Two Nights in Lisbon

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!