In need of a fresh start after leaving her awful job in London, Jess arrives late at night to her half-brother Ben’s Paris apartment to find him missing. Hours earlier she had received a message from him, so she knows he was expecting her. When Jess asks the other residents of the building if they’ve seen Ben, they all seem evasive and none too helpful. Everyone seems to be hiding their own secrets, and the longer her brother is missing, the more desperate Jess is to find out what happened to him.
Let me first say that after doing 9 years of Paris Month on the blog, it is such a refreshing change to read a book set in Paris that isn’t during WWII or a contemporary romance. I was very intrigued by the premise of this mystery novel, which at times gave me an Only Murders in the Building vibe – minus the cheeky humour of Steve Martin and Martin Short.
I have to admit, I’m a bit torn on what I thought about The Paris Apartment. On the one hand, I love a good mystery thriller and this story had some cleverness to it. As often the case with mysteries, I am always making notes while reading it and trying to figure it out before it’s revealed. I was positive I had caught a number of inconsistencies (both in the plot or in the writing) and was pleased (and relieved) to have been proven wrong later.
On the other hand, because I tend to pick up on every minute detail when I read a book, there were a number of irrelevant and overused elements that caught my attention. All throughout the book, a particular crass French slur for women was used ad nauseum. I’m not sure if the author had just come across this word in her research but it was used SO. MUCH. To each other, about other women, about Parisian neighbourhoods. Like, we get your point. Pick another word. There was also weirdly a lot of focus on the smell of people’s sweat. It was frequently mentioned and seemingly irrelevant. I would think there’s another way to describe people Jess was meeting rather than how sweet, or tangy they smelled. And (this is not giving any plot point away), for someone like Jess who came to Paris with not a lot on her, she seems to have a lot of hoop earrings to bend out to pick locks with. What I’m trying to get at is the repetitiveness, for me, came across as a bit uninspired when there was a compelling narrative there.
Overall it was an interesting enough story, if you suspend your disbelief on some things and can look past other things. The premise was great, but perhaps the execution could have used a bit more finessing and variety. That being said, I do hope though that this continues the trend of setting books in Paris that are not only historical fiction or romance.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ (3/5 stars)
Available: February 22, 2022
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A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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