5 stars out of 5
The author is one of my all-time favorites (meaning anything he writes, I want to read). And from the start four books ago, his "Memory Man" series was a big hit with me. This one, the fifth, adds another five-star entry.
Detective Amos Decker is a very intriguing character; as a result of a football injury, he developed hyperthymesia, which causes him to remember every detail of every single day (whether he wants to or not) as well as synesthia abilities - associating colors with people and objects. But I have to admit my initial attraction was at a far more human level: He played football at THE Ohio State University (go bucks!!), and the aforementioned football injury that ended his sports career happened on the first play as a member of the Cleveland Browns (yep, my favorite NFL team - needless to say, I live in Ohio).
Earlier in the series, Decker's wife and daughter were murdered (imagine being forced to remember every detail of that for the rest of your life), and in this book, he's returned to Burlington, Ohio, to visit the cemetery as he always does on his daughter Molly's birthday. An aging, tattered and battered man interrupts Decker, who realizes it's Meryl Hawkins, his first arrest for murder back when he was a newbie on the force. Released from prison because of a terminal illness, Hawkins knew of Decker's annual cemetery visits, thanks to information from Decker's former partner, Mary Lancaster. When he gets Decker's reluctant attention, Hawkins insists he was not guilty as charged and pleads with Decker to prove his innocence.
That's not a project Decker wants to undertake, given that it could mean he was instrumental in putting an innocent man behind bars. Besides that, Decker's boss back at the FBI isn't happy that he's thinking of going rogue yet again - and he orders Decker's current partner, Alex Jamison, who's with him in Burlington, back to the office (as an aside, another personal coinkidink: My mother's maiden name was Jamison).
But when evidence turns up that Hawkins might have been wrongly convicted, Decker (and his memories) can't walk away even if it jeopardizes his FBI work. Complicating matters further is that a personal connection means Lancaster, who was willing to help out, is forced to recuse herself from the investigation - leaving Decker pretty much on his own. On the plus side, Jamison contacts Decker's old friend Melvin Mars, who insists on helping despite Decker's protests. The two make a great combination, and that makes for a great story that's both complex and exciting.
For the record, this book stands well on its own, but I have no doubt I enjoyed it more because I'd read its predecessors (which I recommend that others new to the series should do as well, not only for that reason, but simply because they're all so enjoyable). As for me, I say keep 'em coming!
Redemption by David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing, April 2019); 433 pp.
4 stars out of 5
What could be better than a new series by a favorite author? Answer: A little bit better story. Don't get me wrong, though; I enjoyed this one and absolutely will read the next one, and the next one, etc. But I was hoping for a WOW! kick-off, and it fell short (if only a tad).
The hero of the series is a big guy named Amos Decker, a former police detective and football star in Burlington. As with most characters like this, Amos comes with baggage - loads and loads of it, in fact. First off, his glory days were cut short on the very first play he attempted as a member of the Cleveland Browns pro football team (I'm from Ohio and a big fan, BTW); he took a hit that curtailed his promising football career and very nearly left him dead.
He survived, but not without very unusual after-effects; he has become an "acquired savant," with hyperthymesia. More simply put, he is one of two handfuls of people who remembers every single moment of every single day and can call any one of them up at will (if you watched TV's "60 Minutes" show back in 2010 or the "Unforgettable" series starring Poppy Montgomery, you know what I mean). Decker's condition is even more rare, though, because he also has synesthia abilities - meaning he is able to associate colors with people and objects. Accompanying all this is the loss of much of his ability to connect emotionally with other people.
Those rare abilities may seem like a good thing - and they certainly can be helpful to a police detective - but for the most part they're a liability because there's no way to get the memories out of his head (seeing them in living color as well does nothing to improve the situation). But he manages to get by until a couple of decades later when he gets hit with a blow that nearly kills him again: The grisly murders of his wife, young daughter and his wife's brother in their home. The killer isn't caught, and Decker heads into a downward spiral that takes him to the depths of despair - homeless and living on the streets.
Just as he's beginning to put his life back together some 16 months after the murders, there's a major turn of events as a man turns himself in and claims to be the killer of Decker's family. Couple that with a mass shooting at the local high school, and local law enforcement officials call on Decker to help (working with his former partner Mary Lancaster).
In large part because he's forced to call up old memories he's managed to push below the surface of his brain (insofar as possible), Decker is a reluctant participant in the investigation - which, thanks to the school shooting, grows to include the FBI. But when it begins to appear that all the tragic events may be somehow related, the two cases take on even more significance and the rush to get to the truth becomes more of an all-out run.
And for the most part, it's a thrilling chase. If I have a complaint, it's that there is an over-abundance of repetition. Granted, given the nature of Decker's affliction, everything plays out in his head over and over and over; but reading it over and over bordered on the tiresome. Besides that, some of the details of how the school shootings were carried out seemed to cross the line of real-life possibility. Still, this book definitely set the stage for further development of this character, and I'm looking forward to the next installment.
Memory Man by David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing, April 2015); 416 pp.
The author is one of my all-time favorites (meaning anything he writes, I want to read). And from the start four books ago, his "Memory Man" series was a big hit with me. This one, the fifth, adds another five-star entry.