Secrets and lies

Chris Pavone cheats his readers in his thriller Two Nights in Lisbon (2022). Whether readers feel cheated or, on the contrary, feel rewarded by one more plot twist, is up to them. I felt cheated.

Ariel Pryce, a middle-aged newlywed, wakes up alone in a Lisbon hotel room. Her much younger husband has taken her there on a business trip, but now he has disappeared. Later that day comes an appeal for a ransom, much more money than she has.

She goes to the Lisbon police and the United States embassy for help, and the CIA gets involved.

To get the money she blackmails a man high in the U.S. government by threatening to reveal a secret about him.

Much of the novel comes as flashback as we gradually learn what that secret is. Meanwhile the authorities, who at first think Ariel is just overreacting, take the situation more and more seriously. And the tension builds.

Pavone's story gets complex, and the characters can be hard to tell apart. Readers will have fun trying to guess what's really going on. If the author told us the truth that would be too easy, which is the reason for his deceit.