Member Reviews
Chris Pavone’s new novel, Two Nights in Lisbon, is a brilliantly written depiction of a woman who awakes in a hotel room in Lisbon to find her husband missing. He has not left any note and does not answer his cell phone.
In an attempt to discover what happened to him, she contacts the police, the American Embassy and reviews videos from the hotel security cameras.
The book is replete with flashbacks which inform the reader of some of the secrets and hidden pasts of many of the characters in the novel. There are also subplots relating to Senate confirmation hearings, non-disclosure agreements and rape - which all come together in a satisfactory manner. Mr. Pavone’s prose is not only fascinating but it is also masterful.
I highly recommend this book to any reader who will not mind missing hours of sleep - once started, I could not put the book down.
My thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus & Giroux for the advance reader copy and to Chris Pavone for writing an unforgettable novel.
This Chris Pavone’s detective story begins in Lisbon, where an American couple just has arrived for a business meeting. When the wife wakes up on Monday, the first morning, and does not find her husband anywhere at the hotel, she rushes to the police station to claim his disappearance. The police staff prefers to believe in a wife's misunderstanding rather than a criminal fact: “This woman does not know her husband as well as she believes”. However, the wife does not give up easily as “this is really not like him” and goes to the US embassy, where she encounters for forty-three min the same indifferent reaction. The reader must not believe in easy appearance. Do you think you will learn about the main sites of Lisbon? Do not waste your time because each minute counts to follow these characters. They are determined: the wife will search for her beloved husband, the police and the embassy will try to prove the wife is hiding important information, and finally, the husband will fight for his life and those he loves. Are you ready? Take a long breath and go! Each word and, each movement are worthy. The reader will be an astonished witness as this 21st-century multi-layer history evolves, deep in emotions and empathy. At last, I appreciated much that one person's decision should change the course of some human behaviors forever because “justice is truth in action.”
Pavone is an obviously talented writer, but this plot really needed some work. It was fun, Pavone writes compelling characters, the plot just fell flat several times throughout the novel for me. I was constantly expecting something more.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Ariel and her new husband John travel to Lisbon for his business trip, when John suddenly disappears. Ariel immediately goes to the US Embassy and seeks help, then gets a request for ransom. Both Ariel and John have secrets and the authorities in Portugal are suspicious.
This premise sounded great and it was great. The execution was not as great. I like books about Americans having issues in Europe and I was all primed to visit Lisbon before covid hit, so this was an obvious one for me to request. I had read this author's first couple of books years ago and skipped his more recent ones and I couldn't really recall why until I read this book. His books are way too long. This was a good premise and an interesting story with a solid ending but it was way too long. The flashbacks were too long. All of the back and forth with the US embassy and the Portuguese authorities went on for too long. I skimmed so much of this. I will not be fooled into reading his next book because I now remember that they just go on and on and I lose interest well before we reach the conclusion. People who can handle the writing of Ken Follett and Nelson Demille may feel differently.
Great story from one of my favorite authors. What happens when a newlywed couple goes on what’s ostensibly a vacation and the husband goes missing?
The layers of deception and thriller storyline in this book keeps the story moving through multiple surprises until a killer ending.
If you haven’t read Chris Pavone, you should starting with this book!
His writing is obviously good but the plot just didn't really grab me. I'm sure others will like it though.
Thanks NET GALLEY
The EXPATS was good, and Chris doesn't miss a beat
Nothing is worse than misplacing something, especially YOUR SPOUSE!
A great ride for me!@!!
This book was up and down for me - which is why I ended up at 3.5 stars.
Things I liked: the book is definitely a political thriller and had action and many twists and turns. The book takes place over three days with some jumps back to the past that I think were done well. These parts reminded me of other thrillers I've enjoyed in the past
Things that didn't work for me: The book is SO LONG. It took so much time to get through it because everything was meticulously explained. I felt like the main character was pretty unlikeable and unrealistic. TW: there were also a very graphic sexual assault scene that was way too much and unnecessary. I felt like some of the twists and turns were unnecessary and the last few chapters were easy to guess what was going to happen early on.
Overall, if you like VERY long, detailed thrillers this book is for you!
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy to review!
This was alright. It reminded me a bit of The Flight Attendant. But I love the wild race it forces you to go on.
Wow!! What a read! This book screamed at on its virtual shelf with such an amazing cover! I am glad to say, it did NOT disappoint. I was absolutely hooked & would most definitely recommend!
I have read some of Chris Pavone's previous works and was eagerly looking to get my hands on this one.
The book starts off very well but then takes a downward trajectory. The various twists and turns sometimes seem forced and venture into eyeroll category. A quick read.
There are some good parts but overall the book didn't work for me as much as his previous works. I might, however, still read what's next.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.
I really liked the premise of this story, but it felt kind of weighed down by all the extra narrative. I wanted it to be a little faster-paced. The main character, Ariel, was a resourceful woman and it was interesting to listen to her character development.
Chris Pavone has written another excellent international thriller. If you are familiar with Pavone's books then you know you are going to be travelling all over Europe. This time we are in Portugal where Ariel Price has waken up and her husband is gone. She has no idea why or even why he brought her there in the first place.
Starting to investigate his disappearance kicks off a suspenseful international thriller. The suspense is top notch and, as usual, I love Chris Pavone's descriptions of international locations. You feel like you are in Lisbon.
