The Paris Apartment

“It’s a beautiful building, but there’s something rotten at its heart. Now he’s discovered it he can smell the stench of it everywhere.”

Ben’s observation—that his building is “beautiful” but “rotten”—is important for several reasons. First, it immediately introduces the Paris apartment building as an antagonistic setting. Second, it implies that Ben has discovered a secret that endangers him. Third, it establishes that Ben’s disappearance won’t solve the problems in the building because it is “rotten at its heart” and has more corruption to be discovered.

“I don’t know how it has come to this. But I do know that it started with him coming here. Moving into the third floor. Benjamin Daniels. He destroyed everything.”

Sophie is the first secondary character who accuses Ben of destroying something within the building’s community. The other secondary characters, even the ones who liked Ben, also blame him for disrupting some sort of equilibrium. These accusations help develop the narrative tension and imply that Ben is being punished or has been disappeared in order for a secret to be kept hidden. The accusations also call Ben’s motivations into question. Lastly, these accusations reveal that the secondary characters each know a piece of the puzzle of Foley’s mystery, closing Jess in among people who know something but don’t want to reveal anything.

“I’ve never let a closed door stay closed for long: I suppose you could say that’s my main problem in life.”

Jess is inherently curious, sometimes to a fault. This characterization positions her in the ideal role of protagonist and narrator.