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EXPOSURE
by Alan Russell
St. Martin's Minotaur, May 2002
370 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0312289243


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

I'm not a big fan of thrillers. What I am is a fan of Alan Russell, who has been gone from the writing scene way too long. I felt very happy to see a new book by this often overlooked and very talented writer, who has written comic mysteries, suspenseful books about multiple personality and serial killing, and has done so with wit and style.

If, in fact, Exposure had not been written by Russell, I would not have lasted. The story is not one which really interested me, the protagonist was very hard to warm to. But I read it, almost totally in one sitting, because the author has major talent. It's not a book I'll reread, and I do tend to do that with many mystery novels, because they contain depths of character, scenes, moods and ideas I want to revisit.

Graham Wells works as a paparazzo and his profession has gotten him into trouble. While in France, he follows a couple of very famous people and contributes to their death in a fiery car crash. Wells runs, and it's the knowledge of his behavior that traps him into working for a mysterious "Mr. Smith" who would be only too glad to turn him over to the French authorities. While Smith claims to be an intelligence agent, I found Wells' acceptance of that a little naÔve; after all, Wells specializes in skepticism. Smith wants Wells to, well, to do his job, and occasionally, to focus his lens on a specific star or famous person, catching them doing wrong. If he does this for a little while, Smith says, he'll be off the hook. Yeah, I can see you all out there nodding already. Cynics.

Who is after Wells, trying to kill him? Why did a famous star, who Wells caught on film late one night, try to commit suicide? And how did Smith know about the incident in Paris? After all, Wells got away clean, dumped his borrowed car and the Paris police gave up, similar to events in the death of Princess Diana, where witnesses and/or those involved were never found.

Graham Wells didn't quite make sense to me; he appears without a conscience, but it does show itself. At times, he lets himself be used; at other times, he appears uncaring and mercenary.

Exposure is, like several stand-alone thrillers in recent months, probably a really good example of the sub-genre. This action-packed, CIA and Mossad-related story seems to be exactly what's big right now.. I think many of these books, this one include are "guy" books - there is more in Exposure about swords and manliness and dueling in certain grotesque ways than I'd ever want to know. I hope it sells well, because it's a fast-moving, well-written book. In a lesser writer's hands, this reader would not have lasted 50 pages. I just wish I could have liked someone in it more, or felt like I might want to reread it.

Reviewed by Andi Shechter, May 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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