Ariel Pryce wakes up in Lisbon alone, Her husband , John Wright, is gone and she hasn't got any idea where. Ariel has accompanied John on a work trip but when she goes to report him missing, she soon realizes she doesn't know much about his work. No one seems to believe her that John is in danger. When she receives a ransom demand, there is only one person she knows who can help, Unfortunately, he's the last person she wants to turn to.

This was a slow one. A lot of characters in different branches of police, embassy and CIA. I found it a little hard to keep them all straight. I knew there was a twist coming, but honestly, didn't expect the one I got. I enjoyed the ending, but I struggled with some of the middle. A solid read, but I wasn't on the edge of my seat.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Available May 24, 2022.

Know that this one starts fast, slows down and then speeds up again to a big twist at the end (no spoilers!). Ariel is in Lisbon with her husband John for his business and, on their second day there, she wakes up and he's gone. Missing. She's frantic and goes to the police (they're terrific characters btw) and to the US Embassy. Her plight gets more interesting when a masked motorcyclist hands her a cell phone which connects her to....a kidnapper demanding 3 million euros. How does she get them? Who is the person she contacts? The CIA Chief of Station is as interested as the Portuguese police but for a different reason- she's concerned about national security. But why? She doesn't know yet but she sets her team off to both follow Ariel and collection info. Then there's a reporter who is interested in her. He's no dummy. Who is Ariel, really? Her backstory, the reason she changed her name, comes out slowly. What about John? Pavone drops clues all along the way but I'll admit while I guessed one big reveal, I didn't the other- mark of a clever writer. He's clearly spent some time thinking out surveillance detection routes and other intel like matters (although note that CIA doesn't have the authority for or do several things they do or contemplate doing but there is a LOL moment between the COS and the Ambassador). Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Yes, it's long, yes it takes some patience, but the payoff makes It an excellent read.

Two Nights in Lisbon is the first I've read of Chris Pavone, and I'm now a fan. This is a truly clever thriller with two separate mysteries. It begins with Ariel Price waking up in Lisbon and discovering that her husband, John, is missing. The two had just arrived the prior night on a business trip of John's. Ariel is in a panic and immediately goes to the police and then the US embassy because of her concern about her husband's well-being. The police are dismissive; after all, John has only been missing for a few hours. However, Ariel is convinced that something has happened to her husband. Her fears appear to be justified when a stranger on a motorcycle intercepts her on the street to deliver a cell phone. That's when the phone call comes. Her husband has been kidnapped, and the ransom is 3 million Euros.

As mentioned, there are two mysteries. The first is who has kidnapped John and why. The second is the identity of the benefactor who can provide the 3 million that Ariel needs within 48 hours. Oh, and it's the 4th of July in the States, so it's nearly impossible to find anyone in the states who can help!! I have to say that the mystery of the benefactor was foreshadowed so blatantly that I was a bit disappointed. But the mystery of the kidnapping was a doozy!

The plotting, writing, and character development were all excellent. Kudos to Mr. Pavone. I especially liked the way he folded in the Lisbon police, the two factions within the Embassy, and the players in the U.S. It was truly a well-told tale.

My thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me an eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Two Nights in Lisbon is the newest political thriller, of sorts, by Chris Pavone. This novel is complex, layered and intricate, but also really quite gripping.

Ariel Price travels with her new husband on his business trip to the beautiful city of Lisbon. When she awakes on their first morning there, he is unexpectedly gone. Due to a series of clues, she suspects that he has been kidnapped for ransom and her theories prove true. As she seeks help from hotel security, then local authorities and eventually escalates matters to the embassy, she finds little assistance, or truly anyone who will take her concerns seriously. A resourceful woman, she is forced to take matters into her own hands by diving into a past she’d rather forget.

Two Nights in Lisbon is the story of secrets, lies, cover-ups and scandal. It delves into some deeper, darker, but relevant topics with clarity and a wealth of knowledge. Though I guessed part of the reveal, I found the unraveling of the mystery quite satisfying. Chris Pavone is truly a skilled writer who creates intelligent plots. This story admittedly was quite long, and that will deter some from picking it up, but it was an engaging story and I found it thoroughly enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to the audio-version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

While accompanying her husband on a business trip to Lisbon, Ariel’s husband, John, disappears. Near the outset, it is evident that all is not what it seems with them and there are secrets. At first, she has difficulty convincing the local authorities that he was kidnapped, but soon they are involved, along with American embassy staff and a journalist on a whirlwind investigation as the secrets are revealed.

The plot is a bit convoluted, but, over and above the basic storyline, are poignant and sometimes painfully perceptive observations of life as well as the frustrating situations in which women are often placed due to mysogyny.

There are actions and statements reflective of our societal and political culture and some wonderful statements. “That is the problem these days. No one believes anyone” and my personal favorite, “there are a lot of lunatics in America.”

