Two Nights in Lisbon

by Chris Pavone

With glowing and well-deserved testimonials by John Grisham, Stephen King, Lisa Scottoline, Karen Slaughter and Lee Child, among others, Two Nights in Lisbon was an instant New York Times bestseller when it burst on the scene in May 2022.

The main character, Arial, wakes up in the hotel room in Lisbon where she and her second husband, John, have been staying. He’s a consultant, in Lisbon to work with a client; she has come along for the trip. They had a lovely evening the night before, ending with some terrific sex. When she wakes, he’s not in their room, but no doubt he’ll be at their usual table for breakfast. 

But he doesn’t show up. She texts him; no reply. She tries phoning; the call goes direct to voice mail. By now she’s wondering where he could be. She activates the locator app that detects their phones’ locations—but it can’t locate John’s phone.

She’s wondering if she’s misread everything: could he have left her? But she checks the safe in their room. His passport is still there, as are their keys. Now she’s sure something has happened to him.

She goes to the police and to the American embassy to report his disappearance. But they say it’s too soon to consider him missing: it’s only been a few hours. Maybe he’s already at work, gone to his client’s office: has she checked? No—she doesn’t even know who the client is. She gets more and more frantic as the hours tick by and nobody is helping her find him. She’s sure he’s in trouble.

The story unfolds from there, as events are revealed not only from Arial’s point of view but also from that of two sets of investigators —the local police and the FBI. And everything is more complicated than it seems. The story layers peel back, one after the other, with twist after twist until a final satisfying but heart-stopping ending.

A quote from Stephen King on the back of the book reads, “There is no such thing as a book you can’t put down, but this one was close.” I definitely did find it hard to put down, and hard to put out of my mind afterward. (And the wonderful descriptions of Lisbon streets and scenery were a bonus!)

Chris Pavone grew up in Brooklyn, graduated from Cornell University, and worked in publishing in New York City for nearly two decades, in positions ranging from copy editor and managing editor to executive editor and deputy publisher.

Then in 2008 his wife got a job in Luxembourg and the family moved abroad.  Chris concentrated on raising their then-preschool twin boys and started writing his first thriller, The Expats. The book, published in 2012, won both the Edgar and the Anthony awards for Best First Novel. 

He’s since published The Accident (2014), The Travellers (2016) and The Paris Diversion (2019). Two Nights in Lisbon is his fifth international thriller. He and his wife are now living in New York City again, and they also have a place on Long Island. Their twins graduate from high school this year and are about to head off to university.

 [Click here to sign up to my book club, to get periodic updates on my writing journey, along with notices of new book reviews when I post them.]