Two Nights in Lisbon is a new May 2022 thriller that follows a trend I’ve talked about over the past year. What is the book like? Will you like it? Check out my Review of Two Nights in Lisbon on Jen Ryland Reviews.
Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone
To be published on May 24, 2022 by MCD/Farrar Strauss and Giroux
Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review.
Chris Pavone also wrote a very different kind of book, The Doorman (2025). Check it out!
Plot Summary for Two Nights In Lisbon
Ariel Price wakes up in Lisbon, alone.
Her husband is gone—no warning, no note, not answering his phone. Something is wrong.
She starts with hotel security, then the police, then the American embassy, at each confronting questions she can’t fully answer: What exactly is John doing in Lisbon? Why would he drag her along on his business trip? Who would want to harm him? And why does Ariel know so little about her new—much younger—husband?
The clock is ticking. Ariel is increasingly frustrated and desperate, running out of time, and the one person in the world who can help is the one person she least wants to ask.
Review of Two Nights in Lisbon
Two Nights in Lisbon sounds like a song title, or a great idea for a weekend getaway. It’s also an interesting, absorbing thriller.
Ariel is recently married and has left her young son with friends while she accompanies her husband on a business trip. But one morning, she wakes up and her husband is gone. Completely gone.
She’s alone in a strange city and the police don’t seem all that worried about her husband, even when she tells them that he’d never disappear like that. He didn’t leave a note and he’s not picking up his phone. Ariel tries not to freak out. She asks the hotel staff if they’ve seen him.
Finally, she goes to the local police and then the American Consulate, who either brush her aside or even seem to gaslight her. Surely her husband just went for a run. How well does she know him, anyway?
So Ariel decides to investigate his disappearance herself. I don’t want to say too much because the fun of Two Nights in Lisbon is trying to figure out what is going on.
Will You Like Two Nights In Lisbon?
Do you like political thrillers and/or travel thrillers?
Two Nights in Lisbon is on the long side, but I never felt bored. The plot is intricate but I found it easy to follow. I liked that the book had some of the typical elements of domestic fiction but also played with them in interesting ways.
Overall I really enjoyed this one!
Two Nights in Lisbon is part of the “travel thriller” trend I’ve seen over the past few years, maybe as a result of the pandemic? Here are some other similar titles to try:
Review of The Weekend Away by Sarah Alderson
If you’ve read The Weekend Away OR watched the Netflix show, come join my Spoiler Discussion of the Weekend Away. I compare how the book was adapted for Netflix!
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
Yes, I also have a Spoiler Discussion Post for Reckless Girls!
The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones
And the Spoiler Discussion for The Guilt Trip by Sandie Jones
We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz
And the Spoiler Discussion for We Were Never Here
Please leave me a comment – have you read any of these books? Do you like travel thrillers?
I really like a good mystery so Two Nights in Lisbon sounds like an interesting one.
Hope you try it, Mary!
I enjoyed Two Nights in Lisbon, but it did leave me with so many questions. More questions than I like at the end of a book- I like things a little more wrapped up- especially when a book is a bit of a long one. To spend all that time reading and yet still have a lot of questions at the end feels a little unsatisfying.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
1. When she made the decision to go to him for money, did she always plan to use this as an opportunity to expose him? Or did she just accept along the way that it was probably going to come out?
2. I guess John just rides off into the sunset with sister? How did they find out about Ariel to begin with? She went to the police but they aren’t talking, even today?
3. The book spends a lot of time talking about the struggles of women- the patriarchy, being gaslight, having to accept the daily abuse of men- from strangers heckling on the street to male friends, family and husbands. And yet the author decides to end the book by a woman victimizing another woman. Lucy and John hatch a devious plan to get back at her attacker- but by cruelly victimizing Ariel.- who is also one of his victims. John preyed on Ariel, got close to her and gained her trust, her love. He says it was “the plan” so the whole relationship from the beginning was a lie. At some point she must have confided in him about the attack, confirming what he already knew? In Lisbon Lucy and John terrorize her- the fear, panic, all she goes through with the police, embassy, CIA. And then their plan hinges in forcing her to have to go back to her attacker. To speak to him and Force him to give her money. Wow. A rape victim forcing another rape victim to go to her attacker. While it made for a good plot twist, it completely ruins the message of womanhood that the author had spent the whole book talking about.
Hi Tracy and thanks so much for coming and sharing your thoughts. Yes, the book was long! As I didn’t do a spoiler post for this one I am marking the spoiler section of my comment (and yours).
SPOILERS AHEAD:
I read the book a bit differently, seeing Ariel as a willing participant in a revenge plot with Lucy and John. She wanted to help Lucy as they’d both suffered at the hands of the same person. Toward the end, the book says that Ariel was the one who came up with the plan.
1. I think possibly. Getting more money for Lucy was the priority, and she didn’t care if he got exposed.
2. Vague. John tells her that he hired a PI.
3. I don’t think she loved him. I think that’s why the book makes her an actress: she was playing a role. Their marriage was legal but fake. But I also do see your point – I am always wary of “feminist” books not written by women.)
I thought it was weird that the guy never asked for a DNA test.