The Paris Apartment

From Émile Zola’s Pot-Bouille to George Perec’s Life: a User’s Manual and from Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog to many more than I can list here, novels set in ancient, cavernous Parisian apartment buildings comprise their own sub-sub-genre, one that Foley’s latest novel can join with head held high. Jess needs to get out of England—her job as a bartender has grown pretty sour, she can barely make enough money to survive—so she informs Ben, her half-brother, that she’s coming to crash with him in Paris for a bit. Except when she arrives, Ben has disappeared, his super-luxe apartment is way beyond what journalist Ben can afford, and one detail after another points to the fact that whatever happened to Ben, it isn’t good. As the hours, then days, go by with no sign of her brother, Jess starts her own investigation, centered on the odd residents of the apartment building, all of whom behave incredibly suspiciously. Eventually, Jess comes to realize that it’s not just Ben she has to save. She has to save herself as well. Claustrophobic, and creepy as hell, this thriller is sure to please Foley’s many fans.