Luxembourg Noir: PW Talks with Chris Pavone
By Paul Goat Allen
Jan 06, 2012
Signing at The Poisoned Pen 3/28 at 7pm (Click for details)
Former book editor Chris Pavone draws on his experiences living with his family in Luxembourg for his first novel, The Expats .
In what way did your experience as a book editor affect the way you approached writing The Expats?
As a book editor, you need to pitch every one of your books again and again, dozens of times, for months on end. From a quick conversation with your boss or a letter that’ll be read by just one person, to a five-minute speech in front of 50 colleagues or cover copy that’ll be in front of millions of eyes. So when I was working on The Expats, I kept that eventual pitch in mind, helping me focus on what was most compelling about the story I was trying to tell.
After your wife’s job took you to Luxembourg, do you remember the moment when you realized that it would make a perfect setting for a spy thriller?
I was sitting in a playground, watching my kids, chatting with expat stay-at-home 
mothers; this was my life. These were people from England and Sweden and America, ex-programmers and ex-chefs and ex-therapists. But this one woman clearly didn’t want to tell me what it is she used to do. Maybe she had something to hide, some big secret? Everyone has secrets, and I think some people flee from home—far from home—to try to keep those secrets. Maybe she was one of those people. Maybe she was a spy.
Read the rest of the interview at PW (here)
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