Double Exposure

By Alfred Gough and Miles Millar

The reviews are all over the place for Alfred Gough & Miles Millar’s DOUBLE EXPOSURE. Me, I really enjoyed it. If you like the James Bond/Jason Bourne/Indiana Jones quick action stories, there’s a good chance you’ll like DOUBLE EXPOSURE.

Basic story: In 1962, David Toland, Korean War hero turned film preservationist, is recruited by CIA agent Lana Welles, to salvage an important film from WWII. Before you can say Rumpelstiltskin-rode-a-rocket-to Rome-for-roasted-rabbits, David and Lana are zipping through six or seven countries with different groups trying to kill them, and dead bodies aplenty to show for their efforts.

The authors, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, are successful writers for television and  the movies. The only movie of theirs I’ve seen was the Jackie Chan/Owen Wilson/Lucy Liu semi-classic “Shanghai Noon.” They created and wrote for the television series “Smallville.” Movies by them include The Mummy, Spiderman 2, Herbie: Fully Loaded, and Lethal Weapon 4, among others.

Why I liked it: The over-the-top story moves along at a rapid pace, sprinkled with light-hearted humor. There are enough I-can’t-believe-they-did-that-to-a-character moments to keep my interest. On a more personal note, I’ve written a manuscript and the novel seems similar in style and story development to mine, including both theirs and mine having important parts of the story in and around Manaus on the Amazon River (completely different storylines of course).

Normally I reserve 5 star ratings for books I believe nearly everyone should read. DOUBLE EXPOSURE doesn’t quite fit that bill, but it’s a fun book to read. So it gets five stars from me.

Review by Joseph Snoe Reviewer extraordinaire.