Double Image

Successful photographer Mitch Coltrane is discovered shooting a covert mass burial masterminded by Bosnian henchman Dragan Ilkovic and narrowly escapes with his life. When he is back at home in the United States, the lives of Coltrane's grandparents and several friends are sacrificed before Coltrane guns down Ilkovic. Numb and edgy around girlfriend Jennifer, Coltrane finds solace in meeting an idol, photographer Randolph Packard, who dies shortly after he and Coltrane begin collaborating on a project. Coltrane thus has the opportunity to purchase one of Packard's estates, where he discovers a photographic altar to a gorgeous rising film star of the Forties named Rebecca Chase and becomes obsessed with the mystery surrounding Packard, Chase, and a young woman who is a dead ringer for her. Morrell (Extreme Denial, LJ 3/15/96) should have saved one of these plots for another novel. This overwrought effort stretches credulity, missing the perfect "angle."?