Courtesy of Amazon

Readers,

Though the weather says otherwise, fall has begun. To all the people cheerfully switching out their tees for sweaters, lighting candles and planning Halloween out to what other people might call a ridiculous degree, this book will compliment your autumn spirit perfectly.

To those already feeling the fall chill in the air….well, this book won’t warm you up. It will most likely have an adverse effect. It certainly did for me.

As summer started, my mom picked up some of Lucy Foley’s thriller books. I was especially interested in her opinions on these, as I already had The Paris Apartment waiting on my shelves. So when her birthday came around the next month, I bought her a copy of that very book.

After adding some special touches to both of our copies of the book, I gifted it to her. We hemmed and hawed about whether we should save our “book club” for our summer vacation, but decided to start ASAP.

The Paris Apartment is guilty of TSS: “Thriller Stereotype Syndrome.” If you were to find it on a shelf, both its synopsis and cover wouldn’t hook you, especially not when compared to other, very similar-on-first-glance books. However, this was a crucial “don’t judge a book by its cover” moment for me.

The story follows Jess as she travels to her half-brother’s apartment complex with the hopes of staying with him as she gathers her wits. She does end up gathering her wits, but in a less than ideal way. That is, she’s tasked with gathering information about her apparently missing brother, all through his eccentric flat neighbors.

As she becomes acquainted with each, she begins deciphering their true intentions, and their questionable integrity is increasingly difficult. What starts as a couch-surfing mission transforms into an enrapturing story about trust, strangers and instincts.

Thrillers are traditionally very plot-driven, and, though The Paris Apartment doesn’t break that mold, it also is an intense character study. Its characters all have cracks, which gives them a sense of humanity. The moral ambiguity of this story gives the readers a sort of fascination and thrill.

A sinister autumn read, this thriller engages both your adrenaline and your mind. It is littered with plot twists that my mom and I both predicted and would’ve never guessed. Cozy up with it, but don’t forget extra blankets for your inevitable goosebumps.

Content Warnings: Sexual harassment mentioned, sex work, domestic violence, cheating, alcoholism, suicide, self-harm mentioned, murder