The Fix

A Jigsaw Puzzle

David Badacci’s 2015 novel, The Memory Man introduced Amos Decker, a man with total recall. Now the third book inthe series—The Fix—is out, and it is as thrilling, if not more, that the earlier two books.

Years earlier, as a young football player, Decker 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 never forgets anything, even if he wants to, and sees emotions in colour.

After he recovers, he goes on to become a cop, and because he has an exceptional brain, makes for a very good investigator.  But the first book begins with a horrific tragedy-- Decker returns home one night, and finds 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 cop 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. Eventually, he is pulled out of that black hole and inducted into the FBI.

In Book 3, Decker, with his best friend and supporter Alex Jamison, along with his FBI buddies Ross Bogart and Ted Milligan is settling into a job he likes, even though his past trauma never leaves him.

One day, he is witness to what seems like a random killing, right outside the Hoover Building—the FBI headquarters. Walt Dabney, a prosperous businessman and family man, shoots Anne Berkshire, for no apparent reason and then shoots himself.  The woman he killed was a schoolteacher and social worker with no connection to Dabney.  But she also seemed to lead a double life, with immense wealth and no discernible source of income.

Dabney’s wife Ellie and four daughters are shattered by thecourse of events and have no answers to the cops’ questions. They simply cannot make sense of what Dabney did—a devoted husband and loving father-- who had no reason to wreck his life.

Decker and Jamison start investigating the baffling case and with each chapter a new layer unravels. There is a sinister plan afoot, that involves espionage, spying and terrorism.

Meanwhile, the enigmatic Harper Brown and agent of theDefense Intelligence Agency (DIA) joins the investigation, starts on the wrong foot with Decker and gets Jamison’s hackles up. Decker now shares an apartment with Jamison, in a building owned by Melvin Mars from Book 2—The Last Mile.He had been pulled out of death row by Decker, after spending  twenty years in prison for a crime he did not commit. A grateful Mars becomes Decker’s friend for life. He drops into this book to help with the complicated and frustrating case.

Decker’s incredible memory does not really come into play tillthe explosive climax and the surprising twist, when all the tiny pieces of the jigsaw puzzle finally come together. The Fix is a very enjoyable book, with dashes of humour and also a bit of romance.

The Fix

By David Baldacci

Published by Pan MacMillan

Pages: 432