Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Chris Pavone, Faber & Faber, $29.99.
If espionage is your type of genre, then this story will grab your attention because it’s a fanciful escape from reality.
The Paris Diversion is an explosive sequel to the international bestseller The Expats. It takes place over the course of one nail-biting day. Kate Moore, who runs the Paris office of a shadowy American spy network, is a mother with an interesting past.
The scene is set as worrying reports begin to circulate from key locations around the city, and the sound of wailing sirens become increasingly hard to ignore. A certain air of anticipation is apparent as Kate goes to drop her children off at school in the city centre. The cafes and streets of Paris start to come ‘alive’ around her.
Kate’s husband, Dex, has been given the charge of finding a particular present for their son’s birthday, but is increasingly finding it difficult to focus on the job at hand since a financial matter at work seems to be playing on his mind.
This is a complex potpourri that involves bomb threats in key places, a suicide bomber standing unprotected just outside the Louvre, various levels of high finance and scams of a very high order that will keep you engrossed.
It is, in part, based on the contrivances of the world of finance, deception and similar actions that exert pressure on the markets. It’s also about characters – and there are a lot of them. What’s more they are convincing from the dying Muslim suicide bomber, an ultra-rich financier to the deficient Dex.
On the other hand, Kate is a credible character, who proves to be increasingly competent. She is, however, full of indecision and self-contemplation.
It’s has a high-risk plot, knife-edge tension and is an unrelenting pace of events.
