Library Journal - Audio
09/01/2022
The latest exciting, intricate thriller from Pavone (The Paris Diversion) is the tale of a woman now named Ariel Pryce, who awakens in Lisbon only to find her husband John missing. Ariel finds it nearly impossible to convince local police or American Embassy staff of his kidnapping until she receives a ransom request. She doesn't have two million Euros and must go to the man she hates the most for help; he is a man at the zenith of American politics, about to be named vice president, and had raped her 14 years earlier, resulting in the birth of her beloved son. Ariel convinces him to give her the needed funds in return for a nondisclosure agreement. Each twist and turn comes fast and furious, leaving the reader guessing the tantalizing truth. January LaVoy, AudioFile Golden Voice and Audie Award-winning narrator, is fantastic—she makes the listener loathe the CIA agents, sympathize with Ariel's increasingly chaotic circumstances, despise the hungry reporters, and wonder about John's sincerity. VERDICT While some will guess parts of the ending, getting there is great fun.—B. Allison Gray
JUNE 2022 - AudioFile
January LaVoy performs this clever thriller with marvelous aplomb, keeping your attention focused on story, instead of on her own quicksilver skill with accents and pace, and her knack for conveying personality in a few deft strokes. American Ariel Pryce wakes after a night of love in a Lisbon hotel room to find her new husband has disappeared. In the ensuing multilingual hubbub, it quickly becomes clear that nothing is as it seems. (Surprise.) While the story is not told with the intensity or precision of some of Pavone’s previous books, there are many unexpected threads to this sticky web, one reaching almost to the White House. LaVoy keeps the action heart-thumping, and whisks you convincingly past any holes you might notice in the structure. B.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 03/14/2022
A suspicious kidnapping in Lisbon, Portugal, drives this excellent thriller from Edgar winner Pavone (The Paris Diversion). When American businessman John Wright vanishes one morning from his hotel, his wife, Ariel Pryce, insists he was kidnapped, but issues soon emerge that make both the Lisbon police and the CIA skeptical. Why, for instance, are there no witnesses or video evidence of a crime taking place? Why did Pryce, whose account of the incident is fuzzy, change her legal name a decade earlier? And what’s to be made of Wright’s short stretch in the CIA a while back? When Pryce comes up with €2 million for a ransom payoff, the web leads investigators to the bank account of the current U.S. treasury secretary, who’s soon to become the U.S. vice president and has a past that could subject him to blackmail. Pavone skillfully layers plot details, often shifting points of view, all the way to the end of this superior, elegantly crafted yarn. The enigmatic central character, whose moral compass is set a bit differently than most, sets this above the pack. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Company. (May)
From the Publisher
A Booklist's 2022 Editor's Choice Pick
An Instant New York Times Bestseller
“Mystifyingly well-constructed . . . a dynamic and wholly original story about privilege, power, and the price women pay so that others can maintain it.” —The Los Angeles Times
"Clever and sharply written." —The Wall Street Journal
“This smart, calculating author remains many notches above others in his field” —The New York Times
“Devilishly clever . . . Wait until you read the ending that Pavone springs on you.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Nothing is quite as it seems in this energetic thriller that calls into question marriage, loyalty, and truth." —The Washington Post
“A charged, multi-faceted thriller.” —Air Mail
“There’s no such thing as a book you can’t put down, but this one was close.”
—Stephen King
“I absolutely loved Chris Pavone’s Two Nights in Lisbon, an unputdownable thriller that’s his best novel yet. It stars a strong and savvy heroine who wakes up one morning to find her husband missing, and the action never lets up. This is a masterly, sleek, and sophisticated novel about love, marriage, and truth. Read it!”
—Lisa Scottoline, author of Eternal
“I defy anyone to read the first twenty pages of this breakneck novel, then try to put it down for five minutes. It can’t be done. The plot is too devious, the pace is too gripping, and the characters are seldom who they are supposed to be. This is smart suspense at its very best.”
—John Grisham, author of A Time for Mercy
“I always relish Chris Pavone’s books, and this just might be my favorite yet, full of the canny asides and observations that set his work apart. The plot grips, the characters breathe, the gorgeous setting entices. Treat yourself!”
—Maggie Shipstead, author of Great Circle
“Two Nights in Lisbon is sensationally good—timely, important, layered with ticking suspense, driven by an ominous drumbeat that accelerates like a panicked heart. My thriller of the year so far.”
—Lee Child, author of The Sentinel
“Chris Pavone’s pacey, well-plotted thrillers are riveting and great fun to read, and Two Nights in Lisbon is his best yet. This one is not to be missed.”
