The Paris Apartment

by Lucy Foley

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller"

Some authors make us wait a year in between books. Others like to extend that wait. Lucy Foley is back after 2020’s The Guest List.

The Paris Apartment is definitely worth the time in between so you can savor every moment of mystery as you did with The Guest List and The Hunting Party. On second thought – we can’t wait!!!!!

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"As you patiently await season two of Only Murders in the Building, cozy up with Lucy Foley’s latest whodunnit." — Parade

"Exceedingly clever." — Booklist

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List comes a new locked room mystery, set in a Paris apartment building in which every resident has something to hide… 

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge

Everyone's a neighbor. Everyone's a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063003057
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	02/22/2022
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	1,106
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Lucy Foley studied English liter­ature at Durham University and University College London and worked for several years as a fiction edi­tor in the publishing industry. She is the author of five novels including The Guest List and The Hunt­ing Party. She lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

12/13/2021

Jess Hadley, the gutsy heroine of this well-paced mystery from bestseller Foley (The Guest List), arrives at the swanky Paris apartment building of her aspiring journalist half brother, Ben Daniels, after fleeing her latest unpleasant job in England. But Ben is not there and doesn’t show up the next morning. When Jess asks the other tenants about her brother, all of them—including imperious penthouse dweller Sophie Meunier, a blackmail victim; timid 19-year-old Mimi, who’s infatuated with Ben; and aggressive drunk Antoine, who suspects Ben has seduced his wife—deflect her questions. In her search for Ben, Jess learns the building’s tenants are members of a single family with secrets to hide. After an editor Ben worked for takes Jess’s worries about his disappearance seriously, the details of those secrets start to emerge, along with a credible portrait of a deeply damaged family. Amid plenty of red herrings and distinctive characters, each shifty in their own way, the relentlessly bleak plot builds to an uplifting twist ending that feels neither pat nor overly rosy. Foley reliably entertains. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Another clever, cliff-hanger-filled thriller from the author of The Guest List." — People

“Told in rotating points of view, this Tilt-A-Whirl of a novel brims with jangly tension – an undeniably engrossing guessing game.” — Vogue

“Another page-turning thriller in which the story and its characters are as unique and beguiling as the city itself. … [Foley] keeps readers on their toes with a fast-paced story in which she does a stellar job of juggling the past and the present with multiple narratives without getting bogged down. You can feel the urgency in her prose. … A thrilling read.” — USA Today

“A transcontinental whodunnit with chic panache, this page-turner will keep you up into the wee hours of the night.” — Good Morning America

“With characters suspicious and unlikable in their own way and a fun twist, you’re in for a dark and moody escape.” — NPR.org

"The streets of Paris have never looked darker, more opulent, or more sinister than in Lucy Foley's gloriously twisty new novel." — Ruth Ware

“Extremely evocative, with a richly-drawn atmosphere you can cut with a knife. Short of a trip to Paris, the next best thing is surely to settle down with a bottle of French wine and devour The Paris Apartment. The mystery revolves around an exclusive Paris apartment building, and Jess, our hugely likeable heroine, searching for her brother, who is missing from his apartment. The other tenants all have secrets to hide, and twist follows twist until you don’t know who to trust — or suspect. Stylish, suspenseful, claustrophobic and menacing... Lucy Foley just keeps getting better and better. More, please!” — Alex Michealides, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient

“The Paris Apartment is a charged, charming thriller that'll have us all eyeing the neighbors a bit skeptically, no matter where it is we live.” — Town & Country

"As you patiently await season two of Only Murders in the Building, cozy up with Lucy Foley’s latest whodunnit." — Parade

 "Another well-paced, suspenseful locked-room mystery with shifting points of view.” — Library Journal

“Will keep you guessing until the very end. …This whodunnit will have you saying, ‘Oh mon Dieu!’” — E! Online

