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THE LISBON CROSSING opens with a noir charm: Rough-and-tumble Jack Teller, a Hollywood stuntman, is trying to keep a low profile after having been discovered by an enraged studio head to be having an affair with his wife. Along comes Jack's friend, German-born starlet Lili Sterne, with a unique request: Accompany her to Lisbon, and bring home her childhood friend, Eva Lange. Teller decides this is the perfect time to take up some new work away from Hollywood, but he can't begin to know what he has gotten himself into. Even before arriving in Lisbon, danger is in the air. The first detective hired by Lili has been found dead in Lisbon. Once they arrive in the city, the heat turns up even more: The detective turns out to have had a German official in his car when it went over a cliff, and the prime suspect is none other than Eva Lange. It seems there is more intrigue in a supposedly neutral Lisbon than even Teller could have imagined. More dead bodies appear, and Eva Lange remains elusive. During the hunt for Eva, the story works at fever pitch. The noir-laden scenes are luscious, the espionage-tinted action is fast and furious. Around every corner is a new, intriguing development or a shady character to fit into the plot, and author Tom Gabbay has everything working in perfect harmony. Then comes the second half of the novel (once Eva is found), and the book seems to take so strange a turn that readers are left wondering if they are even in the same mystery any longer? The one element that continues from the first half is an intrigue with the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson, which eventually leads Jack Teller and Eva Lange to leave Lisbon for Paris. From there, it's more murder and mayhem, but by then the noir has fizzled out, and everything feels a bit flat. It's a shame because the premise of the book works so well, but it seems as if the author ran out of ideas of what to do, and introducing a new set of characters and action in Paris creates a disconnect from what makes the mystery work so well to begin with. And Lili Sterne, once so essential a character in her own right, is abandoned completely. In the end, THE LISBON CROSSING is still worth reading, but the first half of the story is a much better read than the last.
Reviewed by Christine Zibas, February 2009
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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