Dead Aim

"She witnesses death through the eye of her camera. Now a relentless killer is focused on her. A celebrated photojournalist, Alex Graham has seen it all – but her latest assignment has forced her across a dangerous line." "What happens when a reporter does more than just report? She has recorded some of the most tragic and heartbreaking of catastrophes, everything from natural disasters to infamous acts of terror. Her experiences have left her forever marked with the human side of tragedy. So when a dam breaks in Arapahoe Junction, Colorado, Alex is once more at the site doing more than just snapping pictures – she is in the mud with a shovel digging for survivors." "What happens when the reporter becomes the story? Alex finds more than she bargained for. In one terrible instant, she is witness to a conspiracy that will stun a nation. The official story is just a cover-up for a truth so frightening, so unthinkable, anyone who threatens to reveal it must be silenced. Forever." "And now that someone is Alex Graham." The first attempt on her life is swift and brutal. Only barely escaping, she finds an ally in an improbable source. Billionaire financier John Logan has his own reasons for protecting Alex, and these reasons alone are likely to get her killed. Using his vast connections and influences, Logan assigns a bodyguard to protect her. Judd Morgan is the best covert commando in the business, and if anyone can keep Alex safe, it's this quietly dangerous man. The problem is, Alex doesn't want to be kept safe by Judd, whose checkered past has made him the target of an unseen assassin who dogs his every step. From Publishers Weekly Heavy on verbs, light on adjectives, Johansen's latest fast-moving thriller offers lots of cinematic action, if not much to contemplate or savor. On assignment at a dam collapse in Colorado, photojournalist Alex Graham overhears a conversation between the conspirators who caused the collapse, which they disguised as an act of nature. When they realize that Alex has heard them, they go after her, and soon Alex's friend, Sarah Logan, is wounded in an attempt on Alex's life. Sarah's husband, John, a billionaire with political connections, believes he must hire someone to keep Alex safe. His contact is a man called Galen, a shadowy government operative, who in turn contacts Judd Morgan, a former military assassin who's been deep undercover. Knowing that Alex won't leave the dam mystery alone, and wanting to keep his own wife out of harm's way, John authorizes Judd to kidnap Alex and take her to a safe location. Alex persuades Judd that the dam collapse was a deliberate act, and that more sites are slated to be destroyed. The two team up to learn the identities of the conspirators, who appear to have ties to the FBI and the CIA, as well as to an assassin called Runne, who has his own agenda, and a Central American terrorist ring. There are chases and narrow escapes aplenty as Alex and Judd save the country-including the president himself-from violent mayhem. Some of the characters in Johansen's crowded cast remain murky, but the nonstop action and slick plotting won't disappoint.