This is a thriller not to be missed!

Two Nights in Lisbon is an interesting, absorbing thriller. Ariel is recently married and has left her young son with friends while she accompanies her husband on a business trip. But one morning, she wakes up and her husband is gone. Completely gone.

She’s alone in a strange city and the police don’t seem all that worried about her husband, even when she tells them that he’d never disappear like that. He didn’t leave a note and he’s not picking up his phone. Ariel tries not to freak out. She asks the hotel staff if they’ve seen him.

Finally, she goes to the local police and then the American Consulate, who either brush her aside or even seem to gaslight her. Surely her husband just went for a run. How well does she know him, anyway?

So Ariel decides to investigate his disappearance herself.

This was on the longer side, but I really enjoyed it!

Ariel Pryce wakes up in Lisbon, alone. She went to bed with her husband next to her, but now there is no trace of him. Where did he go, what happened? She goes to the hotel, police, and finally the American Embassy. They all tell her that they can't help. Now, on her own, she must solve the puzzle of the man that she married and discover what happened.

I had no idea what this book was about when I started reading it. I thought maybe it was about a really crazy bender? But alas, it is about a divorced bookstore owner who joins her new, handsome husband on a business trip to Portugal. But when she wakes up that first morning, he is just not in the hotel and no one has seen him. Everyone feels bad for her and tells her to check her bank accounts as this is seeming a little like an episode of American Greed. But then she gets a call demanding ransom. And kidnappings of random Americans don't happen in Lisbon. So WTF is going on?
International political thriller is not my typical genre, but I enjoyed the fast pacing and the unexpected direction the plot took, though the author had to force a lot of elements to make it work. It kept me reading.

First of all, this is an absolutely INCREDIBLE cover. It perfectly emulates the feelings I had for the writing and is stunning to look at. It starts in a pretty generic fashion: missing husband, alone wife, some suspicious activities. But there was a draw that I felt, especially because of the international landscape. Like other readers have said, it does end up a little bit on the longer side. This book isn't for someone who wants a plot twist every other page, but there is an irresistible pull to the mystery.

I normally do really notice when male authors write female protagonists, but this one was so poorly done that it smacked me in the face every time I read anything. First off, it's too long. It was supposed to be a thriller, but I was not thrilled. Author should try with a male protagonist next time.

This book started off strong for me, I loved the concept and was really engaged in what was happening to Ariel during her trip to Lisbon with her new husband. Unfortunately, my interest started to really wane due to a few things: 1) Ariel's constant feeling that all men wanted her, whether that be in a kind, helpful way or to take advantage, abuse, or do worse to her. It got to the point that I would just roll my eyes at the attempt to brow beat me into believing every man on the planet is a misogynistic jerk who wanted his way with her. 2.) The convoluted storyline, chock full of characters from the past, the present, the CIA, the FBI, the local Lisbon cops, journalists, I could go on. 3.) This book could have been a good 100 pages shorter and I think it would have been more tolerable had it been so. It felt like a slog and two days in Lisbon felt like 2 weeks of borderline nonsense.

The saving grace for this book was I did think Pavone has a witty writing style in regards to social commentary but this felt like I was being beaten into submission to agree that men suck.

Ariel Wright, recently married to the much younger John, accompanies him on a business trip to Lisbon. She awakens one morning to find her husband gone. She is panicking as she first looks inside the hotel without success, then contacts the local police, and finally the US Embassy. Either it is too soon for the disappearance to be considered a kidnapping or the US authorities don’t have jurisdiction. Told in both flashbacks and present time (which occasionally is confusing), the reader learns that something happened some 14 years earlier that has totally changed Ariel’s life. Back then she was the wife of a wealthy businessman and travelled in that stratospheric atmosphere that comes with such wealth. But was she happy and what caused her to abandon New York City. The local police and US foreign service investigations move forward alongside her attempts to find her kidnapped spouse, for whom a 3 million euro has been demanded. All this takes place over a 48 hour period. With multiple twists and turns, Pavone does a very good job of keeping you guessing even when you think you have it all figured out. My thanks to MCD and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the ARC of this book

Two nights in Lisbon is an intriguing and engaging read. This book starts with Ariel waking up to find her newlywed husband missing. The storyline is interesting and keeps you guessing and curious about what’s going to unravel next in her quest to find her husband. The downside of this book for me is it was longer coming in at 400+ pages. I do feel like it could have been trimmed down some as it dragged on a bit at some points. The ending was satisfying and overall, I think this book was good and I would recommend it.

