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
★ 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.
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
