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Left: Courtesy Crown Publishers Right: Best-selling author Chris Pavone. (Credit: Nina Subin)

Chris Pavone writes suspense thrillers about mysterious people in exotic locations.

And while his books contain elements of espionage, the New York Times bestselling author and part-time Orient resident says they don’t quite fit that genre.

“Although all of them have spies, they’re not traditional spy novels,” Pavone said. “These are not books about political intrigue. They’re about people who are lying to one another and, like spies, they are misrepresenting themselves for various reasons.”

In March, Pavone released his third book, “The Travelers.” The novel, which received favorable reviews from The New York Times and The Washington Post, is about a travel writer who is drawn into a tangled web of international intrigue.

Pavone likes to weave a thread of reality into his thrillers. His first book, “The Expats,” is about an American woman living in Paris who doesn’t quite know what her husband is up to. When he wrote it, Pavone was living overseas when his wife, Madeline McIntosh, accepted a job in Luxembourg — though he had a much better understanding of how his own spouse spent her days than his protagonist.

Pavone, who worked for many years as an editor before transitioning to writing full time, brought first-hand knowledge to his second novel, “The Accident,” which centers around the publishing industry and an explosive tell-all book.

When Pavone isn’t writing, he spends summers with his wife and twin sons, 12, at their house in Orient. Despite being a part-time resident, Pavone has long been familiar with the North Fork. 

“My grandparents built a house on Nassau Point in Cutchogue and I spent a lot of time there when I was a kid,” he said.

When Pavone got married, he introduced McIntosh to the North Fork. The couple rented houses with friends during the summer before purchasing a house in Orient in 2004.

When he’s in the area, Pavone tries to limit the amount of time he spends writing, preferring to direct his full attention to his sons.

“That is ending though, because my kids are not as interested in hanging out with me as they used to be,” he said with a laugh.

While Pavone pens the majority of his novels at an office in Manhattan’s Soho House, his North Fork writing space is less conventional.

“In Orient, my Soho House is D’Latte Cafe in Greenport,” he said. “I sit at an outdoor table for a couple of hours, or sometimes I write at Aldos.”

“The Expats, “The Accident” and “The Travelers” are all available on Amazon.com.

For more information visit chrispavone.com

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