And the whole building gives off a creepy, almost ghoulish vibe that makes her feel uncomfortable, as though something sinister has the entire facility in its grip.ĭetermined to locate her brother and set her fears to rest, Jess contacts his editor to learn what Ben has been working on. His coat and wallet are both still in his room. There are blood drops that might mean Ben’s been hurt, not profuse enough to indicate a life-ending injury but definitely disconcerting. Jess’ search of the apartment doesn’t yield many clues but does increase her concerns. Ben can be a bit of a jerk, but this circumstance stinks less of his typical selfishness and more of him being involved in some kind of problem.

Her initial plan is to give him a piece of her mind when he finally gets home, but as the long hours of the night stretch on Jess’ ire turns into a deep worry.

She is even angrier when, upon arrival at the building, she has to essentially break and enter to get into Ben’s empty flat. Jess is annoyed that Ben didn’t bother to meet her at the airport and that she has had to find her own way to his apartment. He realizes that he is also at a dangerous stage in his exploration when someone unexpectedly enters his apartment just as he is calling Jess to arrange to pick her up. Ben, a journalist, is in Paris working on an investigative piece for a magazine and is at a crucial point in his research. She’d simply announced she was arriving, hadn’t asked if she could come but had booked a flight and told him when to expect her. Our tale begins with a young British gentleman named Ben being deeply frustrated by an upcoming visit from his sister Jess. Since the revelations lie within deep spoiler territory I will only be giving a superficial look at the plot and the people driving it within this review. The early chapters are spent sorting through their various personalities and it isn’t till we reach the halfway point that we discover the truth about many of them, and our own understanding of what is actually happening begins to form. Rather than being action or event-driven like most mysteries, it is a character-driven story told by alternating narrators who have quite different perspectives. This is a difficult book to describe because not a lot happens. Like The Guest List, the events in this book take place over the course of just a few days and the plot resembles a locked room mystery in that everything vital takes place at one location. Lucy Foley’s The Guest Listwas one of my favorite mysteries of 2020 so naturally, when The Paris Apartment came up for review, I was eager to read it.

The paris apartment lucy foley summary