When Ariel Pryce wakes in her Lisbon hotel room, she is immediately apprehensive: Where is her husband?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nJohn Wright hadn\u2019t mentioned leaving so early this morning. He hadn\u2019t left a note. He is here for business, but his meetings are later in the day. She knows that.<\/p>\n
\u00a0She asks hotel staff about him, visits the police and the American embassy. Hotel staff say they haven\u2019t seen him; the police and embassy staff suffer through her frenzy and say it is too early to be concerned. He\u2019s probably out for a run.<\/p>\n
In his cover blurb, fellow author John Grisham says he defies anyone to begin reading this book and put it down within the first 20 pages.<\/p>\n
\u00a0I put it down at page 16. To this point, it was totally unoriginal. Too many books, movies and TV shows are based on someone reporting a missing person and being told, \u201cCome back in 24 hours if he or she hasn\u2019t come home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0But when the library waiting list is as long as it is for this book, I figured somehow it would get better. It did, in a big way<\/p>\n
\u00a0An intricate crime and politics thriller follows those first few pages, with clues scattered liberally throughout.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The police ask questions. The embassy staff ask questions. Ariel is increasingly frustrated because she just wants her husband back. For God\u2019s sake, they\u2019ve only been married three months, have only known each other a year, but how is that relevant to the Lisbon police, who speak English well but often in phrases amusingly translated directly from Portuguese.<\/p>\n
\u00a0What is Ariel\u2019s history? How about John\u2019s? Why, exactly are they here in Lisbon? Why did she accompany her husband on a business trip, and why doesn\u2019t she know the name of the company with which he is working? Why is his sister in Morocco?<\/p>\n
\u00a0She can answer some questions, is stumped by others, admits to being a ditz about a few and expresses total surprise that the detectives and embassy staff know things about John that she didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Ariel also can\u2019t understand the embassy staff\u2019s suspicions of her, their lack of concern for her husband.<\/p>\n
All the pieces fit together. The answers will eventually lead us to the last chapter. But we must remember Chekov\u2019s maxim: If there\u2019s a shotgun hanging over the fireplace, someone had better use it somewhere along the line \u2013 or something like that. In this case, there are plenty of clues above the fireplace, so to speak.<\/p>\n
As a relatively new fan of such books, I\u2019ve been amazed at how the authors envision and pull together such complex stories, their twists and turns, and still keep us believing it\u2019s all plausible. My curse is that I give up on a story as soon as I see where it becomes implausible, where I don\u2019t buy the characters or I can\u2019t believe that the Mission Impossible guy can, with only his fingertips, hold onto a train going 200 kph.<\/p>\n
\u00a0With Two Nights in Lisbon<\/em>, the characters are fictionally believable, and each little detail in the unfolding scenario seems plausible because it is based on other plausible little details. And, in the end, while it\u2019s not totally original, it\u2019s at least an original remake of a storyline we\u2019ve seen before.<\/p>\n\u00a0 Chris Pavone held the interest of Grisham, Stephen King and Lisa Scottoline. I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be delighted to learn he held mine, too. This is a fun read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Paul O’Connor is a relatively new convert to the ranks of fans \u00a0who read thrillers involving crime and politics, and he can be a tough reader to impress. This novel impressed him. Reviewed by Paul T. O\u2019Connor TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON. By Chris Pavone. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. Hardcover. 433 pages. $28. When Ariel Pryce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,426,14],"tags":[1271,1270,1269],"class_list":["post-2947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mysteries","category-popular-fiction","category-thriller-suspense","tag-chris-pavone","tag-international-thriller","tag-two-night-in-lisbon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2947"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2950,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2947\/revisions\/2950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}