It may be new, but it is very much 'Classic Crime'

The Paris Apartment

by Lucy Foley

'The Paris Apartment', to be honest, is not quite what I was expecting.  It is in essence a nuts-and-bolts thriller in a traditional/classic mould: a murder has (likely) been committed, a restricted number of characters in a closed environment are involved, and one of the group has taken it upon themselves to uncover the truth.  It is in effect the traditional ‘country house’ mystery dressed in Parisienne couture and told with a modern twist.  But to be fair, that is my type of thing, and it is certainly none the worse for it.

There is also no doubt that Lucy Foley can write a good thriller.  Her pacing is consistently good and her method of revealing the plot in short bursts from many characters’ perspective definitely works and has been very successful.  But really, this format it is starting to grate with me.  Don’t get me wrong, 'The Paris Apartment' is a well written, nail-biting thriller but one has to simply accept the ‘conceit’ of the first-person narrator presented as personal thoughts but reading as if a perspective of a story is being told to the reader.  This format and the constant shifting from narrator to narrator, literally every few pages, drip-feeding the story, does draw the reader in but it can become a little irritating after a while.
It is a relatively unusual device in literature and Lucy Foley certainly has made it her own – maybe it is too soon for me since finishing ‘The Guest List’ (her previous novel) but the style of narrative was putting me round the bend – but then again, maybe that is why it is a relatively unusual device…

Still, it is a good yarn told at a page-turning rate, and had it been the first Lucy Foley novel I had read I may have got along better with the style choice but for me, this (slightly) spoiled a good story well told.