Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Paris Apartment

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

326 reviews

angorarabbit's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

Context: I wish I could remember the review that made me want to read this, I thought it was going to be more mystery and less thriller.

TLDR: I got hung-up on the foster care stuff, your mileage may vary.

The plotting was pretty tight for the most part with a few plot holes that didn’t matter very much. The central mystery was interesting and fresh. Most plot twists were a surprise.

My main problem came with the characterisation. The foster care system does heavy lifting in explaining Jess and Ben. Which wouldn’t have been so bad if there weren’t some important plot points that for someone somewhat familiar with the system are just plain unbelievable. I don’t know how much experience Ms Foley has had with the system but she might have benefited from an experienced beta reader.It’s rather like a non-Roma writer with a main character who is Roma and not having some Roma readers to advise them on Roma life. Just saying, “oh, they were in foster care so they are like this” is lazy.

The ending felt like Ms Foley found her deadline approaching and her editor wanted a happy ending for all rewrite. Anyone surviving foster care could tell you that there never is a happy ending for everyone.

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aharper's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

2.75

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merri217's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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aseel_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This was such a good crime/thriller, I did not see any of the plot twists, it was done so well

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apeivie's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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marissanbullis's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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farahbear's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

It had a pretty slow start, but quickly picked up about halfway through the book.

I initially didn’t like the main character Jess, but become quite fond of her later.

While I think I preferred Foley’s The Guest List more, I do think this book is well written and has a satisfying end. I also do admire that the book does try to touch upon some socioeconomic issues that prevail the world, mentioning the riots in Paris, and exploring how money and power is gained.

This book was less murder mystery, maybe due to how it was structured, and more “let’s learn secrets as we go along”.

If the pacing at the beginning was better, I may have liked this book more. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it tho. If you’re interested, go ahead!

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