Name: Memory Man
ISBN: 9781478961215

David Baldacci

Memory Man

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.

Memory man

Samantha Landeg 

Colleen

3 Stars

I was browsing the library shelves when I noticed there was a rather big selection of books by David Baldacci books. I don’t recall ever reading of his works, but he sounded like the sort who turns out dependable (if not necessarily mind-blowing) Mysteries and Thrillers. I picked out Memory Man because the premise intrigued me.
 
The story is about former cop turn private investigator, Amos Decker, whose life spiraled rapidly downward after the murders of his wife and daughter. The case lingered, unsolved, until one day a man walks into the police station and confesses. On the same day, someone commits a mass shooting at the nearby high school. What really happened to Decker’s family? And are the two cases connected?
 
Rather than the typical, hyper-observant detective (ala Sherlock Holmes and all his copycats), Decker stands apart because a head trauma caused him to have hyperthymesia and synesthesia as well as a personality change. The synesthesia causes him to see colors and numbers with certain people or events. The hyperthymesia makes him remember every waking moment of his life – making it literally impossible for him to forget anything he experienced. This differs from having an eidetic memory. Hyperthymesia is extremely rare, so not much is known about it. Some scientists think it is linked to OCD – basically, subjects cannot forget events because their brains involuntarily and obsessively replay events. Decker does display that tendency, particularly the memory of his family’s murders. The parts of the book that dealt with his condition were the most intriguing part of the book. It was interesting to do a little side research on the subject.
 
The tone of the writing was very brusque with a no-nonsense writing style. Although the story was told in third person, it felt as if it was written in Decker’s voice. He is a cold but interesting character especially since his abrasive personality is due to his head injury. However, the writing had some extremely repetitive phrasing. Every single time that Decker remembered something he reference to it as using his “mental DVR.” And the word “dissed” was used a ridiculous number of times. I wanted to throw a thesaurus at him and remind him that it is no longer 1980. Also, the book was published in 2015, and Decker was supposed to be clinically studied for his hyperthymesia twenty years prior to that, but the term “hyperthymesia” wasn’t coined until 2006.
 
The story does require a suspension of belief on several points – both from regarding police and FBI procedures and the general actions of certain characters. Some people may also think Decker’s condition is also far-fetched, but it is a documented medical condition albeit a rare one. I know someone who had a permanent personality change after a head injury, so I know how easily that can happen under certain circumstances. It’s scary that the human body is so resilient and fragile at the same time.
 
The ending was over-the-top, but I did enjoy the story overall. It kept me guessing, and I was never bored or disinterested even if certain aspects of the writing irked me. But I liked it well enough to check out the next book in the series. Hopefully it polishes things up a bit.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 4 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

Fran Lewis

Loved this book, cant wait for the next book in this series

Celeste Richardson

Really interesting premise and villain. Clunky dialogue, though.

With over 110 million copies of his novels in print, David Baldacci is one of the most widely read storytellers in the world. Now he introduces a startling, original new character: a man with perfect memory who must solve his own family's murder. MEMORY MAN 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. MEMORY MAN will stay with you long after the turn of the final page.

Fraser Simons

Baldacci is good at commercial fiction. He knows how to deploy narrative devices to keep you turning the page. The premise is usually at least a bit interesting. I like the Robie series I’ve read because he also subverts tropes and uses his large audience to raise issues sometimes.

He tries to do it this time too... but unfortunately clearly didn’t consult with necessary people to nail the more ambitious than normal character he attempts to tackle in the antagonist here. I’ll talk about that more in a bit but can’t do so without spoilers, I’ll put that further down. 

The premise for this one is alright, but not very novel. The guy has an eidetic memory that’s been supercharged basically. I like that Amos is flawed, kind of the opposite of Sherlock. All the memory but not as good at deductive reasoning. The plot keeps you turning pages but the clues that propel the story feel pretty unbelievable at times. Some are just straight up stretches that’ll have you cocking your head.

It was a decent commercial fiction read but unfortunately some elements are handled poorly. Vernacular around body types and inclusive language in general is just really poorly handled. LGBTQIA2S issues are similarly mishandled. 

Together it sours the ending of something that would have been fine, not great. It has good pacing and uneven dialogue, but better than just plain bad dialogue. I really like how in all of his books he doesn’t rely on sex or sexual tension between lead characters to gesture at their relationships or bait readers. He has men and women interacting like people and he writes women better than most commercial fiction, imo. It’s frustrating because it could have been legitimately really good and feature great representation, just fumbles it in the later 3/4. 


Spoilers:
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The villain is an intersex person who has some elements that were commendable. Using a huge audience to talk about how wrong it is for ignorant people to treat marginalized people, especially little known intersex people. But associating mental illness and questioning their gender. Flip flopping pronouns when sex is in question. The actual persons character arc and final end just further plays into how these characters are typed already. It’s too bad more effort wasn’t made to nail this character because it could have been much better.

Santosh Singh

Amos Decker is surely a hero to look forward. Recently I have picked up many crime-fictions that I could not go beyond 50 pages, most of these books were from some of the authors who appeared or regularly appear on NYT Bestseller list. This I finished in less than 3-4 days so that itself speaks a lot about the book. 
Baldacci is in great form and he creates a memory character, Amos Decker. Complex yet very lovable character. He presents a really wellcrafted thriller.

Chris Aldrich

I read this hoping for more interesting background on the idea of a piece of fiction based in cognitive neuropsychology including synesthesia and memory, but while it was an engaging piece of fiction, I was left hoping for more in the science background department. 

It was a nicely tortured main character with an intriguing background working slowly through a relatively standard police procedural drama. I was left hoping for a more nuanced and bigger ending, but was fairly satisfied with the reality of the ending. Though not bad overall and recommendable, it isn't something I'd necessarily want to option and produce as a film, though I can certainly see someone doing it.