Thank you Net Galley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux MCD for an ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

Two Nights in Lisbon, by Chris Pavone, is an exciting, well-paced thriller that kept me engaged with its edge-of-your-seat action and complex plotting. A woman traveling on a business trip with her husband of less than a year, John, wakes to find herself alone in a Lisbon hotel room-- and John is missing.
Ariel Price, the protagonist, is a 40-something single mother of a teenage son. She has been divorced for years, and has retreated to living a quiet life on a farm near a small town, in which she operates a bookshop. There are repeated allusions to a previous trauma she suffered, and she avoids any sexualized clothing or behavior. Her hair is very short, not colored, and she exudes a tough, no-nonsense vibe to acquaintances.
There are plenty of breadcrumbs dropped by the author referring to Ariel’s suffering distress in the past, her mistrust of her mother, and her aversion to social media and the press.
Now she is faced with another ordeal: her husband is missing without explanation and she is in a strange city, with no knowledge of the terrain or the language, as she tries to navigate the police system to find him.
No spoilers here: the intricate plot moves with great speed, even with all the references to her past. The minor characters—Lisbon police, CIA operatives, US ambassador and embassy employees—are surprisingly interesting, and they speculate about Ariel and John, as they investigate his disappearance.
I’ve never been to Lisbon, Portugal, but the description of its neighborhoods and landmarks is skilled and atmospheric—very enjoyable.
This is Chris Pavone’s fifth novel and his superb writing is a pleasure in which to immerse oneself!
I highly recommend this thriller to readers who like strong female characters, police procedurals, and international intrigue, with a measure of complicated family relationships and survival in the face of past betrayals.

Thank you to MCD, Farrar, Straus and Giroux publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my enthusiastic unbiased review!

If you're already a Chris Pavone fan, pre-order [book:Two Nights in Lisbon|58772746] or put it on hold at your library post-haste. The release date (US) is 5-24-22.

Two Nights in Lisbon is Pavone's fifth thriller. He debuted to much buzz in 2012 with The Expats, winning an Edgar Award and selling > 200,000 copies. In Lisbon, all of his life experience, including writing his 4 prior best-sellers, the decades spent prior to The Expats as an editor of nonfiction titles and then, subsequently, as a ghost writer, and, as well, the decades married to a partner with a highly successful career in the publishing industry, comes together to produce a highly satisfying thriller. Bonus: Lisbon relies on a twist that makes so much sense the reader doesn't need to suppress their intelligence to accept it. Hallelujah.

Two facts differentiate Lisbon from most of the novels around it in the thriller category. It is written by a master of the genre in terms of carefully-layered plotting, structure, pacing, sharing of narrowly-scoped clues. And while many authors penning suspense novels offer strong women protagonists, no one writes smart, authentic, perhaps difficult, women under pressure better than Pavone. His main characters never walk into the dark house on page 350 without a solid plan for ensuring an outcome they control.

On page 1, Ariel Pryce wakes up in a hotel in Lisbon to find her husband, John, isn't in the room and isn't responding to texts. Early on, we learn both Pryces have changed their names at least once, Ariel rarely accompanies her spouse on business trips, they've been married for less than a year, and during that year, they've not actually spent much time in the same residence, and Ariel has a 14-year old son who doesn't seem to have any relationship with John. And off we are, in Pavone's hands, paying attention to the beginning of each chapter with the requisite time-stamp of the two days referenced in the title, attending to every sentence hunting clues to anticipate the twist, and developing a point of view on Ariel Pryce -- in her late 40s/early 50s raising a 14-yr old largely on her own, living in a farmhouse in upstate NY, with a history of her people not believing or sticking up for her when the chips are down, so to speak. By 10:00 am local time on Day 1, she has contacted hotel security, Lisbon police and the US embassy, and is walking around outside of the hotel finding relevant cameras and seeking out potential witnesses and clues to feed to the authorities. Then the ransom demand is delivered.

Pavone gives each of the police and embassy team members personalities, perspectives and motives that are authentic and not the usual forgettable caricatures, and his effort at drawing them realistically is one key to the impeccable pacing and mystery. But it's his ability to craft Ariel as a fully-formed contemporary character who hasn't quite fit in her entire life, has a fairly hefty chip of anger on her shoulder, owns and runs an independent bookstore, is highly observant, acts intelligently but has an element of duplicity in her back pocket, whom the police and CIA suspect of selective information sharing but don't deem flaky or hysterical, whose relationships with various men haven't always gone swimmingly, who doesn't whine, collapse in exhaustion, drown in self-pity, that makes this novel so satisfying. In his previous novels, Pavone has given readers marital duplicity and institutional duplicity in equal measure. Here, he challenges the reader to assess whether and to what extent Ariel is merely sharing and withholding irrelevant details as any sensible person would when dealing with (at least, foreign) police and the CIA when a spouse's life is at stake. Or does she know more about John's disappearance than she's disclosing?

The big reveal makes sense and satisfies, and it's consistent with everything that precedes it - a gift which I no longer take for granted given some of the best-selling thrillers released during the last couple of years. How Pavone gets to that reveal, though, is the magic, and the reason to read Two Nights in Lisbon. The great promise of his earlier novels that always had some glaring flaw of varying magnitude? This one sticks the landing.

