Dying Out West

Longer Description (for Xlibris book page)
Haley Van Fleet's paintings are coded memories, childhood terrors that she has disguised for herself as beauty. The result is a potent magic that attracts an offer from a gallery, but her old fears are stronger than ambition. She runs from the exposure of success and takes refuge in an affair with another artist, a photographer. They go west together to photograph places tourists never see, some of them dangerous. But danger becomes a kind of pleasure, and when they take illegal pictures on a missile range even explosions and military pursuit don't spoil the fun. There is another, less expected, reward: defying real fear cures imaginary fear. But theses lovers are cured too well, and when they face danger again they do not recognize it. Always hiding behind the camera they forget that they are in the picture too. They miss important warnings. The 'perfect', beautiful couple, they attract dangerous love, the kind deranged fans bestow on movie stars. Their 'fan' is childhood terror grown up, in his own way another artist, and when he catches Haley off guard she cannot forget it. She has no choice but to become a hunter herself and find the enemy.