The Expats Chris Pavone Crown, 326 pp., $26
Reviewed by Vince Cosgrove
Consider some varied approaches to thriller writing: the breathless prose rich with exclamation points and buffed agents dodging bullets as they bounce about acrobatically like performers at Cirque du Soleil (the Bourne novels); the cerebral, weblike puzzle cracked through a patient and manipulative investigation brushed with moral expediency (Le Carrs George Smiley books); a sympathetic bystander thrust into a dangerous plight he or she solves only as the pages dwindle (take your pick of authors, for so many mine that Hitchcockian schtick).
Now consider Chris Pavones debut novel, The Expats: a minimum of if any exclamation points and gymnastics, but propelled by clear writing that delivers you to the next revelation; a seemingly simple plot that mutates into a complicated, perhaps a tad too complicated, affair; a mother (this time, hardly innocent) who thinks she understands all, only to realize in the waning pages that more shocks await.
Which means Pavone has written a refreshingly original thriller, melding the best the genre offers with his own style and approach, part Ludlum in the pacing, part Le Carr in the complexity of story and character, but mostly Chris Pavone, a former book editor who obviously learned through experience.
A reviewer should never reveal much of a thrillers plot, for wheres the joy in reading the book after youve read a detailed outline? Heres all you need: Kate Moore, a happily married mom of two young boys, moves with her computer-expert husband Dexter to Luxembourg, where he has a new job. There they meet an American couple, Julia and Bill, whose initial affability soon triggers Kates suspicions. Kate keeps a secret from Dexter, and as the tale progresses, Kate begins to wonder if hard-working, dependable Dexter doesnt have a secret, too. A big secret.
Pavone has a Rick Steves-like talent for describing Luxembourg and its environs, so much so that you might like to travel there yourself. Hes also expert at observing the expats, many of them rich bankers who arrogantly flaunt their wealth with their platinum watches and alligator wingtips, their stretch denim and silk-cotton blends. ... Money: earning it, spending it. Eating it, drinking it, wearing it.
The novel could have been leaner; there are paragraphs throughout that add little to the tale. And the final explanations are Byzantine to the point of wishing for CliffsNotes. But at novels end, you appreciate Pavone for crafting a thriller so good that you wonder what other ideas he has up his cloak, right alongside the obligatory dagger.
Vince Cosgrove is a writer based in Berkeley, Calif.
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'The Expats:' A book review