Final Exposure-Steve Carlson

Final Exposure
Steve Carlson
Dunne, Oct 2008, $25.95
ISBN: 0312383843

David and Rebecca Collier quit their careers; he leaves law and she quits finance. They leave San Francisco to move into a beach house just outside the city. There he plans to become a writer while she turns to photography. Both are excited with the change.

However soon after their radical lifestyle changes, at their isolated home, Bashaar murders Rebecca and shoots David in the leg. A despondent but resolute David vows to find his wife’s killer; as Bashaar simply vanished. He starts in his late spouse’s photo lab seeking a motive; he realizes several pictures she took are gone and wonders if her project on historic California mansions built in the 1930s somehow could have been the cause of her homicide. While Bashaar tries to kill David, he learns of a paramilitary Muslim group living in one of the mansions that Rebecca photographed.

This is an exciting thriller but readers will need to suspend belief that David, even with his best friend Chuck and a detective help, is capable of dealing with a professional killer and a Muslim paramilitary group. The story line is action-packed from the moment Bashaar arrives and never slows down until the final expected altercation. Stereotyping Muslims also detracts from a tale that never quite passes the believability test.

Harriet Klausner