Double Exposure

Rainey Hall #1

by Ava Barry

In this heart-pounding tale of deception, a young P.I. must unravel the secrets behind a murders of a Los Angeles heiress's parents.

Four years ago, a beautiful young heiress survived an attack that claimed the lives of both of her parents. The crime made headlines all over Los Angeles, both for the vicious nature of the killings and the seemingly random nature of the attack: nothing was stolen, and the van Aust family had no obvious enemies. Melia van Aust fled the city soon after the murders – which were never solved – but her brother Jasper has not been seen since.

After a childhood spent in the shadow of her famous parents, Rainey Hall understands the dynamics of a dysfunctional family. She still hasn’t recovered from a tragedy that tore her own family apart six years before. It's part of the reason why she started her own private investigation agency—to aid victims of crimes that might otherwise go unsolved.

When Melia returns to Los Angeles and moves back into her family home, someone begins sending her increasingly violent messages that allude to the killing of her parents. She hires Rainey to track down the culprit and find her missing brother. Touched by the similarities between their lives, Rainey feels compelled to protect Melia, even when it becomes clear that their relationship has become more than professional.

Soon, Rainey finds herself falling down the rabbit hole of Melia’s life. Her quest to find Melia’s stalker will bring her in contact with disgraced royals, seedy neighbors, violent ex-boyfriends and former staff, each one with their own set of secrets. As the threats against Melia escalate and the two women are drawn together, it’s only a matter of time before another victim turns up.

Genres: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction, Contemporary, Suspense, Noir, Adult

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2022

About the author

IG: @themodernatlas

I'm a California native currently living in a National Park in Australia.

Reviews

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is SO close to being a really good book, but the last act really fumbles for me. Too many red herrings, twists, surprise reveals, that makes the rest of it crumble. I wanted to love Rainey but this was a terrible introduction to her, both as a character and a private investigator. It makes her look stupid, distracted, easily manipulated, and... well, I know I already said stupid, but she really is a terrible investigator.

I'll probably read another book by this author, but I'll be hoping she learned from the mistakes of this one.

[AndiReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rainy Hall is a strong female investigator who has formed her own agency. She and her partners work via word of mouth and focus more on assisting women in trouble then the common adultery requests.

When Melia, a famous heiress asks for their help, they have no choice but to jump in ! Years ago, Melia's parents were viciously murdered with the killer never found. Also missing to date, is her brother Jasper. Before long, Rainey finds herself deep in Melia's world and faced with situations that force her to confront her own family issues and secrets. If you like a strong female character, like an updated detective agency story or just want an L.A. based thriller, Double Exposure is for you!

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts out promising enough, but fizzles out by the end. Really a great set up that only makes the mediocrity of the final third stand out that much more. Didn't hate it by any means, but definitely disappointing overall.

[Merilee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. Single, female California PI? I thought of Kinsey Millhone, or at least some semblance of Kinsey's spunk and smarts. My expectations were too high: Barry's Rainey Hall is an idiot.

I found it hard to believe Rainey could function as an adult, having undergone family tragedies that have left her alone, without being smarter and having better instincts. This is an independent, self-employed woman who can protect herself? Seriously?

Not only does she have no awareness of red flags about her client, Melia, but she also refuses to listen to her friends/colleagues who are busy pointing them out. No, they're wrong, she's right. This despite an earlier disaster when she got involved with someone in a previous case, Calvin, who's stalking her. Rainey believes everything she's told by Melia, which proves to be a serious mistake. It takes the killing of a pet aquarium frog for her to wise up and get out of there. But she still falls for Melia's lies again - and that's when we get into copycat territory.

"Double Exposure" turns into a lesbian take on the William Hurt/Kathleen Turner movie "Body Heat", itself an update of "Double Indemnity". If Rainey wasn't so insistent on deluding herself maybe it would have worked. But I didn't believe the idiot for the first 300 pages or so was smart enough to do what she did in the last 83 pages. And I didn't really care anymore.

While derivative of good movies (and James M Cain), the mystery of what actually happened to Melia's family was interesting. There were a lot of disparate threads that Barry tied up nicely. Hence the second star. That's also the reason it's not on my DNF shelf.

