Stuff I've Read: Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

A middle-aged woman marries a younger man and accompanies him on a business trip to Lisbon, Portugal.  But when an exorbitant ransom demand comes back to their hotel instead of her new husband, the local police brand her as hysterical.   She soon finds herself embroiled in a web of deceit and intrigue as she scrambles to pay the ransom and rescue her husband, and turns to parts of her past long thought done for help.  You think you know a guy.  It’s double- and triple-crosses aplenty in Chris Pavone’s 2022 novel, Two Nights in Lisbon.

Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

Two Nights in Lisbon follows Ariel Pryce, the owner of a bookstore in upstate New York.  Her whirlwind romance with and subsequent marriage to John Wright—no, really, that’s his name—hasn’t left much time to spend together, so she tags along on his business trip to Portugal.  On their first full day there, she wakes up alone in their suite, her new husband having left without so much as a note or a text message, and doesn’t answer his phone.  Her worry escalates when the hotel staff dismisses her, and then the local police tell her it’s too soon for him to be considered missing.  The US Embassy in Lisbon is similarly unhelpful, leaving Ariel to obsess over her husband’s fate.  And when a ransom note finally shows up, her worst fears are realized.  With nowhere else to turn, she’s forced to go places and access resources she swore she never would again to fulfill the ransom demand.  Interspersed in the main narrative is the flashback of Ariel’s previous life as a Nes York City socialite, married to wealth and power.  She’s a mother, and as her first marriage falls apart and she exiles herself upstate, it gives some insight as to how we got to this new marriage and this trip to Lisbon.

What Pavone typically does best in his writing is character development.  Every one of his characters feel like real people in extraordinary situations, and you get a sense that their lives continue after the last page.  Two Nights in Lisbon is no exception.  Ariel’s backstory is quite deep, and the more we learn about her life, the more we understand what initially seems like unfounded panic.  Two Nights in Lisbon also follows Pavone’s trend of putting seemingly ordinary people in spy-like situations.  That part is as believable as your willingness to suspend disbelief, but if you buy in, it’s a lot of fun.  All told, this is a tightly plotted story that has elements of a Bourne novel, a heist movie, and a conspiracy novel all in one.

And this is where I feel the story’s biggest flaw lies.  It’s so twisty and jumps between so many story types that when it reveals its final trick and its connection to one of Pavone’s previous works, it feels like he’s pulling it out of nowhere.  On a reread, you can see all the groundwork laid down, but in that first go-round, the twist feels contrived if you haven’t read a previous one of his books (Note: that book is The Accident, and is well worth the read).

Overall, I found Two Nights in Lisbon to be a solidly fun read, perfect for a summer weekend.  With just a couple weeks left in the summer, it’s worth checking out!

Pros: Slick, fun summertime read; dabbles in multiple genres; solid character development

Cons: Ending comes a little out of nowhere.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.