Memory Man

Never to Forget

David Baldacci is a very prolific writer of thrillers, and his latest, Memory Man, is not just an absorbing read, it also introduces the Amos Decker series.

How is Amos Decker different from other fictional detective heroes?  He never forgets anything—which can be a blessing and a curse. Years earlier, as a young football player, he had been blindsided in his first game and got hit on the head so violently that he was declared dead. When he was revived, something had happened inside his brain that made him “an acquired savant with hyperthymesia and synesthesia abilities.”  Which in simple terms means he has total recall.

After he recovers, he goes on to become a cop, and because he has an exceptional brain, makes for a very good investigator. But we discover all this later. The book begins with Decker returning home one night, and finding his family slaughtered—his wife, little daughter and brother-in-law.

He is so devastated that he almost takes his own life, and is prevented from pulling the trigger by his police friends who arrive at the scene of the crime.  The shock unravels him—he gives up his job, loses his home and car, becomes a recluse, making a sparse living as a private eye.

As he is sliding deeper into his own hell—he cannot even forget-- two things happen; a man walks into the police station and confesses to the killing. And in the local school, a masked killer guns down several students and teachers.

The man, Sebastian Leopold, is not the killer, he has a cast iron alibi—he was in jail when Decker’s family was murdered. So why did he confess?  Then a connection is found between the two sets of killings and Decker is dragged into the investigation.

The killer leaves clues and taunting messages for Decker, expressing a strong hatred for the man. Decker is bewildered, because he does not remember ever hurting anyone so badly that they would turn around and kill innocent people as revenge.

The plot is convoluted and very unpredictable. The reader can never guess who the psycho is, even when the character makes a couple of appearances before Decker finally figures out who his enemy is; by then the body count has risen and every corpse is a message for the ex-cop. Decker also acquires a journalist sidekick called Alexandra Jamison, and an admirer in FBI Agent Bogart, who are likely to appear in future Decker novels, along with his former police partner Mary Lancaster—a fine bunch of characters.

The story may be convoluted and a bit far-fetched, but also gripping and intense. The next Amos Decker book will come out next year, and Baldacci fans must already be waiting. when a man begins with such lacerating tragedy, his life and work can only get better.

Memory Man

Written by David Baldacci

Publisher: Grand Central

Pages: 416