Memory Man by David Baldacci

Great read. Couldn’t put it down. Good story line, well written. Plenty of action, recommend for those that like thrillers.

Amos Decker is a young man, a very big young man. He’s fast and strong, but he’s neither the fastest nor the strongest. With tremendous effort and will, he makes it to the NFL. In the first game of his career he takes a vicious hit, a career ending hit. His head trauma changes Amos from an outgoing, gregarious and prankish young man to someone who becomes withdrawn, reserved and socially awkward. This head trauma has also given him a super brain, a condition called “Hyperthymesia”, a brain that cannot forget. Some people figure he’s been given a gift, but for Amos it’s a curse.

Amos Decker gets help from a clinic that gives him a new direction. For all the right reasons, he becomes a policeman and with his incredible brain, he quickly becomes a detective. He meets the woman of his dreams, gets married and they have a beautiful child. After completing an evening shift he comes home to discover that his wife and child have been brutally murdered. He almost ends his own life, but doesn’t. Losing the two people dearest to him, he quits his job, loses his home and even starts living on the street, sinking the lowest point in his life. After another murderous tragedy at a local high school, the authorities call on his brain to help with the case, a brain that counts colours and sees time as pictures. He soon realizes that this case is connected to his own tragedy and to him personally. He eventually discovers that the killer is a hermaphrodite who was brutally assaulted and, as a result, experienced a similar head trauma as his own and somehow feels Amos is responsible for her/his brutal events and pursues a sick vengeance not only on others, but ultimately on Amos. He commits his effort volunteering his own life to end the killing that would, without a doubt, continue.

Memory Man is a typical detective novel with a unique (a brain that will not forget) twist. It has short punchy sentences and lots of detective-speak and short chapters in the latter part of the book to keep the reader moving along. For me, the most interesting part of the story is when Amos is in pursuit of the killer(s) who are able to stay one step ahead and taunting him along the way. They are headed on a collision course that will leave only one person standing. I liked the book, but I didn’t see the justification of the killer’s hatred for Amos and for all those around him. I felt it was the main weakness in the plot. I still recommend Memory Man as an entertaining read, but I won’t be reading any more stories about Amos Decker as I found his persona boring and Asperger-like.

I just started reading David Baldacci’s novels a month ago. I have been looking for a writer of detective novels that could replace Michael Connolly after reading all of his Bosch series. Started with Baldacci’s Aloysius Archer books and enjoyed them and immediately started on Amos Decker (Memory Man) novels.

I enjoyed the character that Baldacci created in Amos Decker. A former NFL player whose career was cut short on the first play of his NFL career by a thunderous hit to the head that scrambled his brain and left him with the inability to forget or put differently, a perfect memory. A wonderful gift to have as a investigator examining seemingly unrelated mass murders but also a bit of a curse when it comes to dealing with others with a personality that can be a bit brusque or antisocial as a result of the blow to his brain.

I enjoy Baldacci’s story writing and the way he builds suspense and mystery throughout usually leading to a climax that is unexpected.

First Sentence: Amos Decker would forever remember all three of their violent deaths in the most paralyzing shade of blue.

Amos Decker made it to the NFL, but suffered a hit in his first game that killed him; twice. He was revived and forever changed. His second career was as a police detected. That career nearly destroyed his life when his family was murdered, and Amos ended up in the bottle and on the street. Just starting to put himself back together and working as a freelance PI, Decker is called back to help the Police after a man confesses to the murder of his family. Is it a lie, or can Decker finally learn the truth?

The opening chapter is wonderfully written yet excruciatingly difficult to read. Baldacci perfectly balances both the horror and the pain of protagonist, Amos Decker. He draws a painfully accurate picture of a person hitting rock bottom, and then working to survive and rebuild.

Decker is a strong protagonist and a memorable one, both for his perspective…”How can killing so many people ever make sense?” she said hotly. “It doesn’t have to make sense to us. Just to the ones who did it.”…and for the conditions of synesthesia (seeing people as colors) and hyperthymesia (being able to recall almost every day of their lives in near perfect detail, as well as public events that hold some personal significance to them) with which he now must live. Although they help him in solving crimes, it’s hard to imagine trying to live with them.

It is fascinating watching the way Decker tracks the motive of the case back into the past. Baldacci likes plot twists. One finds oneself thinking you know where he’s going, and he may go partway where you expect, but it’s a tease as he doesn’t quite go there. The result of the twist at the end is definitely not expected.

No matter what else, the climax is brutal, yet unexpected and very well done. The final chapter is touching the very gratifying.

“Memory Man” has great characters, well done suspense, excellent plot twists and leaves one anxious for the next book.

MEMORY MAN (PI-Amos Decker-Burlington-Contemp) – EX
Baldacci, David – 1st in series
Grand Central Publishing – April 2015