The protagonist is described as essentially broke, putting her at odds with the other dwellers of the apartment building based on social status. The concierge’s cramped quarters juxtapose the luxuriously decorated penthouse apartment and expansive wine cellar, raising questions about the legitimacy of all the affluence we witness.

Wealth, or the lack of it, is also tied up in this thrilling tale. Jess’s ventures into the foreign city are “a breath of fresh air,” showing just how suffocating and oppressive the apartment building really is.

The bustling city with tourists and boulangeries provides contrast to the apartment building’s quiet seclusion and adds to the frenzied atmosphere of the story with police corruption and riots in the streets. Grappling with failed marriages, and unrequited love, the inhabitants of Number Twelve Rue des Amants are all battling inner demons.Ī surprisingly subtle but important player in the tale is Paris itself. The short chapters rarely span more than five pages and give quick but powerful glimpses into what makes these characters human. Frequently switching perspectives from Jess to her neighbors, the reader is organically exposed to the characters’ feelings along with Jess’s interpretation of them. Despite leaving the reader impatient and wanting more action, this exposition provides much needed context for the latter half of the novel and builds the tension that makes the ending oh-so-satisfying.įrom Sophie, the seemingly perfect Parisienne and trophy wife, to Antoine, a man brewing with violence just beneath the surface, Foley strongly develops the novel’s side characters along with all of their flaws. Delving into subplots of roommate drama, affairs, and extortion, Foley takes occasional detours from Ben’s disappearance. The pace is rather slow and focuses more on developing the personalities of apartment building’s inhabitants than on the main mystery at hand.

Foley spends much of the first half of her novel unwinding the threads connecting each character to Ben and their potential motives for his disappearance. From the very start, every character has something to hide. Jess, a Londoner escaping her less-than-ideal job, arrives in Paris to stay with her brother, Ben, only to find him missing. A sinister apartment building and its inhabitants are the suspects in Lucy Foley’s newest novel, “The Paris Apartment.” A thriller with short chapters narrated by characters full of secrets, “The Paris Apartment” is quick to draw in the reader and will leave them hooked with anticipation.

The paris apartment lucy foley