“An enticing Parisian locked room mystery with enough twists and turns to keep even the most seasoned of thriller fans guessing.” — Popsugar

"Super-twisty." — Cosmopolitan

“Paris is always a good idea…until it isn’t. … You can expect some plot twists and Agatha Christie-esque whodunit vibes.” — The Skimm

"A modern-day Agatha Christie." — Entertainment Weekly

“A fast-paced, twisty bit of escapism that mixes compelling, messy characters, deft narrative red herrings, shifting perspectives, and a few genuine surprises to create a story that’ll keep you up reading well into the night.” — Paste Magazine

“Lucy Foley keeps you guessing with multiple first-person narrators and short chapters designed to leave you hanging.” — Associated Press

“The Paris Apartment grabbed me from the get-go. … A little bit Emily in Paris meets Rear Window to me. It’s totalement satisfying in the end.” — Vulture

"If you binged Only Murders in the Building, then this book sounds like it may be right up your alley.” — Buzzfeed

“Foley turns up the creep factor and expertly plays with our preconceptions to make this an involving follow-up to her 2020 best-seller, The Guest List.” — Air Mail

“The Paris Apartment is cleverly and intricately plotted, told from several different points of view and occasionally moving forward and backward chronologically. This gives readers just enough clues to allow them to try to solve the mystery while continually pulling the rug out from under them so they remain off-balanced and surprised. The book takes a classic formula but makes it feel fresh and modern using contemporary storytelling techniques, ensuring that readers will come away from it eagerly awaiting Foley’s next fiendishly clever puzzle of a mystery.” — Bookreporter.com

“Another glamorous mystery with a sprawling, secretive cast—namely, the inhabitants of the titular apartment complex.” — BookPage

“But it’s not only the intelligent and riveting storyline or the carefully conceived and fully developed characters that elevates this book far above mundane thrillers. Foley’s precise prose rings with echoes of her British background and the elegance of her French setting. … With confidence and cunning, Foley provides pleasures that chill as they captivate.” — Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

“An atmospheric thriller wrapped in a mystery, lots of mysteries. … Her writing is spare, her plotting intricate, and she is stingy with clues along the way — as a good mystery/thriller writer should be. I recommend The Paris Apartment for fans of this genre who especially enjoy being in the dark for most of the book and quite surprised at the end.” — Florida Times-Union

“Foley is the master of the slow reveal, and gives a little bit at a time to lead up to the big reveal. You never quite know what to expect, which makes the plot even more exciting. This well-written and entertaining read is perfect for fans of Ruth Ware, Agatha Christie, and Foley’s previous books.” — Mystery and Suspense Magazine

“Foley’s writing is simple and immersive, marrying the elegance and dark undertones of Paris with a reckless but determined protagonist to create an intriguing mystery. The Paris Apartment is a sinister puzzle you’ll love solving.” — The Harvard Crimson

From the Publisher

A transcontinental whodunnit with chic panache, this page-turner will keep you up into the wee hours of the night.

Good Morning America

Will keep you guessing until the very end. …This whodunnit will have you saying, ‘Oh mon Dieu!’

E! Online

The Paris Apartment is a charged, charming thriller that'll have us all eyeing the neighbors a bit skeptically, no matter where it is we live.

Town & Country

Extremely evocative, with a richly-drawn atmosphere you can cut with a knife. Short of a trip to Paris, the next best thing is surely to settle down with a bottle of French wine and devour The Paris Apartment. The mystery revolves around an exclusive Paris apartment building, and Jess, our hugely likeable heroine, searching for her brother, who is missing from his apartment. The other tenants all have secrets to hide, and twist follows twist until you don’t know who to trust — or suspect. Stylish, suspenseful, claustrophobic and menacing... Lucy Foley just keeps getting better and better. More, please!

Alex Michealides

Another page-turning thriller in which the story and its characters are as unique and beguiling as the city itself. … [Foley] keeps readers on their toes with a fast-paced story in which she does a stellar job of juggling the past and the present with multiple narratives without getting bogged down. You can feel the urgency in her prose. … A thrilling read.

