'The Paris Apartment' is being compared to books by Agatha Christie, but this is grossly misleading. Agatha Christie wrote carefully constructed detective mysteries in which the clues were made available to the reader and much of the satisfaction the books gave came from working out whodunnit. 'The Paris Apartment' is more of a thriller. Four people share a luxurious apartment building with a conciergerie who lives in a little shed in the courtyard. Ben has been invited by an old friend to take the only empty apartment for a peppercorn rent. (We never discover why the apartment is empty, which is a minor, but real, irritation for any Agatha Christie style detective fans who want all the loose ends neatly tied off.)

Ben’s sister has invited herself to come and stay with him, but when she arrives he is missing. She sets out to solve the mystery of his having vanished.

The story is told in the first person by each of the people living in the flat (including, for a while, the apparently deceased Ben). The place obviously harbours an evil secret. We are even told that the basement used to be used by the Gestapo for torturing prisoners, which adds an appropriately macabre undertone to the story. As the story goes on, layer after layer of mystery is revealed. I’m not going to say anything else about the plot as there are many twists and turns before the denouement. I didn’t see most of them coming, but somehow they did not seem that surprising after they had happened. Possibly it’s because the whole thing is written like a jigsaw puzzle and the pieces do definitely fit neatly together, but credibility and characterisation are sacrificed to making the mechanics of the plot work.

Did I care about the people or their ultimate fate? Absolutely not. But was I curious enough keep reading? Yes. So this is a book which will pass away a wintry afternoon over the Christmas holidays and I’m sure it will make a more than acceptable gift for mystery thriller fans. Just don’t give it to anybody who really likes Agatha Christie.

(This review is based on an ARC supplied through NetGalley. 'The Paris Apartment' will be published in the UK in March).

I really enjoyed two previous thrillers by Lucy Foley but this was just a big miss for me. It felt rushed, I didn't like any of the characters including the protagonist, and it was not well-written. Huge disappointment. I did it make it the end though but it's the a title I will be recommending.

Jess arrives in Paris to stay with her half brother Ben. She’s made a hurried exit from London after leaving her job in a bar and called Ben to ask if she can stay. She arrives at his apartment to find him missing. The old Parisian house is divided into apartments and it has many secrets amongst the various flats. We discover that all the occupants, apart from Ben are related to the owner and have many secrets. In her quest to find out what has happened to Ben Jess slowly uncovers what the family is trying to hide.
It is a good book that keeps the reader guessing until the end but the twist is rather far fetched and disappointing.

Another nail-biting and addictive Lucy Foley! I loved both of her previous thrillers and this one is no different. Twists galore and brilliant characterisation.

Jess is broke and her life is unravelling. A trip to Paris to see her brother only adds to her despair. He has disappeared and everyone who knows him is keeping their counsel.

The Paris Apartment is a thrilling rollercoaster of unexpected twists and turns. The grand Parisien apartment block creates a dark, clandestine setting where the occupants begin to reveal their secrets one by one.

Lucy Foley spins a captivating yarn, which is full of mystery and suspense. Suddenly when you think you’ve worked everything out, the events take a surprising turn.

The story is told from the perspective of each of the characters and this only adds to the mystery, as it throws up a multitude of questions. The ending is well worth the wait.

A highly recommended read – a real page turner.

My thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for an advance to copy in return for an honest review

Reading the Paris Apartment is like entering an escape room whereby clues have to be solved to secure your release. Jess, escaping life in England , travels to Paris to stay with her brother Ben; but upon arrival discovers her is missing and so begins Jess’ journey into discovering what has happened Ed to her missing brother. This means encountering the residents of the building and gradually unpicking the dark secrets and connections between them. The challenge with a whodunnit/ whydunnit that is Lucy Foley’s genre is that your sympathy for many of the characters is limited as they are portrayed in such a dark and often disturbingly nasty way. The claustrophobic atmosphere within the apartment block and the interaction between the residents is deftly told . No spoilers but the twist at the end did giving a sense of coming up for air after a dark read.

After reading, and enjoying, The Guest List and The Hunting Party, I was excited to read The Paris Apartment. Overall, it was a good storyline and it kept me reading to the end with a couple of good twists I didn’t see coming. The only negatives I have are that it was a little slow in places and I don’t really get why it was set in France, as apart from a few French lines of speech, it could’ve been set anywhere. As I said, great read overall and I look forward to Foley’s next.

A new Lucy Foley book is always a bit of an event, so I was excited to get my hands on a copy of The Paris Apartment. It sounded intriguing, and it was. The story is told from various viewpoints, but mainly that of Jess, in need of a hasty escape from the UK, who arrives in Paris to stay with her brother Ben.

Jess and Ben's family background hasn't been the easiest, and nor is the situation Jess finds when she arrives at 12 Rue des Amants (that's Lovers' Street, in English). The apartment block and the apartment itself are luxurious - far more so than Jess expected - but Ben is nowhere to be found, and the other residents - aloof Sophie, obsessive Mimi, obnoxious Antoine and relatively-normal-seeming-Nick, along with an unnamed concierge - aren't exactly keen to help and are, in some cases, outright hostile.

Clearly, there's something dark at the heart of this Paris apartment building...

It was a well written and enjoyable read, although it never totally grabbed me to the point where I couldn't bear to put it down. Jess is a likeable and resourceful protagonist and the other characters are believably drawn.

Ultimately, though, I think my favourite character may have been the never-named concierge.

Many thanks for the opportunity to read and review!

I was really excited to read this new book by Lucy Foley, and I was very lucky to receive an ARC from Netgalley and Harper Collins UK.

