A Sophie Medina novel (Book One) by Ellen Crosby, Simon & Schuster/Scribner, August 2013.
* An ARC was provided by Simon & Schuster/Scribner and Edelweiss for an honest review.
MULTIPLE EXPOSURE is a finely crafted suspense mystery set in London and Washington, DC. The story begins when photojournalist Sophia Medina returns from an out-of-town assignment to find her London home trashed. Blood is splattered all over the place and her CIA operative husband, Nick Canning, is missing. Three months pass, and after unsuccessful searches to find her husband, Sophie prepares to move back to the United States. But days before she leaves, US and UK intelligence reps in London question if she knows anything about Nick. They tell her he's been spotted in Moscow and suggest he may have faked his own kidnapping. One high-ranking British official even implies that Nick may be a murderer and selling important and secretive info to the highest bidder. Sophie refuses to believe that Nick would murder or become a traitor.
Once Sophie returns to DC, she gets a job with Focus Photography. Her first gig is a National Gallery of Art exhibit opening of Russian artifacts loaned to the US through Russian oil tycoon Artaky Vasiliev. It's during this event that Sophie becomes part of the mystery surrounding her husband, a possible oil discovery in Abadistan, oil tycoon Vasiliev, and the Russian mafia. Her curiosity and desire to see Nick vindicated then lead her to another mystery involving a US senator and a supporter of Abadistan independence.
Conflicts and tension abound in the story. Outward conflicts are fairly obvious: the ongoing search for Sophie's husband, crumbling relations between Abadistan and Russia, a Russian ambassador arguing with a US Senator, among many others. Sophie's internal conflicts are a little more subtle. She doesn't know who to trust, intelligence officials follow her every move, her safety is constantly threatened, and she argues with her boss, family and friends. On page 146, Sophie's thinking about what she admires in her Jesuit priest friend, Jack, and his ability to "...do the right thing, to be true to your values, to act with integrity and compassion for others." She struggles with these ideals throughout the story, trying to do the right thing with highly skeptical information and personal threats thrown at her and bristling at what she needs to do to uncover the truth.
MULTIPLE EXPOSURE isn't just an exciting suspense novel, it's also a geography and history lesson of Washington, DC. Crosby shares interesting facts and backstories about many well-known and some obscure landmarks and sites around town. In fact, parts of the story occur in an almost hidden memorial on the Potomac River and in less traveled sections of Rock Creek Park. The reader also gets glimpses of what happens behind-the-scenes during museum exhibit openings and events at historic landmarks (i.e., Majorie Merriweather Post's home, Hillwood).
A few British words pop up (i.e., queue" for "line") in the story, but their use is natural for Sophie as she's just returned to the States after living in London for over a decade. Readers who do crossword puzzles may also discover some new Russian terms to help answer tricky clues.
I enjoyed MULTIPLE EXPOSURE and had a hard time putting the book down as I neared the end. Once I got through the backstory overload at the beginning and became familiar with Crosby's style of writing, I flew through the rest of the book. It's full of suspense and conflict, and it contains an interesting array of unique characters. I would highly recommend this book to all mystery fans and to readers who just like a good, solid, entertaining story.
PROTAGONIST/HEROINE: A 38-year-old photojournalist recently returned to N. Virginia
ACTION: Attempted murder, trashed home, arguments, car agression scene
ROMANCE: One sex scene but no details
QUIRKINESS: Sophie tooling around on her Vespa
INTERESTING TIDBITS: History of Library of Congress's design, a re-creation of the 3 Emperors Dinner of 1867, Meridian Hill Park's drum circle every Sunday at 3 pm
IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU MAY LIKE: Wine Country Mysteries by Ellen Crosby, Max Tudor Novels by G.M. Malliet, Chief Inspector Gamache Mysteries by Louise Penny