—Karin Slaughter, author of The Silent Wife
“Weaving together hairpin Hitchcockian suspense and true moral heft, Chris Pavone’s Two Nights in Lisbon is his best yet—utterly timely and brimming over with surprise, nuance, cunning, and a palpable weight.”
—Megan Abbott, author of The Turnout
“Two Nights in Lisbon is such a richly satisfying novel in so many different ways: it is a tense, intricately plotted thriller; a nuanced and moving character study; a sharp-eyed social critique; an immersive tour of a fascinating city and culture. I finished this book and immediately wanted to read it again.”
—Lou Berney, author of November Road
“An elegantly twisting, lyrical, rocket-paced international thriller of the first order. With sterling prose, layered characters, searing insights, and gripping suspense, Chris Pavone writes with a deep knowledge of the world we live in—its many injustices, flaws, and the bending, dangerous road we sometimes must take to justice.”
—Lisa Unger, author of Last Girl Ghosted
“Aside from the elegant writing and compelling characters, Two Nights in Lisbon manages to be a total barn burner, with twisty surprises from start to finish. I couldn’t predict a thing, nor could I put it down.”
—Lisa Lutz, author of The Swallows
“Chris Pavone's stylish, sophisticated thrillers are in a class of their own. In Two Nights in Lisbon he once again marries an explosive plot with an intimate and nuanced exploration of a marriage and the secrets we keep from those we love the most. I was rapt from the book’s propulsive beginning to its deeply satisfying conclusion. An exceptional, exciting read.”
—Cristina Alger, author of Girls Like Us
Library Journal
04/01/2022
Ariel Pryce wakes up in a Lisbon hotel room and her husband is gone; no note, no explanation. She exoects John to appear any minute. When he doesn't show up for breakfast, Ariel panics. She approaches hotel security for help, then the Lisbon police, and finally the American embassy. The police are asking too many questions, and Ariel doesn't have the answers. Then the ransom call arrives, and a desperate Ariel takes matters into her own hands. Pavone's newest international thriller (after The Paris Diversion) is as long as it is tedious. Ariel is long-suffering, and her history is laid out in excruciating detail, including her previous marital woes and many heartbreaking sexual assaults. Despite the quick back-and-forth between past and present, and the deluge of characters, the story turns out to have an interesting and unexpected conclusion. VERDICT Fans of Chris Bohjalian's Cassie Bowden and Camilla Läckberg's Faye Adelheim may be sympathetic to Ariel's plight and able to overlook the high page count.—Carmen Clark
JUNE 2022 - AudioFile
January LaVoy performs this clever thriller with marvelous aplomb, keeping your attention focused on story, instead of on her own quicksilver skill with accents and pace, and her knack for conveying personality in a few deft strokes. American Ariel Pryce wakes after a night of love in a Lisbon hotel room to find her new husband has disappeared. In the ensuing multilingual hubbub, it quickly becomes clear that nothing is as it seems. (Surprise.) While the story is not told with the intensity or precision of some of Pavone’s previous books, there are many unexpected threads to this sticky web, one reaching almost to the White House. LaVoy keeps the action heart-thumping, and whisks you convincingly past any holes you might notice in the structure. B.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-03-02
Secrets, lies, and revenge permeate this taut international thriller.
The recently married Ariel Pryce wakes up one morning in a Lisbon hotel room, expecting her husband, John Wright, to be in bed beside her. He isn’t. She looks for a note, tries calling him, queries hotel staff, all to no avail. She calls Portuguese police and then the American Embassy, who wonder at first if Ms. Pryce isn’t some crazy lady wasting everyone’s time. But a lot happens muito rápido: Ariel receives a ransom demand for 3 million euros to be delivered within 48 hours for John’s safe release by unknown captors. The CIA knows that John is not who he claims to be and thinks that Ariel "must be more important than she’s letting on.” For one thing, she changed her name from Laurel Turner in her adulthood. A nosy American reporter starts poking around. Moving between past and present and among the viewpoints of Ariel and her several observers, Pavone uses short scenes to build fast-paced tension. Who is behind the kidnapping, and why? Ariel isn’t rich, and there’s only one way—blackmail—to come up with the dough. She and her extortee can inflict great harm on each other, and in fact one of them had a head start years earlier. So will she get the cash and rescue John? Then suspicious polícia stop Ariel from boarding a flight to the U.S., the CIA monitors her calls, at least one CIA observer ponders the value of having her whacked, and a relentless, coke-sniffing reporter is convinced he smells a blockbuster scoop. Surprise builds on surprise, and although the reader may sense where the complicated plot is headed, the twists keep coming. Two nights in Lisbon sound like a fun vacation as long as someone isn’t trying to uncover a horrible secret from your past.
This high-stakes drama grabs your attention and doesn’t let go.
