On the cover of THE TRAVELERS by Chris Pavone, you’ll see descriptions of ‘breathless’, ‘Hitchcockian’, ‘excellent’, ‘stellar’, ‘dazzles’. When you see all of these statements on a book – especially from a New York Times Bestselling author, you start off with some pretty high expectations, right?
The first chapter offers that. I was sucked right in by Pavone’s writing and the action. I was unfamiliar with his work before this. His two previous stories, THE EXPATS and THE ACCIDENT, are somewhat sequels in the espionage series.
In the remaining chapters, which take you all around the world – Argentina, Dublin, NYC, Paris, Barcelona, and more; you’re also introduced to a lot of other characters. There’s a lot going on and a lot jumping around.
The story is about Will Rhodes, a travel writer who meets up with a woman on multiple occasions and eventually has an affair with her which causes the woman to blackmail Rhodes to become a spy. He has the perfect cover since he travels around the world as a writer – who would suspect anything from him, right? It’s a great setup for a story – very ‘Hitchcockian’.
However, like I mentioned earlier, there is a lot going on, a lot to set up, a lot of people introduced. It had its mystery and espionage related fun that you’d expect in a book like this and also makes it a bit predictable.
If you’re looking for an interesting light read without getting overly attached and emotional invested into the characters, you’ll enjoy this book. Does it pull off all of those statements that it says on its cover? Breathless? Hitchcockian? Excellent? Stellar? Dazzles? Sorry to say, but no. This might just be a library pick up.
I was given a copy of THE TRAVELERS by Chris Pavone in exchange for an honest review. Let us know what you think about it in the comments below.
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