I am delighted to be rounding off the blog tour of Chris Pavone.
I was contacted as while ago by the publishers to see if I’d like to read a copy of the third novel by Chris Pavone. Despite this not being my usual read, as I’m not normally a big fan of spy thrillers, I thought I’d give The Travelers a go in the interest of trying new authors.
Our main protagonist Will works for a magazine called the Travelers. This is a magazine with a worldwide chain of travel agents attached. Will acts as one of their main foreign correspondents, travelling the world, sampling wine and food and writing about it. He is married to Chloe, they are trying for a baby, and renovating a house together. Seemingly his life is going well. Until a chance encounter with a flirtatious women in France suddenly changes his life completely forcing him to start questioning everything. It soon becomes clear that not only does Will have secrets, so does his wife, the boss at the magazine and pretty much every character that enters the story.
This was a really fast paced novel that spanned the world. There was a lot of description of the varying cities which personally I enjoy and it added to the sense of travel and espionage. It is quite a long book, and in the middle I did feel it was a little hard work but I’m glad I persevered. All the chapters are very short, which is good in that it suits my reading style of grabbing minutes here and there. It does mean though that it can sometimes get a bit confusing as the chapters flip between cities and people. Add to this the large number of characters and locations and I found myself going backwards and forwards a bit to try and keep up. That’s probably more my poor concentration though rather than a problem with the story.
The characters themselves were all equally likable and unlikable. Just when you thought you got a handle on which characters were good and which were bad the scenery changes and your perspective flicks. This gave the story a real roller coaster feel. I liked the fact that although the characters were rounded enough to be believable there wasn’t loads of backstory which can sometimes drag a story out.
Although this isn’t my usual type of book (and has been compared to James Bond which I’ve not only never read, I have never watched a film either) I did thoroughly enjoy it and will look out for his other novels.
For further information about the author visit Liz loves books for a q and a with Chris Pavone
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