TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON

4 stars out of 5

You and your new husband are spending a couple of nights in Lisbon, Portugal, where he has business meetings scheduled during the day. You wake up the first morning to find him gone - with no clues as to his whereabouts. The police don't give much credence to your insistence that he's been kidnapped - even when his disappearance is caught on video and you're asked to pay a hefty ransom you can't possibly afford.

That's the situation Ariel Pryce faces, and as the police - and folks from the U.S. Embassy, the CIA and a pesky reporter - keep plodding along but getting nowhere, she knows the only person she can rely on is herself. Her ex-husband isn't wealthy enough to help find her missing husband, John Wright, but she knows someone who is: a very powerful man who is just about the last person on earth to whom she wants to be beholden. Asking for help is laden with visions of past experiences best forgotten, but Ariel has no other workable option.

As the story progresses, insights into the past lives and dark secrets of Ariel and (to a more limited extent) John are revealed by flashbacks - weaving in several twists that suggest that John's disappearance may be tied to one or both of their past lives. It is here, though, that I became a bit frustrated; the aforesaid flashbacks happened with regularity, but within chapters and with no warning - making it a little hard to follow when I suddenly realized I was reading about people and events that happened in a different time and place. Once I was well into the book it got easier to recognize the switcheroo, but I never totally adjusted to it.

Except for a fair amount of "filler" that sometimes reads like a preachy commercial for a specific hot-button issue, the action is pretty much nonstop and most of the twists are surprising. If you're one who believes the end always justifies the mean, you'll be satisfied with the ending; I'm sort of on middle ground in that respect, but overall I must say I enjoyed the entire experience and, especially as the end neared, really didn't want to put it down. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review it.

Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone (MCD, May 2022); 450 pp.