cover image Darkroom

Darkroom

Joshua Graham. S&S/Howard, $15.99 trade paper (384p) ISBN 978-1-4516-5469-1

Graham’s tepid supernatural thriller pits Vietnamese-American photographer Xandra Carrick against a powerful array of interests determined to keep a long-held secret of the Vietnam War from affecting current U.S. political interests. Xandra’s father, photojournalist Peter Carrick, rescued, then married Grace Th’am Ai Le before returning to America after Saigon’s fall in 1975. In 2008, after Grace’s death, Peter and Xandra transport Grace’s ashes to her Vietnamese village, where Xandra takes photos with her dad’s old Graflex. When Xandra develops the film, she begins having visions—seeing things in the photos that can’t be there. Her visions are enough to threaten the discovery of the horrific secrets her father has hidden and unleash not only governmental forces but also an assassin determined to assure those secrets remain buried. Graham (Beyond Justice) telegraphs too much of the plot, and Xandra finds all too timely help of both a spiritual and temporal nature as her fate becomes entwined with that of the U.S. presidency. (May)