The Expats by Chris Pavone

On Thursday, November 12^th, Fixed on Fiction met to discuss The Expats by Chris Pavone. Here is a summary of the novel courtesy of Goodreads-

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—play-dates and coffee mornings, daily cooking and unending laundry. Meanwhile, her husband works incessantly, doing 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 claim to be, and 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; a complex web of intrigue where no one is who they claim to be, and the most profound deceptions lurk beneath the most normal-looking of relationships; and a mind-boggling long-play con threatens her family, her marriage, and her life.

Overall The Expats was well received in our group with 8 thumbs up votes and 1 thumbs down. Here are some of the initial comments readers made while explaining their votes-

• I really enjoyed the descriptions of Luxembourg and expat life. I wanted to reread it because I thought I would miss something. I enjoyed it but I thought the ending was unsatisfying. I did feel like I was right there with Kate.
• I loved it! I liked it more the second time I read it. It’s like if Gone Girl and Hausfrau had a baby, it would be The Expats. Smart and funny.
• Two thumbs up. I still felt a rush even though I already read it once before.  I loved the descriptions of Luxembourg- it’s so different from life in the U.S.
• I didn’t care for it. Lots of twists and turns but it still dragged for me. I didn’t like all of the complaining about housework.
• This was a thumbs up until the end. Too much suspended belief and it just didn’t ring true.
• I really liked the conversation about lies in marriage- what are we not saying? I also loved the descriptions of place.
• A few times I actually wondered if Kate was dreaming- were the escapades real? How often do spouses keep these kind of secrets from each other?
• I enjoyed it more at the beginning than the end. The end was OK but it didn’t excite me. I did think that maybe Dexter was a spy too. And I could see how being a stay at home mom would be difficult for a former CIA agent.

On the conclusion-

• I liked the end. Everyone got their due. Julia doesn’t get the money and Bill is sort of stuck with her without the cash.
• I thought it ended abruptly. We need an epilogue!
• Kate had all this guilt- but sparing Julia allowed her to redeem herself. On another note- I thought Kate was a very well written character from a male author.
• I had a hard time accepting letting Julia go at first. She masterminded and manipulated everyone. I also expected that Bill was there to trap Julia. I wasn’t ready for it to end.
• I thought there was a very quick change of heart between the pregnancy announcement and dropping the gun.

Other thoughts-

• I liked that Kate was a bit rusty on her CIA skills- very realistic.
• Super interesting that a man wrote this from Kate’s perspective. Very well done.
• I had a hard time believing that Julia would fall for Bill when she’s such a mastermind.
• I think Kate and Dexter truly love each other. They’re committed to one another.
• We don’t know what happens to Bill and Julia because this is Kate’s story.
• I wasn’t getting Kate’s attraction to Bill- he’s such a sleezeball!
• I’m glad the big reveals and betrayals were not about adultery- it was more complex and original.

This is just a small sampling of the comments made at our discussion. If you would like to share additional thoughts on The Expats, please feel free to do so in the comments section below.