review: MEMORY MAN, David Baldacci

• originally published by Grand Central Publishing 2015
• available through by local library as an e-book in Libby
• 550 pages
• #1 in the Amos Decker series

Synopsis (library)

Amos Decker would forever remember all three of their violent deaths in the most paralyzing shade of blue. It would cut into him at unpredictable moments, like a gutting knife made of colored light. He would never be free from it. When Amos Decker returned home eighteen months ago to find the bodies of his wife and only daughter, he didn't think he could carry on living. Overwhelmed with grief, he saw his life spiral out of control, losing his job as a detective, his house and his self-respect.

But when his former partner in the police, Mary Lancaster, visits to tell him that someone has confessed to the murder of his family, he knows he owes it to his wife and child to seek justice for them. As Decker comes to terms with the news, tragedy strikes at the local school. Thirteen teenagers are gunned down, and the killer is at large.

Following the serious brain injury Amos suffered as a professional footballer, he gained a remarkable gift - and the police believe that this unusual skill will assist in the hunt for the killer. Amos must endure the memories he would rather forget, and when new evidence links the murders, he is left with only one option...

My take

In the 18 months since his brother in law, wife, and daughter were murdered Amos Decker has let himself go. He was a detective in the police at the time, but eventually they had to let him go.

This novel begins with someone confessing to his family's murder, and his former detective partner from Burlington C.I.D contacting him with the news. Later this person retracts his confession, but by then Amos has been seconded as a consultant when a gunman has killed 13 people at the local high school. For Amos Decker is a man with special qualities: he is a detective who get results. He asks the questions who asks the questions no-one else seems to think of asking.

The turning point comes when the police discover that the gun used in the high school massacre is the gun that was used to shoot his wife eighteen months earlier. Amos realises that the shooting at the school is somehow about him.

An engrossing read, despite the fact that it is a very long book.Well plotted and believable, well almost.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
THE WHOLE TRUTH
4.4, THE FIX - Amos Decker #3 

Review: THE FIX, David Baldacci

• this edition published by Hachette Book Group 2017
• ISBN 978-1-4879-4546-8
• 417 pages
• #3 in the Amos Decker series
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Amos Decker witnesses a murder just outside FBI headquarters. A man shoots a woman execution-style on a crowded sidewalk, then turns the gun on himself.

Even with Decker's extraordinary powers of observation and deduction, the killing is baffling. Decker and his team can find absolutely no connection between the shooter--a family man with a successful consulting business--and his victim, a schoolteacher. Nor is there a hint of any possible motive for the attack.

Enter Harper Brown. An agent of the Defense Intelligence Agency, she orders Decker to back off the case. The murder is part of an open DIA investigation, one so classified that Decker and his team aren't cleared for it.

But they learn that the DIA believes solving the murder is now a matter of urgent national security. Critical information may have been leaked to a hostile government--or worse, an international terrorist group--and an attack may be imminent.

Decker's never been one to follow the rules, especially with the stakes so high. Forced into an uneasy alliance with Agent Brown, Decker remains laser focused on only one goal: solving the case before it's too late.

My Take:

Amos Decker is "the memory man" - the man who has a photographic memory, the man who can never forget. He also appears to others to be a little tunnel-visioned, perhaps a touch autistic. He hasn't always been that way. His special powers are the result of severe concussion which has put his brain onto a permanent state of video record.

The murder takes place right in front of Decker, in front of the FBI headquarters in Washington DC. And nothing about it seems to make sense.The shooter is a respectable business man on his way to a meeting at headquarters and he doesn't appear to know the victim at all. The FBI investigation gets a set back when a DIA tells them that they must surrender the investigation to them.

The case turns out to be one of "homeland security", that state of awareness that the USA has been in since 9/11. But the issues that result in the shooting go back decades.

My Rating: 4.4

I've also read THE WHOLE TRUTH

Review: THE WHOLE TRUTH, David Baldacci

Macmillan Digital audio, read by Alex Jennings, published in 2008, length 6 hours on 5 CDs, abridged by Kati and Julian Nicholl.

Synopsis provided by the publishers

‘I need a war.’

With the world relatively stable, Nicolas Creel, a super-rich and super-powerful arms dealer, is losing money fast. And if a war won’t start naturally, he is more than willing to help move things along . . .

Academic Anna Fischer is becoming increasingly curious about the strange twist in world events. When her boyfriend proposes, she couldn’t be happier – but can she handle the truth about the man she loves?

Katie James, an award-winning journalist whose career is on the slide, will do anything to get back to the top of her profession. But can she keep her demons at bay long enough to get the story?

Shaw, a man with a mysterious past, reluctantly travels the world for a secret multinational intelligence agency trying to keep the world peaceful – and safe. He dreams of retirement and marriage, but will his employers ever let him go?

I normally avoid reading or listening to abridged novels. I always wonder what got left out.
In the case of THE WHOLE TRUTH I think I can pinpoint what is missing. I found it very difficult to get into at the beginning, and I think, with a view to getting into the action quickly, a considerable amount of the back story was edited out.

The publisher's blurb calls it a "terrifying global thriller [that] delivers all the twists and turns, emotional drama, unforgettable characters".
I'm not sure that I would be as expansive as that, but it certainly was good listening, with good variation in the narration.

My rating: 4.2