{"id":8023,"date":"2019-06-17T06:16:36","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T10:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8023"},"modified":"2019-06-17T06:26:15","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T10:26:15","slug":"the-paris-diversion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8023","title":{"rendered":"****The Paris Diversion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"cafe\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

By Chris Pavone \u2013 The Paris Diversion is the followup to Chris Pavone\u2019s popular and award-winning debut thriller from 2013, The Expats<\/em>. In the new book, former CIA agent Kate Moore is living in Paris with her husband Dexter when the ghosts from that earlier story come in search of her. A lot of action and a great many characters are packed into the twelve-hour period this novel covers. Along the way, you\u2019re treated to a granular depiction of Paris\u2014not just monuments and streets, but the way of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kate doesn\u2019t know whether she still works for the CIA. She\u2019s a one-woman operation, head of something called the Paris Substation, and has ample money to hire all the help she needs to carry out assignments, though who and where do these orders come from? Dexter works from home, day-trading, and scheming to find a get-rich-quick idea. He thinks he\u2019s found one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent panel discussion, author Pavone said he was drawn to writing thrillers because the characters lie so much. He\u2019s brought that tendency to a high art in this novel with Kate and Dexter\u2019s innumerable secrets and reflexive avoidance of the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dexter plans to sell short a large hunk of shares in a\ncompany called 4Syte. It will make him a massive profit as long as those shares\ndrop in price as insider information predicts. 4Syte\u2019s president, Hunter\nForsyth, is an arrogant high-flyer, who Dexter believes was \u201cborn on third\nbase, believing he hit a triple\u201d\u2014such a perfect description I laughed out loud.\nForsyth is so convinced of his invincibility he doesn\u2019t realize he\u2019s been\nkidnapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ominous sound of sirens pervades the book\u2019s early\nchapters. Several bombs have been found in strategic spots around the city, and\na Muslim man wearing a suicide vest has taken up a position in the plaza\noutside the Louvre. Rooftop snipers have him in their sights, though shooting\nhim may merely precipitate the catastrophe. The petty arguing among the various\npolice departments regarding whether to shoot sounded exactly right, with the\nironic touch that the sniper is Muslim too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pavone\u2019s secondary characters are strong, especially Forsyth\u2019s assistant, Colette. Coolly French, married, she’s the object of Hunter\u2019s lustful imaginings. The suicide bomber is another good character, knowing he will die, but not when, and with unexpected reasons for strapping on the vest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may want to stop reading this fast-paced novel occasionally to ask yourself, \u201cWhat just happened?\u201d as layers of the complex plot come into focus. A few aspects of the story\u2014especially the idea that there are multiple off-the-books spy agencies operating around the world\u2014may stretch credulity, but you probably will be turning pages too fast to worry about such things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Dan Novac from Pixabay.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chris Pavone \u2013 The Paris Diversion is the followup to Chris Pavone\u2019s popular and award-winning debut thriller from 2013, The Expats. In the new book, former CIA agent Kate Moore is living in Paris with her husband Dexter when … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"****The Paris Diversion - a fast-paced thrillride through layers of deception and misdirection. ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[193,40,126,1],"tags":[1581,1320,1582],"class_list":["post-8023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-espionage","category-fiction","category-reading-2","category-uncategorized","tag-chris-pavone","tag-paris","tag-the-paris-diversion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Paris-Street-scene.jpg?fit=256%2C384&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-25p","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8023"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8026,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8023\/revisions\/8026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}