I hate to nitpick but a few things would have made the book better. It dragged along in some places. Not for too long but I was speed reading a couple of times. Plus, it's just my personal opinion but the prose is awkward Kind of like a extreme third person POV? It's not the worse prose but I think it gets in the way of the flow several times.
But still a very good book, as usual with Chris Pavone, and definitely worth reading.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
In spite of being an admirer of (most of) Pavone's earlier books, my expectations were pretty low. The set-up for this novel is a premise that's been used over and over for decades in both books and films. Someone wakes up in an exotic foreign city about which they know next to nothing only to find their spouse has mysteriously disappeared. What follows is an increasingly frantic quest for the missing spouse through strange and unfriendly streets, hampered by language, hostile local cops, and unfeeling bureaucrats at the American embassy.
That said, I was pleasantly surprised by TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON (a flat, dull title that does the book no favors, by the way). It's a fine mystery, well-written and absorbing in spite of feeling a little familiar. My one criticism is that the twist at the end that I gather was supposed to make the routine theme feel fresh wasn't much of a twist. My guess is most readers will see it coming well in advance.
I'm probably sounding more negative here than I intend to because I think the book could have been better than it is. Pavone is a fine writer. I'm honestly just a bit disappointed in him here, but this is still a five-star book by any reasonable standard.
I tend to prefer murders without a political agenda, so this book caught me off guard. It starts off in a promising way, but then diverges into more of a political thriller. The whole marriage seems a bit off from the get go, and as the story goes, we understand more and more.
I felt a bit ambushed, but perservered just to find out what happened. If political thrillers are your thing, this could be fun. but for me, some greed, jealousy or secrets are more fun.
I have loved Chris Pavone ever since I read The Expats, and was beyond happy to receive a copy of his latest, Two Nights in Lisbon, from FS&G and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. And I cannot WAIT for this one to be published so I talk to someone about it and can recommend it to…well, everyone who enjoys a well-written thriller/mystery or just wants some solid escapist fiction to take them away from real life for a day or two. (I suggested my husband read it, and he was totally engrossed from beginning to end, ignoring me just as I had done to him while I read it!)
Ariel Pryce is a strong female character (BTW, I’m still astonished at how Pavone manages to write from a female point of view and absolutely nail it every time). Ariel wakes up in a hotel room in Lisbon, completely alone, and finds that her (much younger) husband is missing. After contacting hotel security and the police, she goes through a harrowing experience trying to meet the demands of the apparent abductors, and is finally forced to turn to the one person in the world she least wants to ask for help. Ariel is a strong woman, one who is tired of being objectified and patronized. “She’d been accused of hysteria before. Of overreaction. She’d been disbelieved about serious matters more than once.”
As she tries to maneuver through the Portuguese legal system, her inability to speak the language is a challenge: “The only thing Ariel can detect in this language is tone–good or bad, yes or no. This must be what it’s like to be a dog.” She is working hard “…to see the humanity in everyone,” but has a less than positive view of the wealthy people in her previous life: “This was one of the things she hated the most about the people she hated the most: the reflex to throw money at everything, as a matter of routine.”
Her view of the world is revealed both directly and indirectly, as she deals with various law enforcement personnel, male and female, including Detective Carolina Santos. “Ariel had assumed that Santos would be a natural ally, despite plenty of evidence that not all women believed in female solidarity, or agreed on what it might mean. Ariel was reminded of this every Election Day.” BOOM!
Ariel’s plight is time-dependent, and she is running out of time as the tightly woven plot unfolds. I loved the way the small breadcrumbs revealing the plot emerged, and although both my husband and I thought early on that we had an idea about WHO (I was wrong), but we both later realized that was just a fraction of the story.
What a fun read! I want to re-read it just for the enjoyment of seeing it unfold with knowledge about what is going on. Five BIG stars!
A decent story with a twist that didn’t work for me. It was difficult to connect with the characters compared to previous novels by the author. Hopefully, the next story will be back up to those standards.
Another spellbinding read from Chris Pavone! Can't get enough of this author's work.
Newlyweds. Husband disappears. Secrets galore. And then a Jaw dropping ending. Don't miss out
on this one.
I had a hard time getting into this book. I was looking forward to reading it based on the synopsis and how much I enjoyed previous novels by the author. I couldn’t figure out what the book was about or where it was going. Newlywed Ariel wakes up in Lisbon after a night of passionate sex to discover her husband is missing. She immediately goes to the police but doesn’t seem to know anything about her husband or who they are supposed to meet on this business trip of his. Then she goes to the American Embassy. A reporter gets involved. Then the CIA. There were also several side stories about Ariel's son's health and a sister in law in Morocco.
The plot of the book moves quickly with lots of twists and turns. I was surprised that the book turned into a political thriller and I did enjoy the second part of the book.
A trip to Portugal, a kidnapping and a tale of how well do you know someone.
It was an interesting and exciting read, following a kidnapping on a business trip to Portugal. I loved the setting of Lisbon with it's alley ways and trams.
It may be because I was reading it on my kindle, but I found it difficult at times to work out what was a flashback and what was current day. When it was clear, the flashbacks provided a fantastic background to the current events, and added a depth to the book.
It was kept interesting with twists and turns. I wanted to love the main character as she was certainly a strong female lead, but I couldn't help but be irritated by her at times.
It was a great read, very relevant, and full of action. I loved the inclusion of money, politics and foreign Police and it was very well written. Would love to read more by this author.