The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

June 14, 2022

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

After getting fired from her job, alone and broke, Jess scrapes together enough cash to go to Paris where her brother Ben lives. He wasn't thrilled to hear that she was coming to stay with him, but he didn't say no. But when Jess arrives, Ben is not at his apartment and in fact is no where to be found. When he doesn't turn up, Jess starts to dig into his life, and soon discovers that the other residents of the building all have something to hide.

Meh. Not as good as The Guest List, Foley's previous book. The author is good at building suspense but the story is very slow moving and not that interesting. Jess is jumpy and paranoid all the time and often acts like an idiot (more so than most characters in books). Read The Guest List or Clare Macintosh's The Last Party instead if you're looking for psychological suspense fiction.

A cool old Paris apartment building

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

October 4, 2021

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

At an exclusive island resort off the coast of Ireland, a magazine publisher and a television star have planned the destination wedding of their dreams. But the wedding party and the guests are more like frenemies than real friends. Things start to go badly wrong shortly after the vows are said and the champagne is opened, when a body is discovered on the grounds.

An homage to Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." Like Christie's mystery, it's psychological fiction, slow-burning and slow moving, with many different narrators and everyone suspecting everyone else. Many of the characters are not who the others think they are. The solution to the mystery and the conclusion are satisfying. Pay attention to the change in narrators and the subtle clues that are dropped throughout. Revenge is a dish best served cold.