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Overall, this is another winner from the talented Lucy Foley. It’s very easy to read as it flows well and is highly entertaining! I really like the cover too! One tiny lift, that barely fits an occupant with one piece of luggage, brings the residents to their own landing- a secret, narrow stairway, is another way to climb from floor to floor, with a door with an old fashioned key hole, accessing each individual unit.
Overall, I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy Agatha Christie, Shari Lapena, and Ruth Ware. My con's for this novel were few. It was primarily the overly, overly, lengthy details and conversations, sometimes so much so that it was boring so I hurried ahead on audio. Sometimes the wording or convos were so long and plain that I felt the author must think us simpletons. Also, the pushy and outspoken housekeepers, who worked 2 generations for one family, were very out of place, regardless of their generational relationships, bc “help” are the underlings. DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK and Harper Collins Audio via Netgalley for providing both digital and audio ARCs of The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.Jess needs a place to stay, so she hits up her half brother. When she arrives at his residence, she finds a fancy building with questionable tenants, but no sign of Ben. As she digs deeper and asks around, she starts to realize that all is not as it seems at this apartment building. Dun dun dun! But she seems to make Ben’s neighbors very uncomfortable, as they barely tolerate Jess, her probing questions, and the insinuation into their lives and explosive secrets…
Y'all, this book was so much fun!! I listened to the audiobook and as it is a multiple-POV story, there are various narrators for the different roles; making it a freaking blast to listen to!The Paris Apartment is the latest release from mystery-thriller author Lucy Foley. I’d previously read her book The Guest List which was imperfect, but promising enough that I’d been looking forward to her next release. While this one had a whole different vibe from her other thrillers, it shares some of the same stylistic techniques, from the short chapters told by different characters, to the cliff hanger chapter endings that make you want to keep reading. In addition, her description of this lux, overwhelming, and shadowy apartment complex is so detailed, I can see every square inch in my mind’s eye. This helped me stay engaged as the action unfolded. Estelle is Lia's grandmother. Her story will be told in the 1940s. During those chapters, we learned what Estelle was really doing during the Nazi occupation of France, her visits to the Ritz, and her relationship with Sophie, a woman who looks like an ice princess and whose sole purpose left in life is to help bring the nazis down. THE WRITING – Ms. Foley’s writing is fluid, flows well and is very descriptive. I felt myself immersed in the heat of a Paris summer, riots breaking out in the city, tourists sweltering in the heat!! Lots of dirt and garbage behind the facade of the “beautiful city” with it’s Eiffel tower and The Louvre. Lia's grandmother has passed away and she has left her an apartment in Paris. An apartment no one knew she had!
There were two slight shortcomings for me: one is that there is no real sense of place in this book other than the apartment building. I could totally visualize it, but it could be set anywhere, Paris doesn't really factor into the story. Also, the timeline is quite jumpy, and there were a few times I would have to re-read certain sections because I thought I was in the present and then it turned out I was in the past, and vice versa. It didn't happen really often, but often enough that I noticed it.
The linear approach might have made a few more things more predictable than in something like The Hunting Party but, by and large, this was a really fun read from one of our favourite authors! I honestly just didn’t care about any of the family members’ perspectives and was more engaged with Jess for sure (even though some of her actions were murky too). Ben’s Story Option 2: Tighten the Events -- If Bowen felt the need to keep both narrative threads, I would have advised her to shorten the time span she was covering in both threads. There is much in her plots that was work that she could have kept in her preparation file folders, work that an author needs to do but that readers don't need to read. Had Bowen dropped us right into the middle of the Paris Ritz and the mission, she could have deepened the tension and provided much more detail. The same goes for her parallel tale in today's France, dropping the poor romance and focusing, instead, on the much more compelling mystery she'd concocted for her contemporary characters. Ben’s half-sister Jess needed to flee London in a hurry, and with nowhere else to turn-she pleaded with her half brother to let her come and stay for awhile. He reluctantly agrees but when she arrives, he isn’t home and he isn’t answering her texts.
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