Jess has just left her job and needs to leave the UK quickly, so she goes to visit her half-brother, who is working as a journalist in France. When Jess arrives at Ben's apartments complex, though, he is NOWHERE to be found. And it looks way too fancy for him. How does he afford it?

The neighbours in the apartment block are all very strange and seem to be doing everything they can to block Jess from finding her brother. Who are they and why are they so secretive?

This book was good, but I did lose interest a little halfway through. There was a lot of mystery, intrigued, red herrings and that me for an overall good read.

Fantastic premise! Excellent hook and brilliant follow-through. I adored this book and loved the twist towards the middle - it truly changed the game and I did not catch it! Excellent

I absolutely loved this book, it was enthralling from the start and I was dissapointed when it finished, I would definitely recommend this book, one of the best thrillers I have read this year

When Jess decides to leave her dead end job to join her brother in Paris. She thinks it will be the fresh start she needs.
Only, when she arrives at the Paris apartment her brother is residing in he is nowhere to be found.
The neighbours all seem very suspicious and Jess sets out to find out what happened to her brother.
I loved the Agatha Christie vibe of this book. An easy to read whodunnit thriller set in Paris with some very interesting characters. This book has so many twists and turns throughout and I absolutely loved the ending

I enjoyed The Hunting Party and The Guest List so was really pleased to receive an advance copy of The Paris Apartment to review.

The cover is a clever design and I thought it fitted quite well with the title. I would pick it up if I saw it in a book shop.

Straight away I was gripped by this story. Ben is a journalist, living in a grand apartment in Paris. His half sister, Jess, is coming to visit to escape from her problems back home. Just before Jess visits, there’s a mysterious intruder in Ben’s flat, and Jess can’t get a hold of him when she arrives. What’s happened to the attractive, charming Ben?

This story has a very different feel to Lucy Foley’s previous novels, but this is no bad thing.

After a strong start, I thought the pace slowed a bit as the chapters alternated between the characters. I felt like I was reading for ages but not making much progress with the story.

I would have liked some more description of Paris and the setting, this has been great in the author’s previous books. It felt like there were token mentions of some typical Paris landmarks but most of the book is set within the apartment building.

Each chapter alternates between the point of view of a different character. Many residents in the building seem to have a connection to Ben, but they’re all very secretive and definitely hiding something.

I didn’t really warm to any of the characters but I don’t think they were meant to be likeable. I found most of them a bit flat and lacking in depth.

About halfway through, the story picked up again and was a better pace. The last 20% or so was much faster paced and more gripping.

Of course there were a few twists, and although I didn’t guess them all, they weren’t as shocking as they could have been.

I had expected to really fly through this book and enjoy it as much as I enjoyed her previous novels.
Unfortunately, this missed the mark for me and the slow pace for a large part of the book let it down.

It’s still worth a read and I give it 3.5 stars, rounded to 3.

Thanks to Harper Fiction and NetGalley for an advance copy to review.

This book is a bit of a slow burn and it took me a long time to really get into it, but once I did I enjoyed it. It's well-written with plenty of atmosphere and suspense.

You are aware that something strange is going on from the start of this story but it is difficult to work out what! A plot that keeps you guessing until the end. An enjoyable read.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the advance copy of this book.

Wow, I loved this book and I couldn’t put it down.
The latest by Lucy Foley is going to be another bestseller.
A murder mystery set in a Paris apartment block. The cast of interesting characters are a watchful concierge, a scorned lover, a prying journalist, a naive student and an unwanted guest.
Lots of twists and turns in this clever psychological thriller and an unexpected ending too.

On the run from some unspecified unpleasantness back in England, Jess arrives in Paris late at night to stay with her half-brother, Ben. But, on arrival at his swish building, she gets no response to the buzzer and no reply from his phone. After blagging her way in to his apartment, Jess sets out to discover just what's become of Ben.

Despite touching on similar themes - wealth and privilege, old sins, family ties - to Foley's previous two books, The Paris Apartment just didn't do it for me as a reader, with unconvincing characters who felt more like caricatures than real people and a twist that seemed way too far-fetched. However, I know other readers have loved it so I suspect it's one of those marmite books, and I just happened to not 'get' it.

I hadn’t read anything by Lucy Foley before but had heard good things of her previous books. I was thrilled to get the opportunity to read this tightly-plotted mystery.

Troubled Jess turns up at her half-brother’s Paris apartment with little notice. Surprised at the unexpected old-world exclusiveness of the building, she is even more perplexed to find that Ben has disappeared. The various neighbours all seem to have secrets and act suspiciously as outsider Jess gets more concerned and is determined to uncover what’s happened.

The building itself is like another character, with an atmospheric feeling of hidden spaces and secrets. The Paris riots play out outside the calm walls of the building, so there is an unspoken air of threat inside, balanced with the overt physical dangers outside.

The story is told in present tense, first-person narratives that jump around between the different characters. This did make me feel it was quite disjointed at first. It also took a little too long to develop. Everything comes together though with credible motivations and a satisfying conclusion. In looking back I can appreciate how clever the plotting is. Every detail holds together like clockwork.

Many thanks to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. All opinions are entirely my own.

This is a hard book to rate I loved it and disliked it plenty. The book is slow and there's so many side characters and stories to focus on. Imagine you are in a real life clue and you need to figure out who did it and every person is a reasonable suspect. Some days this book is a 4 but it doesn't jump out as a must immediately read for me and it can be forgotten sadly so it's a 2 for me

Really well plotted and executed. This is a genuinely creepy setting, so much so that wimpy me had to stop reading at night for a little while, because my dreams were so disturbing!
I really enjoyed the twists at the end, one of the smaller ones near the end, was a “Yesss!” moment.
Well done Lucy Foley.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an ARC.