Jess is down on her luck, broke and alone when she heads to Paris to visit her half-brother (both were orphaned at a young age). When she shows up, he’s not there. What she does find is a once-elegant, now eerie Parisian apartment, a slew of dysfunctional, unreliable neighbors and a menacing underbelly of the City of Light. “Paris is so perfect, so beautiful on the surface—at a first sight it hardly seems real,” says Foley, author of the 2020 bestseller, The Guest List. “As a Londoner, I’m fascinated by that perfection. There is this perfect, romantic myth of the city, and yet there’s so much going on beneath the surface. I wanted to explore the grime beneath the gilt. But at the same time, write a kind of twisted love letter to the city.” With Ben missing, the detective within Jess comes to light, and everyone knows something they’re not telling. We talked to Foley about her locked-room mystery writing, the books she most recommends and the Agatha Christie book that changed her life.
How did the idea for a locked-room style mystery within the confines of a Parisian apartment come about?
I was finishing a draft of The Guest List while staying in a rather threadbare (but beautiful!) Airbnb in Paris, and I loved the atmospheric creepiness of the building—the dark stairwell, the Rear Window-esque set up of all the apartments arranged around a central courtyard so you could snoop on your neighbors, the smell of stale cigarette smoke hanging on the air in the hallways. It just felt like there was a story to be told there and I wanted to tell it.
Similar to past books of yours, the twists and turns unfold from the various points of view of an interesting collection of people. What do you enjoy most about this writing style and your ability to develop characters this way?
I love the confessional nature of the first-person point of view. It feels intimate, privileged. We’re getting a chance to see inside these characters’ heads, understand their motivations, see things play out from their point of view—even the less likable among them. On a practical note, I love being able to hop between different characters depending on what writing mood I’m in that day!
What inspired Jess’s amateur sleuthing ways?
I’m not sure exactly where Jess came from, but she came to me pretty fully formed, which felt like such a gift as a writer. I could hear her voice so clearly. I suppose in a way, she’s a kind of alter ego: There’s a part of me that would love to be as brave and straight-shooting as her, as much of a risk-taker. I was very clear that I wanted a sleuth character in this book—unlike the other two thrillers—but I’m also, at this point in time, not interested in writing books with classic or professional detective figures. I wanted someone messy, flawed and definitely an amateur. I also wanted to subvert the ‘missing girl’ trope and see what happened if I had a ‘missing boy’ at the heart of my tale instead. How would that change things? Would the police take the disappearance of a 30-something independent guy seriously? It threw up some interesting questions.
What do you hope readers enjoy most about The Paris Apartment?
One of the things that I’ve enjoyed in the last couple of years, in particular, is escaping via the page, armchair traveling through the books I’ve read. And I hope readers enjoy that aspect of The Paris Apartment, too. I hope they enjoy the puzzle, the gothic atmosphere of the apartment building and discovering a cast of characters they may love to hate—or hate to love!
Do you have any writing rituals—before, during, or after your creative process?
Plenty of good coffee! Leaving the house helps, too. The two combined equals lots of time hunched over my notebook or laptop in cafes around town: I love being surrounded by the noise and buzz. I also love playing hooky and going to the cinema in the daytime, especially if I’ve nailed my word count earlier than expected that day. I find watching films so inspiring. While I was in Paris researching this book, I’d frequently head into my favorite tiny vintage cinema and catch a matinee Hitchcock screening.
What book do you recommend most to friends and family?
The Wheel Spinsby Ethel Lina White, because they likely haven’t heard of it and because it’s brilliant. It’s a riveting thriller published in the 1930s with most of the action taking place onboard a train speeding across Europe. It’s got glamour, intrigue, a messy, flawed, loveable heroine and it was made into a Hitchcock film called The Lady Vanishes—what’s not to love?
Your thrillers have won you comparisons to Agatha Christie. Do you have a go-to Christie novel?
And Then There Were None was the book that I credit with changing my career (even my life). It inspired me to write a modern day take on the classic murder mystery. I also love Endless Night for its unreliable narrator and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd because of its fabulous twist. And Crooked House because it feels taboo even now.
What murder mystery (classic or new to shelves) would you most recommend to readers?
I love Anthony Horowitz’s Hawthorne detective series, the latest of which is A Line to Kill. It’s such a clever conceit: Horowitz has put himself in the novels as a kind of Watson to Hawthorne’s Sherlock—and Hawthorne is a brilliant character—an enigmatic, often deeply unlikeable genius. I can’t wait for the next installment.
What would you say was the last truly great book that you read?
I just finished Vladimir by Julia May Jonas and it knocked my socks off!
Is there a book that readers might be surprised to find on your shelf?
Perhaps any one of my collection of Jilly Cooper books? I love the vast cast of characters Cooper creates and the glamour of the settings. You can just tell she had such fun writing them.
What books are on your To Be Read list?
Currently on my TBR pile are Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson, which everyone who has read it has raved about. Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks: 1941-1995. Apparently, it’s a fascinating insight into the woman behind the books. And The Twyford Code by Janice Hallet. I thought her first book The Appeal was a genius, fresh take on the murder mystery.
Who is one author you wish more readers knew about?
Probably Ethel Lina White. In her time, she was as well-known as Agatha Christie, and I think her brilliant thriller writing deserves the same sort of renown now!
What kind of reader were you as a child? Are there any books or characters you love returning to?
I was a voracious reader—still am. I loved and love that escape into different worlds, into the minds of different characters. I’m not a big one for returning to books as there are so many new ones, so little time, but I have come back to Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier several times and TheMoonstone by Wilkie Collins. I read both while quite young and my appreciation of each has deepened over time. I seem to discover new aspects with each rereading. Next up, the American Library Association’s ranking of the 100 most banned books.
