Sonja’s Pick
August 2022
The Paris Apartment
Lucy Foley
William Morrow, February 22, 2022
Quite an unexpected… let’s call it a murder mystery… Jess goes to Paris looking to spend time with her brother Ben. She arrives and Ben is nowhere to be found. We search for him through the novel.
What I found unique is that we listen to each person’s tale in short chapters. First Jess, then Sophie, the mother of Mimi, the wife of Jacques, the stepmother of Nick and Antoine and finally an outsider Theo whom her brother collaborated with on journalism stories. While writing these names, I can conjure up a short characterization of each which is heartening; meaning their characters have been developed pretty well.
Short chapters allow one to leave and restart easily. And the thread leading to finding Ben is always stringing you along. I wasn’t much of a fan of the book, it seemed simply written, but considering the novel mostly featured conversations and thoughts being processed, one does not expect more.
The ending is a complete surprise so that was fun and different.