????克里斯·帕弗恩的處女作《僑民》（The Expats）完全可以稱得上是一部令人手不釋卷的佳作。凱特·摩爾的丈夫戴克斯特是一個行事低調(diào)的電腦極客，他受雇給盧森堡大公國的一家銀行開發(fā)安全系統(tǒng)。這份工作薪水豐厚，可以讓凱特、戴克斯特和孩子們借故離開死氣沉沉、毫無新鮮感的華盛頓，去全新的世界暢快旅行，完成他們平日里念念不忘的夙愿。

????不過這樣一來，凱特就必須辭工，這稍微有些麻煩。凱特一直有個秘密隱瞞著丈夫和孩子們，那就是她做了15年CIA特工。不過話又說回來，戴克斯特也有他不為人知的一面，連凱特也被蒙在鼓里。他們在盧森堡接觸到的大多數(shù)僑民也都有各自的隱情。

????這樣的設(shè)定稍顯牽強，但站得住腳。原因之一在于，帕弗恩對故事發(fā)生的所在地很熟。他老婆幾年前曾在盧森堡工作，一家人對僑民的生活有切身的體會，帕弗恩在此期間也趁機云游四方，仔細考察了阿爾卑斯山、巴塞羅那、阿姆斯特丹、巴黎及其他在小說中起重要作用的歐洲城市。還有一個原因就是，帕弗恩在從事犯罪小說的創(chuàng)作之前，曾以編輯食譜為生，他顯然知道如何將眾多元素融會貫通，使故事的情節(jié)環(huán)環(huán)相扣，從而創(chuàng)作出一部扣人心弦的驚悚小說。

????出版商在宣傳《僑民》時經(jīng)常使用“令人手不釋卷”、“間諜驚悚小說”、“懸念迭出”這類字眼，它們都很貼切。小說一開頭就交代了凱特是個CIA特工，但隨著故事情節(jié)的發(fā)展，讀者才會慢慢發(fā)現(xiàn)凱特其實是個訓(xùn)練有素的殺手，她有個不為人知的驚天秘密。戴克斯特由于工作的緣故經(jīng)常在歐洲大陸各地奔忙，他也有自己神秘的一面。至于那些FBI特工到底在探查什么，這也是個難解之謎。

????作者在有些地方稍顯用力過度。故事的時間、地點跳躍很快，需要讀者集中注意力；故事情節(jié)的發(fā)展常常出乎意料，令人唏噓。但這樣的代價是值得的，因為你讀到的是一部絕佳之作，它具備優(yōu)秀間諜小說所必需的一切驚悚元素，令人手不釋卷。本·阿弗萊克或許正在緊鑼密鼓地籌備《以夜為生》的翻拍，不過另有消息稱，哥倫比亞電影公司（CBS Films）正打算不惜一切代價盡早將《僑民》搬上寬頻熒幕。祝愿雙方都能早日成功。

????Chris Pavone's first novel?The Expats?is everything a page-turner should be. Kate Moore's husband Dexter, a low-key computer geek, has been hired to set up a security system for a bank in the grand duchy of Luxembourg. It's a high-paying position that would give Kate, Dexter and the boys an excuse to leave dull, old Washington, D.C. and travel and do all the things they've always talked about.

????It also means that Kate will have to give up her job, and that's a bit of a problem. Unbeknownst to Dexter and the kids, Kate has spent the last 15 years as a CIA operative. But hold on a minute. Dexter also has a secret life he doesn't share with most people, including Kate, and it turns out that most of the expats they hang with in Luxembourg aren't exactly what they seem to be either.

????A little contrived, sure, but it works. One reason: Pavone knows the territory, thanks to the fact that his wife took a job in Luxembourg a few years ago, providing the family with a real-time life as expats and giving Pavone the opportunity to travel and soak up the nuances of the Alps, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, and other European locations that play key roles in the book. A second reason: Before he turned to a life of crime writing, Pavone edited cookbooks for a living, and he clearly learned how to blend disparate ingredients into the multilayers needed to make a suspenseful thriller.

????The PR campaign for?The Expats?relies heavily on phrases like "non-stop action," "espionage thriller" and "layers of deceit," all of which are on target. We know at the start that Kate's a CIA operative, but it takes a while before we discover she's a trained killer who has a mind-blowing secret she's never shared with anyone. Dexter, whose job takes him all over the Continent, has his own set of mysterious secrets, and what about those FBI agents who seem to be following anything but the straight and narrow?

????The Expats?is a little over the top at points. It's filled with time and place changes that demand your attention and developments that require you to suspend belief every now and then, but that's the price you pay for a grabber of a spy novel that touches all the cloak-and-dagger bases and is exceptionally hard to put down. Ben Affleck may be hard at work on?Live By Night, but word is that CBS Films is doing all it can to bring?The Expats?to the big screen ASAP. Good luck to both.