The Expats A Novel (Audible Audio Edition) Chris Pavone Mozhan Marno Random House Audio Books
Download As PDF : The Expats A Novel (Audible Audio Edition) Chris Pavone Mozhan Marno Random House Audio Books
The international thriller that Patricia Cornwell says is "bristling with suspense" about an American abroad who finds herself in complex web of intrigue.
Can We Ever Escape Our Secrets?
Kate Moore is a working mother, struggling to make ends meet, to raise children, to keep a spark in her marriage... and to maintain an increasingly unbearable life-defining secret. So when her husband is offered a lucrative job in Luxembourg, she jumps at the chance to leave behind her double-life, to start anew.
She begins to reinvent herself as an expat, finding her way in a language she doesn't speak, doing the housewifely things she's never before done - playdates and coffee mornings, daily cooking and never-ending laundry. Meanwhile, her husband works incessantly, at a job Kate has never understood, for a banking client she's not allowed to know. He's becoming distant and evasive; she's getting lonely and bored.
Then another American couple arrives. Kate soon becomes suspicious that these people are not who they say they are, and she's terrified that her own past is catching up to her. So Kate begins to dig, to peel back the layers of deception that surround her. She discovers fake offices and shell corporations and a hidden gun, a mysterious farmhouse and numbered accounts with bewildering sums of money, and finally unravels the mind-boggling long-play con that threatens her family, her marriage, and her life.
Stylish and sophisticated, fiercely intelligent and expertly crafted, The Expats proves Chris Pavone to be a writer of tremendous talent.
The Expats A Novel (Audible Audio Edition) Chris Pavone Mozhan Marno Random House Audio Books
How and why this novel won the 2013 Edgar for Best First Novel by an American Author is the greatest mystery of all. I have to wonder if the award was intended to be an insiders' joke on the reading public by the publishing industry. The recognition has to be based on Chris Pavone having once been an editor rather than on his mastery of storytelling and writing craft.If the Edgar award had truly been based on a newbie's display of writing craft, then three of the other nominees: Black Fridays by Michael Sears, Don't Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman, and Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal would have surpassed The Expats by a significant margin. The writing craft and the storytelling of those three novels are so much better than The Expats that it doesn't seem fair including The Expats in the comparison. The only logical conclusion is that the Edgar award was based on the author's long-standing relationships within the publishing industry, and not because he wrote such a great novel... which unfortunately means the award wasn't a fair competition for the other finalists. You know the old saying, "It's who you know, not what you know."
I am the type of reader who will finish reading every book I begin reading, regardless of how bad it is or how disinterested I become. I started and finished four other novels, plus one non-fiction book, during the time period it took me to start and finish this one. I could only tolerate reading 3-5 pages at a time before story boredom and/or laborious writing drove me to the pages of another book. If I could, I would ask the author to reimburse the cost of this book.
As for some specifics: 1) Kate was not believable as a CIA field agent, unless incompetency is part of the job requirements. 2) The plot takes forever to develop. 3) The continuous stream of flashbacks is both tedious and distracting. 4) The author wastes the reader's time with endless and wordy descriptions of routine/mundane events. As example: "It was lightly drizzling, or misting, or whatever it's called when minuscule bits of water, too fine to feel distinct drops, are drifting down out of the sky." Twenty-eight words to communicate something everyone already knows, when "it was lightly drizzling" (just four words) would've done the job just as well, in fact: better. This overly wordy style can be found on almost every page. Do the math: this novel should've been (and easily could have been) a short story of less than 100 pages rather than a 352-page, word-heavy, novel-length short story. Like I said, I think this novel and the Edgar award it received was just a joke by the publishing industry being played on the reading public. 5) The author appears to own stock in "ly" adverbs and thus uses as many of them as he possibly can on each and every page. 6) My biggest complaint is that the writing draws attention to itself, rather than to the story.
Another example of poor craftsmanship: "Kate was taken aback by this excessive garrulousness." Huh? The meaning of garrulousness is "excessively talkative." Which means the author, in his desire to display his ability to overwrite, actually wrote: "Kate was taken aback by this excessive, excessive talking." It seems the author believes in the old axiom: "Why use just one word, when two will be overkill and make my writing come off as being literary?"
This is only the second time I have ever given a novel a 1-star rating. I read approx. 50-55 novels each year, plus another twenty or so non-fictions. Yes, it was that bad. I would not recommend this novel to anyone, not even to my worst enemy.
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The Expats A Novel (Audible Audio Edition) Chris Pavone Mozhan Marno Random House Audio Books Reviews
For no good reason at all, the author tells this story by jumping around constantly in the book's timeline. On one page you're reading about stuff that happened 5 years ago and the next page two years from now then the next page two days ago then the next page three weeks from now. Just stupid and infuriating. Then a ridiculous amount of filler material that has nothing to do with anything--on my I often found myself scanning and turning pages every two seconds just to get past the blowing leaves or the description of moms picking up kids at school. When you finally are told what the plot is (at about the 80% mark) you are forced to ask why the hell this guy didn't tell the story in a straight chronological timeline?
