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"Amos Decker's life changed forever--twice. The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to go pro. But his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field for good, and left him with an improbable side effect--he can never forget anything. The second time was at home nearly two decades later. Now a police detective, Decker returned from a stakeout one evening and entered a nightmare--his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law had been murdered. His family destroyed, their killer's identity as mysterious as the motive behind the crime, and unable to forget a single detail from that horrible night, Decker finds his world collapsing around him. He leaves the police force, loses his home, and winds up on the street, taking piecemeal jobs as a private investigator when he can. But over a year later, a man turns himself in to the police and confesses to the murders. At the same time a horrific event nearly brings Burlington to its knees, and Decker is called back in to help with this investigation. Decker also seizes his chance to learn what really happened to his family that night. To uncover the stunning truth, he must use his remarkable gifts and confront the burdens that go along with them. He must endure the memories he would much rather forget. And he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice" --… (more)
User reviews
Aside from that, the story is really great with plenty of plot twists and suspense. I really enjoyed it and recommend it to other readers.
This novel introduces a new protagonist, Amos Decker. He was a pro football player who suffered a massive hit on the helmet by another player. The helmet to helmet collision
Decker went on to be a cop in Burlington and was very successful until a killer murder his wife and family - including his ten-year-old daughter. He resigned from the police department and from life. He ended up sleeping on the streets until he rebounded enough to live in a motel and start a private investigator business. Since he can't forget anything, he continues to see events of that night and it almost brings him to the brink of suicide.
Over a year later, a homeless man confesses to the killing but when Decker gets to question him, he can't provide the small details of the crime.
During this time, there is a mass killing at the high school. Decker ic called back to the job to help with the investigation.
Are the two crimes related? If not, the odds of two horrific killings a year apart don't seem possible.
With the homeless man set free, Decker and his old partner attempt to recreate the crimes to see who might be the killer. They go into Decker's past and come up with various obstacles and surprises.
Since Decker can't forget things, he's able to look at evidence in a minute manner and make progress.
Super entertaining but not quite a 5*
First, let me congratulate the author on giving readers a refreshing plot and an interesting and unusual central character.
Amos Decker is a man who had his life changed when a hard hit in his first pro football game resulted in a trauma that left him with the questionable gift of
He met Cassie while recuperating from his injury, and somehow the two of them found a life together. They married, had a daughter, and Decker, with his remarkable memory, became an outstanding police officer and then detective. Things seemed to be coming together for him, but then his life was changed again.
He came home to find his wife and daughter brutally murdered, and his life crumbled around him.
Now, an ex-football player, ex-police officer, ex-detective, no longer a husband nor father, he lived in the streets, beaten low by the hard hits of fate.
When he finally decided to reenter the world, it was as a private investigator, handling enough small jobs to eat and keep a roof over his head.
Life might have gone on like that indefinitely except for the day when a man named Sebastian Leopold walked into a police station and confessed to the murders of his family.
Unable to stay away, Decker lied his way into the police station to talk to Leopold. The police station that day was unusually empty. Most of the officers had been dispatched to the high school where multiple kids and teachers had been shot by an unknown shooter.
With no obvious clues to the shooter's identity, Decker is asked to serve as a consultant on the case. As clues begin to emerge, it becomes obvious that the murder of his family is related to the murders of the victims at the high school.
How can these crimes be related? Who is trying to destroy Decker? What did he do in his past that angered a person enough to do this?
The process of solving these crimes and answering these questions is presented by a master. Just like peeling an onion, we're allowed a glimpse of each small clue as it is discovered, and layer by layer, the truth and answers are revealed.
Memory Man was unique, well-paced, and well written. I strongly recommend this book.
Suddenly a man showed up at police headquarters and claimed responsibility for the killings. The same day, there was a massacre at the local high school. Six students and two teachers died. Messages from the shooter said the deaths were in retaliation for Decker dissing the killer.
Decker could not remember dissing the person, whoever it was. That in itself was unusual because a head injury during his first appearance in a professional game changed his brain so that he would remember everything he saw or heard. That ability had made him an excellent police officer.
His determination to solve the school massacre, as well as hope to find his family’s assassin, led the police department to hire him as an advisor. More killings follow, all carrying messages directed to Decker as he tries to figure out how the school killings were carried out and their motive.
MEMORY MAN has an engaging plot involving some intricate detective work and some excellent writing. Unfortunately, it is extremely repetitive. Some key information is repeated several times to the point of monotony. It also has unnecessarily short chapters. I always lower the rating one level because of that. It is not what I expected from David Baldacci.
Amos returned home, worked his way through the police academy, and became a detective. It ended one night when he returned home from a stakeout to discover that a violent murder spree had robbed him of his wife, his young daughter, and his brother-in-law.
Leaving the police force, Amos ultimately loses his home to foreclosure and joins the ranks of the homeless street people, taking occasional odd jobs as a private investigator.
When the unthinkable happens in Burlington, the department seeks Decker’s help in their investigation and, at the same time, a man walks into the police station and calmly confesses to slaying Amos Decker’s family. What part will Decker’s unique memory play in unraveling the circumstances surrounding the town’s tragedy? Will being thrown back into a horror he wishes he could forget uncover the truth?
This can’t-put-it-down thriller will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the last haunting page has been turned.
Highly recommended.
