The Paris Apartment

Jess Hadley, the gutsy heroine of this well-paced mystery from bestseller Foley (The Guest List), arrives at the swanky Paris apartment building of her aspiring journalist half brother, Ben Daniels, after fleeing her latest unpleasant job in England. But Ben is not there and doesn’t show up the next morning. When Jess asks the other tenants about her brother, all of them—including imperious penthouse dweller Sophie Meunier, a blackmail victim; timid 19-year-old Mimi, who’s infatuated with Ben; and aggressive drunk Antoine, who suspects Ben has seduced his wife—deflect her questions. In her search for Ben, Jess learns the building’s tenants are members of a single family with secrets to hide. After an editor Ben worked for takes Jess’s worries about his disappearance seriously, the details of those secrets start to emerge, along with a credible portrait of a deeply damaged family. Amid plenty of red herrings and distinctive characters, each shifty in their own way, the relentlessly bleak plot builds to an uplifting twist ending that feels neither pat nor overly rosy. Foley reliably entertains. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners. (Feb.)