Novel offers a great premise but quickly degenerates into a classic drawing room melodrama. When her husband has a job opportunity as a financial security expert with Luxembourg banks, a young woman forsakes her career to accompany him and their two children and begin the life of an Expat. Upon arrival, she immediately finds herself in the midst of other expats who attempt to force their friendship upon her.
Because of her former business training and experience, she immediately suspects their motives and, ultimately, their connections to the increasingly bizarre financial activities of her husband. From there, it is just a short trip until you are pulled along with her ever deeper into the rabbit hole. Is she my friend or my enemy? Is he trying to help or just seduce me? Is my husband into blindly sophisticated business ventures or or the run from previous crimes? What happened to million of Euros? Who cares?
Without revealing the generally boring details of the story, all is not what it seems on the surface. In a series of flashbacks, our heroine's own mysterious history is gradually revealed raising questions of are these just casual friends or are they targeting our past? If so, who are they pursuing, my husband or me?
Ultimately, when the story has reached full overload of mystery, counter-mystery, sudden revelations, unexpected meetings on street corners and French bridges, all of the principal characters sit down and stoically reveal of their secrets, betrayals and past associations to our heroine and to each other and the reader. Although the truth might be of importance to the characters, it left me with a clear "who cares" response.
I found "The Expats" a rather frustrating read. The time line was all over the place and a number of times I didn't know if she was in the present or her past life. Also, I couldn't get a feel for how long they were living in Europe -- 6 months? 2 years? I also found it very irritating to have to keep hearing about how bored she was as just a mother. We all know laundry isn't the funnest thing to do so I really don't want to hear about it every 20 pages. I kept reading in the hope that the story line would pick up. Can't say that it ever happened and I was relieved when I finally finished.
How and why this novel won the 2013 Edgar for Best First Novel by an American Author is the greatest mystery of all. I have to wonder if the award was intended to be an insiders' joke on the reading public by the publishing industry. The recognition has to be based on Chris Pavone having once been an editor rather than on his mastery of storytelling and writing craft.
If the Edgar award had truly been based on a newbie's display of writing craft, then three of the other nominees Black Fridays by Michael Sears, Don't Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman, and Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal would have surpassed The Expats by a significant margin. The writing craft and the storytelling of those three novels are so much better than The Expats that it doesn't seem fair including The Expats in the comparison. The only logical conclusion is that the Edgar award was based on the author's long-standing relationships within the publishing industry, and not because he wrote such a great novel... which unfortunately means the award wasn't a fair competition for the other finalists. You know the old saying, "It's who you know, not what you know."
I am the type of reader who will finish reading every book I begin reading, regardless of how bad it is or how disinterested I become. I started and finished four other novels, plus one non-fiction book, during the time period it took me to start and finish this one. I could only tolerate reading 3-5 pages at a time before story boredom and/or laborious writing drove me to the pages of another book. If I could, I would ask the author to reimburse the cost of this book.
As for some specifics 1) Kate was not believable as a CIA field agent, unless incompetency is part of the job requirements. 2) The plot takes forever to develop. 3) The continuous stream of flashbacks is both tedious and distracting. 4) The author wastes the reader's time with endless and wordy descriptions of routine/mundane events. As example "It was lightly drizzling, or misting, or whatever it's called when minuscule bits of water, too fine to feel distinct drops, are drifting down out of the sky." Twenty-eight words to communicate something everyone already knows, when "it was lightly drizzling" (just four words) would've done the job just as well, in fact better. This overly wordy style can be found on almost every page. Do the math this novel should've been (and easily could have been) a short story of less than 100 pages rather than a 352-page, word-heavy, novel-length short story. Like I said, I think this novel and the Edgar award it received was just a joke by the publishing industry being played on the reading public. 5) The author appears to own stock in "ly" adverbs and thus uses as many of them as he possibly can on each and every page. 6) My biggest complaint is that the writing draws attention to itself, rather than to the story.
Another example of poor craftsmanship "Kate was taken aback by this excessive garrulousness." Huh? The meaning of garrulousness is "excessively talkative." Which means the author, in his desire to display his ability to overwrite, actually wrote "Kate was taken aback by this excessive, excessive talking." It seems the author believes in the old axiom "Why use just one word, when two will be overkill and make my writing come off as being literary?"
This is only the second time I have ever given a novel a 1-star rating. I read approx. 50-55 novels each year, plus another twenty or so non-fictions. Yes, it was that bad. I would not recommend this novel to anyone, not even to my worst enemy.
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