I read Lucy Foley’s other popular book The Guest List a few years ago and I enjoyed it. Fun, fast paced, interesting story line, so I was excited for another mystery by Foley. This one, The Paris Apartment, was nowhere near as enjoyable because so much felt exactly the same: multiple points of view, some characters sharing a mysterious past, and an outsider trying to figure it all out. The Paris Apartment just felt like a rehashing of The Guest List but in Paris.
Jess is running away from a tricky situation in England and decides to go stay with her brother Ben in Paris for a little while. However, when she shows up to her brother’s swanky Parisian apartment, he is nowhere to be found. The other residents of the building are clearly hiding something. There’s Antoine, an alcoholic with martial problems; Sophie and Jacques who live on the top floor in the penthouse; Mimi, a teenager who lives with her bestie; and Nick, an old college buddy of Ben’s; and the concierge, an elderly woman, who lives on premises.
Overall, the plot was way too slow paced. There wasn’t anything all that interesting until about the last third of the book, but at that point I didn’t really care about anything that happened. Additionally, the final twist/reveal at the end was so unbelievable that I thought my eyes were going to get stuck when I rolled them so hard. And a lot of the characters felt really flat. I truly did not care about the fate of anyone. Not even the protagonist, Jess.
Just go read The Guest List.