Where did Benjamin Daniels go in the five minutes that his sister called him and informed him she would come over? Jess, trying to find respite from her old life, hopes to find a brief period of solace in her brother Ben’s house in Paris, only to find him missing when she gets there. Moreover, it is not just any apartment that Ben was living in. Four other strange-acting people live in the apartment. A creepy concierge is the cherry on top. Jess suspects something happened to Ben in this apartment. An old crone of a concierge who’s never out of reach and sees everything. A drunk brute whose wife has recently left him on the first floor. A young entrepreneur who claims to be Ben’s best friend from college on the second floor. Ben’s empty apartment, currently occupied by Jess on the third floor. An underage virgin with her outgoing friend on the fourth and the stinking rich cougar in the penthouse. What happened to Ben and who did it to him? Jess has to find out while living in THE PARIS APARTMENT.
Lucy Foley, the bestselling author of THE GUEST LIST, does a phenomenal job in THE PARIS APARTMENT of building a mystery with such a small cast of characters. It does not deviate from the story, having the revelation turns out to be unreasonable and out of the blue. The story is built gradually with enough clues for the readers to pick up and make predictions as they read the book. It also has some great twists and turns that will shift your perspectives a little and throw light on the story from a different angle. The story is told through 6 primary viewpoint characters, one from each floor of the apartment. Each character is laid bare slowly, peeling the leaves of the onion just enough to keep the readers on the edge of their seats and to make them crave for what is coming further.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and did not feel bored, which a mystery thriller often tends to be in the middle portion of the story. I think some characters had a better story arc than others. There is a character whose big reveal was their sexual orientation, which I thought was not as dramatic and had a shock value to it as the author might have thought it had. Apart from that, I do not have any complaints and recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery. The Paris aesthetic is a bonus!
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.
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