BOOK INFO
Format: 360 pages,
Published: February 2022
ISBN 0063003058 (ISBN13: 9780063003057)