Featured Authors

Double Exposure follows Reed Sawyer, a professional photographer whose camera is only half the story. Reed works for a covert agency that uses photography as the perfect cover, and he is sent from New Orleans to Vienna on what should be a simple assignment. Somewhere between takeoff and landing, the details stop adding up and Reed realizes he is the one in the crosshairs.

When the mission unravels, Reed is framed as the traitor who sold out his own team. Cut off from his handlers and branded a liability, he has to rely on the skills he usually hides behind the lens: reading light, anticipating movement, and seeing what others miss.

As the conspiracy widens, Reed is forced to decide who he can trust, what he is willing to risk, and how far he will go to protect the people he loves. Double Exposure is an espionage thriller where every shot matters, every angle hides a secret, and the truth is buried in plain sight.

Quick Look

Author Name: Kirk Voclain
Book Title: Double Exposure: A Spy Thriller
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Publication date: ‎ October 14, 2025
Print length: ‎ 378 pages
Social media: @kirkvoclain
Buy the book here: Amazon

---

Q&A with Kirk Voclain

Q: What is your book about and what inspired you to write this book?

A: I have been a professional photographer for almost fifty years, so the story behind Double Exposure started with something very simple. A camera bag. I kept noticing that when you walk into a building or through security with a camera in your hand and a confident look on your face, doors just seem to open. People assume you belong there.

One day that thought would not let go. I remember looking around and thinking, “If I were a spy, this is exactly how I would do it. I would hide in plain sight as the photographer.” From there, the what ifs started piling up. What if the photographer was not just taking pretty pictures. What if the job went sideways. What if the agency he trusted suddenly turned on him.

So Double Exposure grew out of a lifetime behind the lens, watching how people react to cameras, and finally asking myself what would happen if the guy holding that camera was not just working a job, he was running for his life.

Q: When did you start writing, and what made you decide to publish this book? 

A: I have been telling stories with a camera most of my life, but I did not start writing fiction seriously until recently. For years I had little scenes, lines of dialogue, and “what if” ideas scribbled in notebooks from airports and hotel rooms. Eventually Reed Sawyer walked onto the page and refused to leave.

Double Exposure was the first story that felt too big to stay in my head. I wanted to see if I could take everything I know from fifty years of photographing real people and pour it into a thriller that felt just as real. Publishing it was my way of saying, “This is not a hobby experiment, this is the next chapter of my career.”

I decided to put the book out into the world because I wanted my photography clients, friends, and now readers to hold something in their hands that said, if you have a story burning a hole in your brain, it is never too late to chase it.

Q: Which character was the most fun—or most challenging—to write, and why?

A: The most challenging and surprisingly most fun character to write was Barry Cox, the villain in Double Exposure. I do not believe people wake up one morning and say, “Today I will be the bad guy.” They justify, explain, and rationalize every step. Getting inside Barry’s head meant finding the logic behind his worst choices.

That was hard work, because I had to let him be wrong without turning him into a cartoon. At the same time, it was a lot of fun to explore how a guy like Barry talks, what he fears, and what he wants so badly that he is willing to cross every line to get it. He became much more than a simple villain, he became a mirror that shows what happens when you keep making the easy choice instead of the right one.

Q: What themes or messages do you hope readers take away from your book?

A: At its core, Double Exposure is about trust, perception, and choice. Reed lives in a world built on secrets, where everyone is watching everyone else, yet the real danger comes from the people who are supposed to be on his side. I hope readers feel how fragile trust can be, and how powerful it is when you decide who you will stand with anyway.

There is also a strong theme of how you see yourself versus how others see you. Reed’s cover as a photographer lets him disappear into the background, but it also forces him to decide who he really is when the lens turns back on him.

Finally, I hope readers come away with the idea that ordinary skills can become extraordinary in the right hands. Reading light, noticing details, paying attention to people, those are not just photography tricks, they are survival tools. And in the end, it is the choices you make under pressure that define you, not the titles on your business card.

Q: Were there any real-life experiences that influenced your story or characters?

A: Yes, very much so. The whole idea for Double Exposure grew out of real life. I have spent decades walking into schools, businesses, and events with a camera on my shoulder and I kept noticing how it changes everything. Security guards relax, doors open, people assume you belong there. That small detail is a big part of Reed’s world.

There was also a specific airport moment that stuck with me. I was going through security with my gear and watching how everyone reacted to the camera bag, the tripod, the lenses. It hit me that a spy could move almost anywhere if he looked like a harmless photographer on a job. That “what if” turned into the opening situation that pushes Reed onto his path.

On top of that, I borrowed pieces from my own life. My grandson’s name, Reed Sawyer, became my main character. My home turf in Louisiana and my years of photographing real people shaped the way characters talk, move, and react. Little things, like using a real Denny Mfg background in a scene, are quiet nods to my actual photography life woven into the fiction.

Q: What question do you wish readers would ask you about the book?

A: I wish readers would ask, “How much of Reed Sawyer is really you?”

The honest answer is, quite a bit, just not in the superhero way. Reed thinks like a photographer first. He watches light, body language, small details in the background. That is exactly how I have worked for almost fifty years behind the camera.

Where we differ is in the job description. I use those skills to make nervous people look great in portraits. Reed uses them to stay alive, spot danger, and unravel lies. So he is not my clone, but he is absolutely built out of the way I see the world.

Q: Do you have a favorite quote or moment from the book you’d like to share?

A: One of my favorite moments in Double Exposure is the very beginning, the prologue. It sets the tone for everything that follows.

There is a line in that opening that I worked on for a long time:
“You can sneak a prohibited item through airport security easier than you think.”

I love that line because it feels uncomfortably true. It taps into a fear most travelers already have, and it hints that something is very wrong before Reed or the reader can see the full picture. That one sentence tells you this is not a superhero spy story. It is a story built out of real world details, the kind you only notice if you have spent years watching people move through airports with bags, gear, and a false sense of security.

Q: What was the biggest challenge in writing or publishing it?

A: The biggest challenge was convincing myself I was allowed to write a novel at all. I have spent a lifetime being “the photography guy.” I know how to light a senior, pose a family, and run a studio. Sitting down to write Double Exposure felt like starting over at the bottom of a brand new ladder.

You see, I do for a living what most call a hobby. But when I reasoned on the fact that I kinda do for a hobby what most call a living I felt I could do it.

On the publishing side, it was learning the business in real time. Editing, covers, formatting, keywords, ads, all those moving parts that nobody sees when they just click “Buy Now.” I did not want to toss a half baked book into the world. I wanted Double Exposure to stand shoulder to shoulder with the books I love to read. Getting it to that point, that was the hard part.

Q: What’s next for you as a writer?

A: Right now I am staying in Reed Sawyer’s world. I am writing a novella called Counter Exposure that takes readers inside the head of Barry Cox, the villain from Double Exposure. I want to show how a “bad guy” talks himself into every decision, one small compromise at a time.

After that comes the next full novel in the series, Under Exposure, which picks up after the events of Double Exposure and pushes Reed into even deeper trouble. Beyond the spy series, I am also building out my romance side with books like Boots and Stilettos, but at the heart of it all, I plan to keep doing the same thing, taking a lifetime behind the camera and turning it into stories that feel real enough to touch.

---