[Vanessa Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a native, I was excited to read a book based in Los Angeles. I also kind of bummed to read the various inaccuracies concerning the city also. A landlord can't just "evict" someone and demand they leave in two days, and Los Feliz Village is isn't anywhere near the Bourgeois Pig. Letting that all go, I did like the gorgeous descriptions of the architecture and natural beauty of the hills. The history lessons of the film business were nice, and accurate.

But man, for someone who is supposed to be a private investigator our main character sure is bad at her job.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

She looks through photo albums at the house but cant tell that the woman shes sleeping with isnt the girl in the photos? But then at the end of the book at the aunts house she sees framed photos and suddenly thinks "oh yeah, i can see it wasnt her now?" Damn, lady, people pay you money to investigate things???

The fugitive brother the cops have been looking for "for years" has been shacked up with a known relative? Really? Nobody followed up on that?

The girl can't go out in the daylight because a scar on her collarbone makes her instantly recognizable in a city of millions? And she cant wear a shirt to cover it because its too hot?

Our private investigator stays in a duffle bag and doesnt use a toilet for 40 hours from los angeles to georgia?

I really wanted to like this book. But damn, c'mon. This is all so sloppy.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Double Exposure" is a super sexy detective thriller from Ava Barry. I'm a sucker for books like this and Barry really delivered. I especially liked the very realistic treatment of mental illness here.

Plot: Rich family is murdered. Son is suspected but has disappeared. Daughter is almost killed but survives. Years later, she needs help from a private detective with a stalker. The rest is a bunch of super sexy twists and turns I love to see in this genre.

Great stuff!

[Memphis Cahill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted this book to be good and I was so, so disappointed. First of all Melia seems unbearably toxic from the start. You know everything that makes her worth sympathy from the prologue and Barry doesn't even try to make her redeemable, despite Rainey falling for her. Second, Rainey has a very evident savior complex that almost goes into the "white savior" trope, almost undermining the diversity in the book. Despite the representation, the main characters are still two wealthy white straight passing young women. Why are the secondary characters the ones that show diversity? All the main characters are rich and while there are undoubtedly struggles, they're still unbelievably privileged. It all comes across as "poor little rich girl", no matter it's Melia or Rainey. The ending is sloppy and is the most unprobable conclusion with an "and they all lived happily ever after" cherry on top. It is very much a girl power 1950s who-dun-it, with no true feminism and none of the Golden-Age of Hollywood charm.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5-3 stars.. a messy plot; investigators who did little, if any, skilled investigation; a lawyer and an investigator who don’t know what an eviction is; a hacker who comes up too easily with results, uninteresting characters; and a cartoon ending. However, the story wasn’t entirely boring so maybe the author will do more research for the next book.

[Eric · Rating 1 out of 5]

For most of the book, I was reading along at a pretty good clip and thinking it was a perfect candidate for a two-star rating: not stellar, not particularly inspired, somewhat obnoxious, but easy to read, with a decent story engine to propel you along amiably enough. After that atrocious ending, though, I can't even give it the grace of a second star. Double Exposure is truly a waste of time, with the last fifty pages being the worst offenders of all. The resolution is honestly so slapdash, sloppy, and stupid (the three S's) that I was gritting my teeth trying to barrel my way through to the end.

The characters are cardboard cutouts. Rainey, the protagonist, runs a private eye firm but has that perfect psychological profile that heroines need to have in these books to keep from seeing the obvious solution to the mystery within the first few pages: dumb and damaged (the two D's). She's one of those people who seems to have made it decades into adult life without having ever manufactured a single independent thought. As an example of how preternatural her investigative skills are, she's lived and worked in Los Angeles for years, even at film studios, but is somehow flabbergasted to find out that reality shows have writers and directors.

Her two co-workers are the Plus-Sized Woman Who Doesn't Make a Big Deal About It and the Black Wheelchair-Bound Woman Who Doesn't Make a Big Deal About it--and yes, they're just as shallow as you'd expect from a Skinny White Author Who Wants To Show She's Progressive By Checking As Many Diversity Boxes As Possible. Both are described as being exceptional at their jobs but don't really contribute much to the case at hand; their primary role is to push back against the poor decisions made by our Broken, Damaged, Emotionally Vulnerable Narrator and then immediately accept her back into the fold after she throws a temper tantrum, shuts them out of her life, and practically disbands the P.I. agency because she's so horny for the Hot Sexy Damaged Possibly Dangerous Female Client they tried to warn her away from. They are emotional caregivers to our extremely immature protagonist, there to provide support while asking for none in return (even though at least one of them has a backstory that is just as traumatic as our Poor Fragile White Narrator, but it never seems to get her down because she is the picture of A White Person's Idea of Black Excellence, displaying nothing so inconvenient as her own thoughts, feelings, and needs).

