Paradise Pending
Kris Purdy
Paradise Pending is hard to get into, but once it gets going, it's very good. The main characters are Dani and Jo. Dani and Jo are a couple -- they live together in Toronto. Jo heads a non-governmental organization (NGO) that does something or other that was probably explained but which I have now forgotten -- helps refugees, I think. As a result of the success of her NGO she was invited to give a keynote speech at an International Conference in Cadiz. Dani, a musician, persuades a reluctant Jo to accept the invitation and to spend an extra week in Cadiz for a vacation both of them badly need. Cadiz, in Dani's view, is Paradise, hence the title.
The story, which is told in the third person from Dani's point of view, begins on the evening of the last day of Jo's conference, which was meant to be the start of Dani and Jo's vacation. To Dani's displeasure, however, Jo accepted a dinner invitation for the both of them from a man called Eddie Muñoz to discuss possible funding for her NGO. Eddie hosts the dinner at a very nice restaurant. After dinner they return to their hotel, whence, as the blurb describes, "Jo is taken to a private hospital with chest pains". She is diagnosed as having suffered a heart attack. But, there is something very fishy about this hospital. There is almost no staff or equipment, and they don't take care of Jo. Dani and Jo are unhappy and confused.
To be honest, "unhappy and confused" would be a not inaccurate description of my state of mind as I read the first third of the novel. It is not, in the beginning, a thriller so much as a confuser. Dani doesn't understand what's going on, and since the reader is in Dani's head, nothing really made much sense to me. I found myself thinking, "Could we get this plot on the road? How about a reveal or two, to let us know where this is all heading?" The reveal eventually came at the 35% mark, one word in Spanish riñon.
By the way, if you don't read Spanish, you should know that there is a LOT of Spanish in Paradise Pending. Dani is fluent in Spanish and usually but not always translates for the reader. I don't think she ever leaves untranslated anything that is important to the plot, but it will still occasionally be annoying to readers who don't understand. That word I just mentioned that gives the first hint of what's going on is not translated immediately, since Dani doesn't recognize it, but she does find out (and you, too) within a couple of pages.
From this point on Paradise Pending is a joy. It's a fun story, tense and adrenaline and action-packed. One thing I particularly liked is that Dani and Jo don't turn into action heroes from a Tom Cruise movie. They are brave and clever and they love each other very much (this is relevant because it means each one will brave whatever is necessary to save the other from danger). However, they are not trained law-enforcement officers, and they occasionally make what in retrospect turn out to be dumb mistakes, get caught in traps, etc. That they did felt entirely real to me, and made them more authentically what they are represented to be.
We get a satisfying resolution -- that's as specific as I'm going to be.
I thank NetGalley amd Bella Books for an advance reader copy of Paradise Pending. This review expresses my honest opinions.