Cathy asked Chris Pavone:

While I've yet to read the Ex-Pats, The Travelers just blew me away with the intricate plot, twists and turns and layered characters. From the review I've read of The Paris Diversion, certainly more intrigue and pulse-racing scenes are expected. May I ask how you maintain that pent-up pacing when writing these edge of your seat novels?

Chris Pavone Thank you Cathy! My approach to pacing is to create peaks and valleys: moments of relative quiet (of internal monologue, of back story, of atmospheric description, etc.) that interrupt the primary action and tensions, making readers impatient to find out what happens, creating a general aura of expectation and anxiety, while constantly withholding full resolution. I think this requires that readers care about the characters, so early in the book I try to devote some space--efficiently, I hope--to defining these people, making them credible, worthy of our emotions.

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