The plot is bloated, chock full of subplots that don't matter, situations that don't go anywhere, scenes that contribute nothing, and background characters who serve no purpose. Rainey has a stalker ex-boyfriend who is built up as a Bad Dude, but in spite of all her paranoia and dread, he is efficiently dispatched less than halfway through the book in a bout of Deus Ex Krav Maga. What was the point of that cul-de-sac? Just to show that she is a Strong Female Character Who Can Handle Any Threat? Way to deflate the tension for the next 200 pages. Rainey's mother walked out on her family when Rainey was a child, and that plays absolutely no role in the story, except to veer into that manipulative storytelling device where the narrator slowly doles out information over the course of the book to create Tension and Mystery, even though everything she's relating to the audience already happened in the past and was fully known to the character before the book even began. I keep saying this about new novels, but WHERE ARE THE FUCKING EDITORS? Why are such tumefied manuscripts constantly being released as-is? I feel like traditional publishers have gotten to the point where they're encouraging authors to add in as much inessential, plot-adjacent crap as possible to convince streaming services there's enough material for an eight-episode limited series. Here's a novel idea: just give me a satisfying story arc with a beginning, middle, and end, and cut out all the baloney.

The story hinges on Rainy becoming infatuated with client Melia van Aust, a rich woman whose family (except for her now-missing brother) were murdered years ago, and someone is now leaving her threatening messages. Noir is, of course, the genre for imperfect (anti-)heroes making bad decisions and indulging vices, but the chemistry between Rainey and Melia that is necessary for this to work just doesn't exist. The extent of Melia's "sedutive" nature is stretching ostentatiously when she gets up from the couch, and I suppose the scar on her chest obtained during the fatal attack on her parents is meant to be titillating. Pretty much every person in the novel (including Rainey herself) keeps commenting on Melia's reputation for being volatile and manipulative, and there is never really any convincing evidence produced to the contrary. The steamy relationship that ought to form between them to override Rainey's good sense is entirely told-not-shown.

The writing style is irritating. In addition to the "Deep Thoughts" tone I mentioned above, where Rainey narrates like a sixteen-year-old constantly having her mind blown at the nuances of the "real world" and then immediately turning around to start lecturing you with all her newfound wisdom, it's repetitive and inelegant. Distinct phrases like "a thin line appeared between her eyebrows" appear multiple times over the course of a few pages, and I wanted to scream at the repetition of tags like, "she said softly" or "she whispered" or "she said, her voice quiet" (often within the same conversation). The setting is Los Angeles, but like everything else, Barry's descriptions of it are superficial and bland. I've been to Los Angeles a handful of times and I'm pretty sure I could write a better description of it than this character, who supposedly lives there; the book offers the literary equivalent of using stock footage for the establishing wide shot and then cutting to closeups of the actors standing in front of a green screen in a different state altogether. The visuals are correct, but the atmosphere doesn't land. This is the kind of novel you write when you're only read like two books in your life (both of them by Gillian Flynn) and lift the rest of your inspiration from NCIS reruns.

Noirvember rating: 1/5 overall, .5/5 on the noir scale (and the half-star is entirely for the cover)

[KC Hyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mystery story was engaging enough to make me want to finish the book even though I was genuinely fed up with the characters and their dumb decisions early on. While I was glad the third act had the action pick up to a more exciting pace, the resolutions to the built-up questions were borderline nonsensical. Also: is Rainey like, not that smart or good at anything? She’s literally the most boring character in the book? Why would anyone like her? Especially her far cooler best friends/colleagues?

