Publisher’s Weekly
Starred Review
With this novel of intrigue reminiscent of Eric Ambler, Russell shows he’s one of the best writers in the mystery field today. Like Ambler, who excelled at portraying the plight of the valiant amateur pitted against a diabolic ring of spies and assassins in such classics as A Coffin for Demetrios and Journey into Fear, Russell has a gift for telling a fully fleshed-out story with very human characters while supplying puzzles and corpses galore. Looking to land a major scoop, British paparazzo Graham Wells is chasing two of Europe’s biggest celebrities, philanthropist Lady Anne Godwin (aka “Lady Godiva” after she posed nude for Playboy and donated the proceeds to a soup kitchen) and her French football-star boyfriend, Georges “Le Croc” LeMoine, when their car crashes in a Paris tunnel with fatal results. Our antihero flees the scene of the accident. Unlike the case of Di and Dodi, there actually are sinister forces at work here. Soon a CIA agent named “Mr. Smith” is blackmailing Wells into bringing about the downfalls of other celebrities. When Wells deviates from the script by stopping a leading actress’s suicide, he really finds himself in trouble. Needless to say, no one is who he says he is, and everyone’s motives are suspect. There is a delightfully wicked conspiracy that seems plausible in today’s news and a charming if blood-curdling villain. It would be a crime to say more. This one is good to the last drop.
Rocky Mountain News
by Peter Mergendahl
Grade: A
Exposure is the one thing unknown authors may crave more than money. Any author who doesn’t realize the odds against hitting the best-seller lists is living on a remote plant.
Exposure, besides being the title of his newest book, is what Alan Russell should get with this engrossing tale.
Graham Wells is a paparazzo who will go to any lengths to get incriminating photos of the famous. That is, until he goes too far and discovers he possesses a sense of guilt and remorse.
His intrusion into others’ lives has led to accidental deaths, and now someone is intruding into his life, and it might lead to his own death.
A man named Smith is blackmailing the photographer into exposing the secrets of others. Now the photographer has to expose a plot that reaches to the highest levels of government and involves a candidate for president. Meanwhile, Wells is being hunted by an assassin who’s as efficient as he is coldblooded.
But being a stalker of people himself has taught the paparazzo a trick or two. Wells’ resourcefulness and cunning are all he has as he goes up against rogue spies and German assassins.
Being unknown is the worst ignominy for talented writers. Such shouldn’t be the case for Russell. He’s written a story to satisfy even the most hard-core thrill junkie.
Library Journal:
Is that a hit man or just Graham Wells, celebrity photographer, orchestrating his next shot? The comparison is more than apt when he accidentally causes the deaths of an English philanthropist and her secret sports-star lover in Paris. Wells escapes prosecution, but back in L.A. the CIA blackmails him into taking career-wrecking pictures of celebrities they’ve “hit-listed.” He finds some expiation by preventing a superstar’s suicide, but related events get him in trouble. Meanwhile, there’s a real hit man on the loose. This work by Russell has it all: scorchingly intense action, intricate plot complications, and an appealing protagonist of capacious depth. Essential for most collections.
St. Petersburg Times
Action packed and entertaining. This is a timely, glitzy foray into glamour’s uglier side.
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Russell’s latest, EXPOSURE, an intricately plotted tale of life, love and death among the famous and infamous, ranks as one of the best thrillers of the season. Russell, whose star shines brighter with each outing, has constructed a complex and compelling story, full of surprise and suspense, a winner all the way.
Charlotte Observer
Hollywood is almost a separate character in EXPOSURE, with movie myths and references on virtually every page. Russell understands action and dialogue. It’s a good story, well told.
San Diego Magazine
by Eilene Zimmerman
Graham Wells is a hit man, of sorts. He knows how to disguise himself, track his target and hunt down prey. He’s always undercover. His weapon of choice? A camera.
It’s a clever beginning to novelist Alan Russell’s eighth book. Russell has written a thriller about a paparazzo involved in an accident almost identical to the one that killed Princess Diana, something acknowledged right off the bat. In this case, the victims aren’t a princess and her rich boyfriend but a beautiful and famous British philanthropist and her soccer-star lover. The high-speed chase in a Paris tunnel is there, but the greedy photographer is no mystery to us. It’s Wells.
To keep his secret from being discovered, Wells drops out of sight for a while. He’s eventually contacted by a CIA operative and blackmailed into photographing the scandalous acts of high-profile celebrities, which ultimately results in their downfall. He can’t find a reason why the CIA would be interested in ruining Hollywood careers, but he’s in no position to ask questions. While staking out the hugely famous Lanie Byrne, he witnesses her attempted suicide and stops her, then winds up involved in a much more dangerous game. The CIA operatives, Wells discovers, have some nasty hidden motives, and Byrne is caught up in their web. More than one person wants to see Wells dead by the second half of the book, and he’s in a race against time, trying to save his life while fitting together the pices of this intricate puzzle.
Russell has concocted a fascinating, frightening, often insightful book. Like a bullet shot from a gun, EXPOSURE takes off and keeps moving to the end.
Michael Connelly:
Alan Russell is in rare form with EXPOSURE. It’s a thriller on an international canvas that never puts on the brakes. From first to last page it keeps you locked and loaded, all the while delivering a telling tale about the machinery of celebrity and those who keep it oiled.
Stephen Frey:
Riveting . . . Hold on for a great read!
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