Author: Lucy Foley
Publisher: William Morrow
Released: February 22, 2022
Received: Own (BOTM)
Warnings: Sexual harassment, sex work, domestic abuse, suicide, self-harm

Did anybody else count down the days to Lucy Foley’s The Paris Apartment? I was content to wait until Book of the Month listed it as an option. They love her writing, so I was confident I could get a good deal on this lovely book.

Jess is admittedly having a rough go of things. In desperate need of a safe haven (not to mention a quick escape from her home country), Jess decides to head to her brother’s place in Paris. She knows she didn’t give him much warning – but she still expected him to be there when she showed up.

It doesn’t take long before Jess realizes something horribly wrong here. Something was wrong with her brother’s absence and the whole apartment building. Getting to the bottom of it might put Jess’ life in danger, but she has to uncover the truth.

“It’s a beautiful building, but there’s something rotten at its heart. Now he’s discovered it he can smell the stench of it everywhere.”

The Paris Apartment is the latest novel from Lucy Foley, and since she’s one of my favorite thriller authors (I admittedly have more than a dozen…whoops), I knew I had to snatch this book up when it came out.

So, did The Paris Apartment live up to my expectations? I would have to say yes. It’s a quick read that pulls in many different thriller elements and tropes to create a cohesive and compelling story.

It’s always interesting when you find yourself reading a thriller where you don’t like…any of the characters. Jess isn’t a bad character, mind you; I just wanted to scream at her more often than not. The rest of the characters are arguably intentionally designed to be repelling, and boy, are they successful there.

Still, it was fun trying to piece together the story of Jess’ missing brother. It took a while to figure out who did it and why. But looking back on it, all of the vital information is there for reasons to pick up on, even if it takes a second read-through to catch them all. I do enjoy it when that happens.