‘The Paris Apartment’ by Lucy Foley
“The Paris Apartment” by Lucy Foley is the story of an apartment building in Paris and of the residents who live there with their secrets.
Author Foley describes the place perfectly with its wrought-iron balconies and the metal elevator that rattles as it moves up and down.
Jess has arrived at the apartment from the train station (Gare de Lyon), and Ben, her half-brother, says he’ll wait up for her. But when she calls on the phone, he doesn’t answer. The concierge watches and sees everything that goes on there. Mimi lives on the fourth floor with Camille, who doesn’t pick up after herself. All her belongings are scattered everywhere. Like Agatha Christie, this author has a full cast of suspects.
Jess picks the lock to Ben’s apartment and cases his place. There’s no laptop in sight though he had it close by the last time they were together. She finds a pair of women’s underpants under his pillow on the bed. The cat accompanies her, and she likes this. A couple is yelling at each other down in the courtyard, and he throws a suitcase at the woman, and everything spills out. Jess runs downstairs to help her pick up all the clothes, etc. The woman says this is an evil place and leaves in an Uber cab.
In the morning, Jess finds Ben’s St. Christopher medal hidden between the floorboards, the chain broken as if torn off his neck. Jess has one to both gifts from their mother. When Jess goes to a boulangerie, Mimi sees her and recalls how three months before Ben had arrived, looking special. Jess meets Sophie, who has known Ben for only a short while as a friend of Nick’s. Sophie’s husband wants to invite Ben for drinks. A note comes for Sophie telling her to leave two thousand Euros under a loose step by the gate. She pawns an emerald bracelet and leaves the money there.
Jess thinks Sophie is a snob because she climbs the stairs to the maid’s room and, after ten minutes, leaves and re-locks the door. Jess explores the building and looks through peepholes into each apartment until she finds herself in the basement with hundreds of bottles of wine, ancient bottles from years ago. Suddenly the door slams shut, and she’s locked in.
The author Foley jumps back in time to Sophie knocking on the concierge’s door. She says she wants to know about the girl, when she leaves, when she returns, and any visitors she has. The concierge knows Sophie, what she is, and what she’s capable of.
Jess tries to get out of the wine cellar and pounds on the door. A British man stands there. It’s Nick, and she notices he looks like Ben. She tells him she expected Ben to be here and wonders if he’s in trouble. He’s left his wallet, his Vespa, and his keys. Nick tells her he’s just like Ben, with a drive in him but no success so far. Jess turns on Ben’s computer and sees a photo of the two young men in Amsterdam so long ago. Jess looks in Nick’s bathroom and sees expensive toiletries, a Leica camera, and books on investing. Nick tells her he’ll help find Ben and gives her his phone number. At the Café
Belle Epoque, Jess meets Theo, gives him a strange metal card from Ben’s wallet, and speaks about the voicemail too weak to hear. He hands her buds earphones, and she hears clearly Ben’s front door opening. Theo agrees it’s weird, and someone was in the apartment with Ben. Ben had said, “What are you doing here?” He sounded afraid.
Ben is next found bleeding on the ground, unable to stand, and in great pain. His last thought is of Jess and how she’ll come looking for him. Nick takes Jess to the police station to tell him about Ben’s disappearance. She plays the voicemail message, and they are convinced to help. Sophie finds Jess later and invites her to the penthouse apartment to meet the other friends/ guests: Antoine, Mimi, and Sophie. Jess says she went to the police, and a glass of wine spills: surprise or fear?
Jess wanders through the rooms of the apartment and finds the passport of Sophie with a photo of her in her younger years, and she realizes they are all a family. Jess is shocked but now knows their secret. There is a big party on Halloween, and afterward, Mimi almost gets hit by a van crossing the street. The concierge picks her up and whispers to her.
Does Jess ever find Ben? What happens to the family, and who are they? What had Nick and Ben done in Amsterdam, and did it change their lives? Is Ben in trouble because of what he’s investigating? The concierge tells Jess to stop looking for Ben and that she’ll never find him.
Find all the answers to this clever mystery on the new fiction shelf of your local library.