The story starts with a detective coming home late one night from a stake
His former partner comes to tell him that there has been a break in the case. A homeless man has turned himself in stating that he had committed the murders. Amos heads down to the precinct hoping to see the man with the intent if possible to kill the guy. As he arrives, all of the cops are headed out to school shooting in progress. Amos bluffs his way in to see the guy insinuating that he is a lawyer that needs to talk to the guy. He interviews the guy and quickly comes to the answer that the guy did not do it even though he has confessed.
Amos is later confronted by the precinct chief about his subterfuge. He is warned to stay away. Though later, as the impact of the school shooting comes into focus his is brought on as a consultant to help with the case because of his perfect memory. Eerily it turns out that the murder of his family several years earlier and the school shooting are tied together because of the weapon used in both shootings.
There is a lot more to tell, but it would possibly spoil the story. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who loves a good thriller or murder mystery. Just make sure you have plenty of free time. You will have a hard time putting the book down. It won't take you long to finish it, because you will make time to keep reading.
Baldacci has a gift. He can keep the reader riveted to the story, even when the story is a bit contrived and often unrealistic. This mystery fits that bill. It is interesting but some of the time the narrative is overly detailed. There is no shortage of brutal murders for those who like that kind of action. There is no shortage of dysfunction either. Throw in a bit of sexual dysfunction, teenage love gone awry, and a sideline budding adult love story, and all the bases are covered. There are few likeable characters, and even those that might fit the bill of being likeable are flawed. As a detective, without a portfolio, Decker is superb. He finds clues in places everyone else misses them, he puts clues together to discover facts that no one else seems to discover. Although the book is exciting, it is not very memorable as the story is pretty thin. It can be summed up this way: man’s family is murdered, man loses it, man tries to catch murderer, man reforms somewhat, man may find romance again… end of story.
Take this book on vacation, on a plane trip or a cruise and you won’t be disappointed. It requires very little cerebral effort and it genuinely entertains as a diabolical murder mystery unfolds.
The main reason I rated this four-stars and not five is that I couldn’t relate with the main character. I didn’t find him endearing. I barely felt empathy for his loss of his family. Other than his freakish memory, I’m not sure what redeeming qualities he had. The other reason for four-stars was that I was a bit disappointed by the conclusion. After fifty-plus chapters of a gripping story, I thought the ending was weak - I just expected more to it than there was.
I noted one glaring technical error. In Chapter 38, the main character describes other people he knew who had “gifts.” He said one “could divide any prime number in his head no matter how large.” Prime numbers are defined as those that can only be divided by itself and one. There is no “gift” to dividing prime numbers no matter how large.
It seems like that would be talent that comes in handy when he is trying to finish his college education (straight A’s) and pass the police entrance exam (top of his class) but when life once again plays an unfair card and it is Amos who discovers his wife and daughter murdered in their home, that’s something he does not want to remember in vivid detail. The memory is debilitating. He can no longer function, loses everything and lives day-to-day wondering why he didn’t go through with killing himself the night he made the discovery. He becomes a self-imposed hermit, one tiny step away from being homeless.
Almost a year and a half year later two events happen that force him back into the real world. The police finally have a viable suspect in his family’s murder and a rampage at his old high school leaves one teacher and many students dead. He wants answers to his family’s killing but to get those he needs to help the police in the case of the shootings. Against his will he is drawn back into the world of the living.
As usual Mr. Baldacci weaves an interesting story, filled with more questions than answers right up to the end. Amos is a little different too. He is not one of the usual “war hero/super cop/can do no wrong” characters that sometimes populate Mr. Baldacci’s books. In fact Amos would have fit in well with some of the odd characters in the (my favorite) Camel Club series.
My one criticism of this book and a few other of his more recent books is that Mr. Baldacci does not give his readers enough credit. He has become very repetitive. In the last book I felt that if I read the words “army creds” one more time I would have hurled the book into the nearest wall. In “Memory Man” it was his description of Amos as “having let himself go”. Amos is a tall man, former football player so obviously he is a big guy. I also understand that Amos’ size is a determining factor in solving some of the clues in this book. But it seemed as if every other page mentioned the fact that he was “overweight”, “fat”, “had to shop at the Big Man store” and filled his plate to overflowing at the breakfast buffet. I got the reference after the first ten times … I get it … I GET it … I GET IT!! I kept thinking to myself that “yes, that visual is clear in my head – now give it a rest”. It really took away from my enjoyment of the story so hence my three star rating for an otherwise really good who-dun-it.
Author: David Baldacci
Pages: 416
Year: 2015
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
My rating is 5 stars.
I read The Last Mile (Amos Decker #2) before realizing this novel comes first in the series, though it gives more background information on Amos I did alright even
There is a lot of action and mystery going on in the novel with some misdirection, leading to false conclusions. The farther along I read the more complex the plot became though I never got lost in the plot. In this book, the relationship between the characters of Alex Jamison and Amos is established and in book two, readers see how the friendship has grown into respect for one another.
For me, this is the second David Baldacci novel I read and really enjoyed the story, except for the occasional use of foul language. Other than that, being able to follow along with Amos as he tries to help solve a complex case that is somehow connected to what occurred with his wife and daughter was interesting.
By now Amos is a character I admire and hope to see the author bringing him back for another adventure soon. Until then if you haven’t read either book please do, I think you will be more than satisfied by the depth of writing, the mystery and the character Amos.
The main character is unlikeable, but there's a reason for it so it's not an unenjoyable book.
The mystery moves along at an interesting pace, not too fast, but not too slow. The story is focused on looking for and learning about the person who is responsible
The only weak point for me was the reason behind the killers killing spree. It was just not compelling enough.
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813.54 |