The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

 

410 pages

Publisher: Harper Collins

Bookclub

 

Blurb

 

Welcome to No.12 rue des Amants

A beautiful old apartment block, far from the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower and the bustling banks of the Seine.

Where nothing goes unseen, and everyone has a story to unlock.

The watchful concierge
The scorned lover
The prying journalist
The naïve student
The unwanted guest

There was a murder here last night.
A mystery lies behind the door of apartment three.

Who holds the key?

 

Review

WOW!!!

There are well-plotted mysteries and then there is The Paris Apartment. To say I am impressed would be a gross understatement.

There is very little I can tell you about the story. Jess leaves her shitty job in England in a hurry and travels to Paris to stay with her brother Ben. From the moment she arrives at the address he’s given her, things seem off. For starters, how could her brother possibly be able to afford a place in such a luxurious building? That question is quickly pushed to the back of Jess’s mind when her brother doesn’t appear to be there to let her in. He doesn’t answer his phone either and isn’t reading her text messages. With nowhere else to go and very little money to her name, Jess has no choice but to find her way into the building and Ben’s apartment.

There is no sign of Ben in the apartment either, but worryingly, Jess does find his wallet. Jess stays because she has nowhere else to go and because she wants to find out what has happened to her brother.

Her search centres on the other people living in the building and the more Jess learns, the more she discovers that nothing is as it seems.

And that’s when a breathtakingly intense mystery slowly unfolds. There are layers upon layers of secrets to be revealed, unexpected connections to be made, and shocking discoveries a plenty. Lucy Foley achieved something remarkable here. This story works on every level and is masterfully plotted. In my arrogance, I thought at one point that I had it figured out. I was wrong. Very wrong. What happened in this story was more intricate and intelligent than what I had come up with.

This book is a page-turner and a half. It layers twist upon twist and then adds a few extra twists just when you think surely all has been revealed. The story pulls you in and the more you read, the deeper it sinks its claws into you. This was, without a doubt, the best book I have read so far this year. It’s going to take something very special to push it off that top spot.