The Tzer Island book blog features book reviews written by TChris, the blog's founder.  I hope the blog will help readers discover good books and avoid bad books.  I am a reader, not a book publicist.  This blog does not exist to promote particular books, authors, or publishers.  I therefore do not participate in "virtual book tours" or conduct author interviews.  You will find no contests or giveaways here.

The blog's nonexclusive focus is on literary/mainstream fiction, thriller/crime/spy novels, and science fiction.  While the reviews cover books old and new, in and out of print, the blog does try to direct attention to books that have been recently published.  Reviews of new (or newly reprinted) books generally appear every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Reviews of older books appear on occasional weekends.  Readers are invited and encouraged to comment.  See About Tzer Island for more information about this blog, its categorization of reviews, and its rating system.

Entries in Chris Pavone (2)

Friday
Jun032022

Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux/MCD on May 24, 2022

Before she changed her name, Laurel Turner was raped at a party hosted by her rapist, who was both a well-known businessman and her wealthy husband’s business partner. Years later, he became a powerful politician. As we have learned from #MeToo, powerful men have a long history of sexually abusing women without consequence.

After dumping her unsupportive husband, Laurel changed her name to Ariel Pryce and bought a bookstore in a small town where she raised her son. She eventually married John Wright, a younger man who earned a good living doing something related to finance.

The story begins in Lisbon. Wright is there on a business trip and has taken Ariel with him, something he never did before. He goes out for coffee in the morning while Ariel is still sleeping and is kidnapped as he leaves the hotel. When she discovers he is missing, Ariel spends a frantic day talking to the police and the American Embassy, where she attracts the attention of the CIA. Ariel receives a ransom demand for more money than she has, forcing her to seek help from the one person she never wanted to see again — a person who is forced to help because Ariel is positioned to ruin his life if he doesn’t.

Nobody is quite sure whether to believe Ariel, as kidnappings in Lisbon are rare and Wright does not seem like an obvious kidnap victim. The CIA doesn’t know what to make of Wright’s sister, who recently traveled to Lisbon from her home in Morocco. The reader will probably be equally puzzled by events that don’t quite add up. That’s part of the fun in a novel that invites the reader to guess the truth about the characters’ motivations.

While the novel’s focus is on Ariel, other notable characters include Lisbon police officers, a CIA agent in Lisbon who keeps an eye on potential threats to national security, a lawyer pal of Ariel, and a newspaper reporter. Ariel is the only character who is presented in full, but characterization of supporting players is adequate for a plot-driven novel.

The story explores a couple of social issues, particularly the use of nondisclosure agreements to conceal evidence of sexual abuse. The tendency of the public to judge others based on evidence-free media posts — and their feeling of entitlement to confront those they judge — is a lesser theme, but one that is certainly timely.

A reader might guess the truth behind Wright’s kidnapping, or at least some of it, but a substantial part of the ending is likely to come as a surprise. Chris Pavone develops the clever plot with skill, keeps the first two-thirds of the story in rapid motion, and conveys Ariel’s sense of anxous urgency as she deals with characters from whom she needs help. Pavone also conveys the consequences of the kidnapping plot on Ariel’s life, creating sympathy and support for Ariel that extends beyond her victimization. The novel loses some energy in its later stages, but Ariel’s ability to take charge of her life makes it easy to cheer for her until the story reaches its satisfying conclusion.

RECOMMENDED

Friday
Jul292016

The Travelers by Chris Pavone

Published by Crown on March 8, 2016

Will Rhodes writes for a travel magazine called Travelers, having been hired by a newly promoted editor after the former editor mysteriously disappeared. Will’s job is to travel to interesting places, eat good food, and stay up late drinking with strangers. Nice work if you can get it, but he’s burdened with debt, his wife is cranky about his unavailability, and his fidelity is tested by a gorgeous Australian he meets on a trip to France.

While in France, Will stumbles across someone who doesn’t want to be found, setting the plot in motion. We also see glimpses of a nondescript office full of nondescript employees who monitor the movements of designated individuals, Will among them. And we see Will’s boss disappearing into a secret room, so we know he’s something more than a travel editor.

In fact, every key character is living with secrets. Even Will, eventually. The fact that so many interrelated characters are not who they appear to be is improbable, but I was willing to suspend my disbelief because the improbable lives all contribute to the story’s entertainment value. Guessing the exact nature of those secrets, and whether various characters are working at cross-purposes, is part of the fun. Distinguishing good guys from bad guys is no easy task, thanks to a well-designed plot that manages to be intricate without becoming convoluted.

Originality is the story’s strongest asset. I can’t recall reading another spy novel that has a plot quite like this one. Will’s personality is developed with reasonable care, and while there is less fullness to the other characters, they at least come across as real people. Chris Pavone’s prose is better-than-average, the story moves with a good pace, and the atmosphere in the story’s various settings is convincing.

RECOMMENDED