Spoilers!
I sure enjoy a sinister yarn where potential suspects are all contained in one space; that’s quintessential Agatha Christie. Lucy Foley’s 2022 book, The Paris Apartment, is an echo of Christie, with various suspects confined to the titular apartment building in the City of Light, waiting for that light to shine on the real killer. This was my third Foley book following The Hunting Party and The Guest List, both of which also have that contained-in-one-space quality. So, Foley is good at crafting a fun whodunit out of such a premise, even if it’s a well-used formula at this point.
Ben is staying on the third floor of an apartment building in Paris with his friend, Nick, who lives on the second floor. He’s an aspiring journalist, just waiting for that one big story to catapult him to success and acclaim. Then, he’s seemingly attacked in the middle of the night, the same night his sister, Jess, is set to arrive from England. They’re not exactly estranged siblings, but they haven’t seen each other in years. Not since their mother died and they were fostered out to different families. Jess’ go of it has been rougher, and she seems to be an unabashed thief, if need be, including of her brother’s money. Nonetheless, when she arrives at the apartment building, which sits behind a keypad-entry gate, everything feels a bit off. For one, yes, Ben’s not there, a definite red flag, but also, over the course of the next few days, as she tries to ascertain his whereabouts from the fellow tenants of the apartment building, they are weirdly evasive. And we also know from their perspectives as chapters in the book that Ben’s arrival at the apartment building three months previous set-off a chain of events that has led to this moment.
In addition to Nick, the apartment complex includes Antoine and his wife on the first floor; Antoine is an alcoholic apparently on the outs with his wife. On the fourth floor is Mimi and Camille, the former a shy, reserved girl with an overbearing father, and the latter a sexually liberated, fashionable woman. It’s also clear that Mimi has some sort of mental malady given the way she reacts to stimulation and people around her. At the penthouse level is Jacques and Sophie Meunier, rich and aloof. Above them is an attic, or former maid’s quarters. Nobody goes there now. Finally, in a little cabin in the courtyard is where the concierge lives, an old woman who putters about.
As Jess begins looking for clues as to what could have happened to Ben, we slowly learn more about the relationships Nick, Sophie, and Mimi had with Ben. First, Nick and Ben did a European trip together a decade before where Nick revealed by insinuation that his father tried to have his virginity taken by a prostitute. After that revelation, Nick made a move on Ben, who reciprocated, but they never talked thereafter until this moment. Second, with Sophie, she is an immigrant to Paris, undocumented, and is bereft of love and affection from Jacques. That puts her right into the arms of the charming, handsome Ben, and they start a sordid affair. Third, Mimi and Ben had no relationship other than Ben offering passing pleasantries. Even so, she became obsessed with him and crafted a fantasy where her unrequited love for him was quite requited.
Foley then, has offered up three likely suspects for Ben’s disappearance and probable murder: Nick in the form of a bitter ex-lover; Sophie because she had an affair with Ben and needs to keep it quiet from Jacques; and Mimi because she’s obviously sick in the head (if Ben rejected her advances, she might have killed him for it). Antoine was an outside option because of the volatility of alcoholism. I never suspected Camille, seeing her as a side character. And Jacques, I suppose, you could imagine the patriarch in the penthouse killing Ben to ensure the security of his wine empire, but there wasn’t a clearer motive established yet.
As it turns out, it’s somewhat of an “all of the above” option (minus Camille, who goes off with Antoine’s wife). That’s because Jacques, Sophie, Antoine, Nick, and Mimi are a family. Well, Jacques is Antoine’s and Nick’s father. Sophie is their stepmother, and Mimi wasn’t even adopted. Rather, she was taken from another woman in Paris without documentation who gave birth to her. Sophie treats her like her blood, though, enough to kill? Perhaps. The deeper story that Jess, and Ben’s newspaper editor, Theo, uncover is that Jacques’ wine business is largely a front for a prostitution ring at a fancy club enveloping powerful, rich clients. Sophie used to be one of Jacques’ prostitutes, as was the concierge’s daughter until she died … giving birth to Mimi. And Ben coming to Paris wasn’t happenstance like he made it out to Nick, but rather a calculated inquiry to seek out his big journalistic break based on Nick’s revelation from 10 years ago. Of course, sleeping with Sophie, a key subject in the story, goes against journalistic ethics! (As does Theo paying one of the prostitutes to discuss what she knows. And then Theo sleeps with Jess!) Did he sleep with Sophie out of actual interest or was that yet another part of “getting the story”?
So, the family came together to kill Ben because he knew too much, right? Not quite. When it seems like Nick is going to kill her next, Jess runs up to the attic, or maid’s quarters (she said she wanted to avoid the horror movie trope of running to the basement, but it’s actually running upstairs!), where she discovers that Ben is alive, albeit worse for wear. We learn that Jacques, thanks to Nick, knew about Ben’s poking around, and Jacques tried to bludgeon him to death with a wine bottle. Witnessing this from her stalker window perch, Mimi, who herself felt betrayed by witnessing Sophia and Ben having sex (ew), intervenes and kills her “father” with a canvas knife. Sophie and the concierge, her grandmother, help her cover it up by having Antoine and Nick, unbeknownst to them, bury Jacques’ body in the garden outside while they hide Ben upstairs.
With all this revealed, Jess and Ben are able to get to safety on the condition that they won’t go to the police. Jess then blackmails Sophie until helping the women at the private club. As the news starts to come out, Antoine kills himself. The concierge follows Mimi to the South of France, where Sophie sent the latter to still protect her. And Jess and Ben separate once more, now that Ben has made it big and Jess has figured everything out.
As I said with her previous two books, Foley is solid at constructing these stories to propel me forward: I have to know what’s going on. This one wasn’t as intricate as her previous entries, but it was still compelling along those well-known formulaic lines. I feel like this one may have had more of that, “She thought it was this until she realized it was that,” set-up that can be a bit tedious and trite, but that’s okay. I’m just asking for fun here and Foley delivered it again.
Milam's Musings 