USA Today

An enticing Parisian locked room mystery with enough twists and turns to keep even the most seasoned of thriller fans guessing.

Popsugar

Evoking the great Agatha Christie classics And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express, Lucy Foley’s clever, taut new novel, The Guest List, takes us to a creepy island off the coast of Ireland…Foley builds her suspense slowly and creepily, deploying an array of narrators bristling with personal secrets…Pay close attention to seemingly throwaway details about the characters’ pasts. They are all clues.

New York Times Book Review

No one may have come to the island intending to murder, but this destination wedding spirals into mayhem when it’s slowly revealed that most everyone in attendance is capable of becoming a lusting-for-revenge killer.

Washington Post The Guest List

Lucy Foley gets better with every book...The characters leap off the page, the twists are darker and more unexpected, and the setting is straight out of a Gothic novel...Yes, there’s a murder, but there's so much more than that. (The twists, I admit, are pretty good too.)

Marie Claire The Guest List

I didn’t think Lucy Foley could top The Hunting Party, but she did! I loved this book. It gave me the same waves of happiness I get from curling up with a classic Christie. A remote, atmospheric island, a wedding no one is particularly happy to be at, old secrets—and a murder. The alternating points of view keep you guessing, and guessing wrong. I can’t wait for her next book.

Alex Michaelides

01/01/2022

After Jess has a run-in with the boss at the restaurant where she works, she retaliates by stealing money from the cash register and heading across the Channel to hide out with her brother Ben in Paris. When she arrives at the unexpectedly swanky building where he lives, Ben is nowhere to be found, despite having told her he'd be waiting up for her. Small details unsettle her: a cat that has what looks like blood on its fur; Ben's St. Christopher medal in a crack on the floor, even though he never took it off. When she approaches the building's other residents for help, they're all strangely reticent, and when Jess finds a hidden door in the living room wall that opens onto to a staircase with peepholes into every apartment in the building, her investigation into her brother's whereabouts ramps up. Foley's (The Guest List) latest is another well-paced, suspenseful locked-room mystery with shifting points of view, though the eventual solution to the puzzle is not as satisfying as in her earlier books. VERDICT Foley's fans, especially those willing to suspend their disbelief about some of the more unlikely plot twists, will enjoy.—Stephanie Klose

Library Journal

Told in rotating points of view, this Tilt-A-Whirl of a novel brims with jangly tension – an undeniably engrossing guessing game.

Vogue

"Another clever, cliff-hanger-filled thriller from the author of The Guest List."

People

"As you patiently await season two of Only Murders in the Building, cozy up with Lucy Foley’s latest whodunnit."

Parade

Another page-turning thriller in which the story and its characters are as unique and beguiling as the city itself. … [Foley] keeps readers on their toes with a fast-paced story in which she does a stellar job of juggling the past and the present with multiple narratives without getting bogged down. You can feel the urgency in her prose. … A thrilling read.

USA Today

"The streets of Paris have never looked darker, more opulent, or more sinister than in Lucy Foley's gloriously twisty new novel."

Ruth Ware

"If you binged Only Murders in the Building, then this book sounds like it may be right up your alley.

Buzzfeed

Another glamorous mystery with a sprawling, secretive cast—namely, the inhabitants of the titular apartment complex.

BookPage

"Super-twisty."

Cosmopolitan

No one may have come to the island intending to murder, but this destination wedding spirals into mayhem when it’s slowly revealed that most everyone in attendance is capable of becoming a lusting-for-revenge killer.

Washington Post

Lucy Foley gets better with every book...The characters leap off the page, the twists are darker and more unexpected, and the setting is straight out of a Gothic novel...Yes, there’s a murder, but there's so much more than that. (The twists, I admit, are pretty good too.)

Marie Claire