Double Image is a novel by David Morrell

David Morrell

David Morrell is a Canadian-American novelist, best known for his debut 1972 novel First Blood, which would later become the successful Rambo film franchise starring Sylvester Stallone. He has written 28 novels, and his work has been translated into 26 languages...

. It was published in 1998 by Warner Books

Hachette Book Group USA

Hachette Book Group is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the second largest publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Group. HBG was formed when Hachette Livre purchased the Time Warner Book Group from...

.

Plot summary

Double Image is a noir thriller from Morrell set in modern-day Los Angeles. It tells the story of a war photographer named Mitch Coltrane, who decides to give up photographing atrocities after an assignment in Bosnia nearly costs him his life. While at home recovering from a gunshot wound from the above-mentioned job, he sees an advertisement in a magazine stating that a legendary photographer from the 1920s and 30's named Randolph Packard will be giving an exhibit of his work. Coltrane attends the exhibit and finds himself face-to-face with Packard, now a sickly old man, who takes a liking to Coltrane and invites him to his private residence the next day. Coltrane and Packard decide to collaborate on a job, in which Coltrane will go to various locations throughout the L.A. area and take photographs of the very same houses which Packard has photographed over half a century ago, in order to show how much Los Angeles has changed over the decades. But before Coltrane can begin his work Packard dies, leaving him a collection of photographs. Coltrane begins the assignment and quickly becomes fascinated by one of the houses in Packard's photographs. Upon finding the house he discovers that it has been maintained in perfect condition with no renovations over the years and he promptly decides to purchase it, since Packard owned the residence and it is now for sale. He also makes a discovery in the house's basement: a hidden vault filled with thousands of pictures of a beautiful young woman. Along with his girlfriend Jennifer, Coltrane begins to try to discover who the beautiful woman was and finds himself enmeshed in a deadly web of deceit and treachery.

It is to be mentioned that Georgia O'Keeffe was a renowned American artist, and Alfred Stieglitz a famous photographer. However, Randolph Packard and Rebecca Chance are unfortunately fictional characters.