I read an ARC from NetGalley (thanks!), but I had already preordered the novel at the time I was approved for the ARC. So the caveat to this review is not that my viewpoint might be influenced by the grant of a free e-copy; it's that I'm a Pavone stan.

Suspenseful and twisty, this is a timely thriller with powerful social commentary.

Ariel Pryce and her new husband, John Wright, are in Lisbon for his business meeting and enjoying the sights and sounds of the city for a few days. On Monday morning, Ariel wakes up alone in their suite. Her husband does not return, nor is there any sort of note and he is not answering his phone. Panicked, Ariel begins to seek help from every possible avenue from hotel security to the local police to the American Embassy. At first, no one is much concerned about this crazy American woman and her demands for attention and assistance. Ariel is nothing but determined to get to the bottom of this sudden disappearance but it's hard to get them to believe her and to take action.

I'll say no more about the events and the plot so as not to give any spoilers. This is surprising at every turn and the narrative is whip smart with the author making incredible observations and incisive perception thru the voice of Ariel. I can say that I was totally surprised by the direction this took and very pleased with how the story played out. I love the writing style and the ability of this author to really get to the crux of the matter. Lots of action and a fast-pace interspersed with critical moments of self-reflection, this was hard to put down and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Full of interesting characters and settings, this was another good book by Chris Pavone. I've read several others, and plan to keep him high on my list for future reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.

A political thriller with so many twists and turns that it kept me guessing until the very end. The book was pretty slow and large sections of backstory could have been edited to improve the pacing. A lot of thrillers have backstory woven into the primary narrative, this book seemed to have a little primary narrative woven into the abundance of backstory. Even so, I enjoyed this book and strongly recommend it.

Thanks to Netgalley and MCD publisher for an advanced reader copy.

Ariel Pryce accompanies her husband of three months, John Wright (ten years her junior) on a business trip to Lisbon. After a couple of days when Ariel wakes up John is not in bed with her, nor is he having breakfast in the hotel dining room. He is also not answering his phone. She talks to hotel security without any success and after a couple of hours goes to the police. Of course they are not interested - he is an adult and has only been ‘missing’, if indeed he is missing, for a few hours. But Ariel is concerned.

That afternoon she goes to the US Embassy. They are equally disinterested. But then Ariel gets the ransom demand - 3 million euros! She doesn’t have that kind of money. CIA Chief of Station Nicole Griffiths gets a little more interested in the couple now, especially when she learns that both Ariel and Nicole have had name changes in their pasts. The police are also questioning Ariel in more detail.

There is only one person she can turn to to get that amount of money and he can provide only 2 million euros. It will have to do. He balks at the request but Ariel reminds him she has a secret recording of their last conversation, years ago, the details of which would certainly damage his burgeoning political career.

This was a really good story. You empathise with Ariel being stuck, alone, in a foreign country where she doesn’t speak the language and doesn’t know if she will ever see her husband again. But - things are not as they seem or not as simple as they should be. A reporter has been sniffing around and he is very close to unearthing Ariel’s secret - a secret she simply cannot divulge. The CIA is also sniffing around and seeing the potential national security implications of this debacle. They definitely want to get to the bottom of things.

The writing was stellar, really crisp and compelling. The characterisations were excellent and the story was very tautly plotted and moved along at a good clip. My only niggle is that the book was a little long. I didn’t mind as I was enjoying it so much but I had to keep reading late into the night. I simply had to finish the book. I will certainly be interested in checking out other books by this author. Many thanks to Netgalley and Farrah, Straus and Giroux for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This novel had an ending that I didn't see coming. I love the characters and the resolution of the storyline.

This book was mostly a thrilling roller coaster ride. My only complaint is that it was on the long side at 448 pages. I loved the European settings, it makes me want to travel to Portugal, although I don’t want to get tangled up with the police there.

Ariel has only been married to John for a year, so when he invites her along on a business trip to Portugal, she takes him up on the offer. She’s reluctant to leave her teenage son with her mom, but the time with John will be good.

Cue the dramatic music, she wakes up the next morning at the hotel and no John! She thinks maybe he’s just gone out for breakfast or a walk, but he never comes back. His phone and passport are still in the room. Where is he?

She starts working her way through proper channels – hotel staff, local police, American embassy – no entity is
that much help, and they doubt her at every step. She can’t really help with why exactly her husband is here in Portugal or who his client is here. Then the ransom request arrives.

There’s only one person Ariel can turn to for the 3-million-euro demand and she vowed never to ask him for anything. There are some tense scenes ahead as she races to get the money and rescue John.

I developed such sympathy for Ariel and really just wanted her to be reunited with her new husband and son. I enjoyed this one and a few twists at the end.