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well Written with Too Much Suspension of Disbelief

The author writes prose beautifully and conjures interesting characters that pull you into the story. Still, the plot bogged down with unnecessary characters who made one or two appearances and then disappear and a backstory that didn’t add anything. The protagonist, an investigator, doesn’t question who could be behind threats or committed a heinous crime and then ignores obvious signs she shouldn’t trust or engage with the client, leading one to wonder about her strengths as an investigator. I really wanted to like her, but I felt no empathy for her poor choices and lack of forethought.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rainey starts off as a promising young PI with an intriguing backstory. She mentions a few tricks of the trade and at times, seems to have experience beyond her years. However, we learn she easily gets duped not by one, but two clients and allows her landlord to bully her. I believe the author was trying to tie this to Rainey's family history, the psychological ramifications of that, but the juxtaposition in this character is a bit too extreme. If this is the first of a series I'd love to see Rainey as a consistently strong female character.

[Tobey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out strong, got more and more preposterous as it went on. Not a fan.

[Cristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

FINALLY—a lesbian noir that gets it so right. Sexy, funny, feisty, and soooo satisfying.

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is like not divorced woman fiction, but just like woman fiction, but in the way that it is divorced woman fiction. there's just no divorced women

[Michael McCormick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a fantastic time reading Ms. Ava Barry's thriller, "Double Exposure." My chief reason for this is that throughout my entire reading experience of this book, I could not help but acknowledge how unlike anything else I have read in a very long time it all was, especially for me the part about it being a mystery and a thriller and about Los Angeles. I have, like many others, been a Michael Connelly fan for a while, especially his "Micky Haller" books, and of course, of Ivy Pachoda, who writes thrillers about LA, but Ms. Barry's book was completely new and fantastic.

I read the WSJ and Tom Nolan's column about thrillers and mysteries every weekend, and, just to see, I went back and checked what Mr. Nolan had written about "Double Exposure" back in 2022, when Ms. Barry's book was published. Tom Nolan wrote that the twists and turns of the ending might "strain the reader's credulity," but I didn't mind the book's ending one bit and was more and more on the edge of my seat as the novel really took off in the last half/third of the book. I do, however agree with Mr. Nolan that Ms. Barry's evocation of old Los Angeles and new adds a shine to the book and her writing.

Anyway, I highly recommend it, if even for the depiction of the horrible things that parents can do to their kids, like the protagonist, Ms. Rainey Hall, having her mother just decide one day to up and leave, and then blow off her daughter Rainey later after Rainey tracks her mother down after a chance sighting of her mother. It would be great to see Rainey Hall come back in another book, resilient and coming to terms with her family's dysfunction while solving more tough cases as a Private Investigator.

Thank you, Ava Barry, for a wonderful novel.

[Carol Hennion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rainey is the leader of an all girl detective agency. She and her two cohorts take all sorts of cases, but really enjoy the most difficult ones. This is a new take on detective novels, and the mystery of who killed the van Aust parents, and where is the crazy son, Jason, intrigues them from the beginning.

[Emmah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Random book. Good in the sense was easy to read and be immersed in quickly. Interesting and fast paced. But majority was frustrating and random. Random characters who appear and then have absolutely nothing to do with the end? Just randoms filling the pages. Kinda didn’t tie together well in the end.

[Shuping · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best mystery/thriller I have listened to in a long time. No unnecessary sensationalism or bloody mutilated corpses strewn about. The narrative is measured and the plot is interesting. Very entertaining listen.

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. Started off strong and then the Pi fell in lust and stopped investigating and started a relationship. Too many coincidences. (And also too high body count.)

Best part is the overdone descriptions of LA/Hollywood and the callbacks to historic Hollywood. A very strong sense of place.

[Kristin R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rainey works as a private detective with two good friends. they take a case involving the survivor of a family tragedy four years earlier. Rainey gets sucked in by Melia's web of stories. lots of plot twists.

[Liz Meade · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very intense and complicated whodunit.... Featuring a private detective with her own issues taking a case with a woman who has a whole lot more of her own baggage.

[Sheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I already don't remember much, so guess this wasn't for me.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like a slow burn, but this was SLOW. Then done? No payoff.

[KBuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even a 4.5 unique story and a twist at the end always fun when that works.

[Erica · Rating 2 out of 5]

It felt like this book couldn’t make up its mind about what it wanted to be, so changed multiple times.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was convoluted and improbable but kept me reading.

[Jenna Averitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Captivating until the end and then it just peters out.