“Memory Man” by David Baldacci – The Curse of Remembrance

As life goes on and we get older, we begin lamenting about our fading memories, and some have the misfortune of starting that phase of their lives earlier than prescribed.

Many of us even wish that we had impeccable memories, capable of carrying all the information it absorbs and retrieving it in the blink of an eye. However, upon a more objective review of such a proposal, never forgetting entails a huge drawback; you'll remember the smooth, just like you'll remember the rough.

As it happens in the case of Amos Decker in Memory Man by David Baldacci, it is something he happened to discover from first-hand experience. An accident early in his life left him with the ability to remember everything, albeit at the cost of never being able to play football again (American football, so not all that much of a catastrophe).

Though this talent was rather useful to him as a police detective, it turned out to be heaviest burden he could ever bear, for upon returning home one evening he found his wife, daughter and brother-in-law savagely butchered, an image imprinted on his mind forevermore.

Lugging around the weight of such a disaster turned him into a broken man, but many years down the line a chance for redemption offers itself. Now as a private detective, he gets the chance to investigate a case in his hometown where tragedy struck, and at the same time delve into his own past and find the demon that has been eluding the law for years.

As is traditional with David Baldacci, we have before us a multi-layered detective novel, one that doesn't deviate too much from the main axises which serve to drive the reader onwards.

There are twists and turns at every corner and frankly, you'll be a bit too preoccupied with the intensity of the events that succeed each other to even think of trying to resolve the mystery or predict what is happening next.

Baldacci masterfully maintains a breakneck pace, one that plunges you deep into two different and yet very interesting investigations, ones where the stakes are high and actually felt by the reader. Perhaps one element that really helps this novel come into its own is the protagonist himself, Amos Decker.

Naturally, he's not really the happy-go-lucky and relatable type of protagonist who will warm up your heart... but anyone with his kind of biography ought to get a pass on that. He gets the job done and is realistically dragged down by the mental blows he has suffered over the years.

Though at times he may seem unlikable, he has a way of growing on you the more you become attuned to his suffering. Pretty soon, it becomes hard not to cheer for him and his rugged, persistent ways of digging through to the truth.

Also, Baldacci does play around with the memory thing a bit and explores it from a more philosophical perspective, but without ever losing perspective of the object this novel set out to achieve, and that is to entertain before anything else.

All things considered, Memory Man is yet another solid Baldacci novel that gives us plenty of thrills and chills, a compelling murder mystery and a captivating investigation, all heralded by a protagonist who is surely establishing himself more and more as a unique and recognizable name.

It may not be ground-breaking, nor does it look to reach over and beyond the horizon to unexplored lands... rather, it gives you precisely what you would expect: reliable entertainment, the kind that will even stay with you for a bit if you're a fan of this genre.

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David Baldacci Personal site Certainly one of the more famous authors of the 21st century, David Baldacci was always gearing himself to become a prominent writer, beginning his work at a very young age as a child. He gifted the readers with countless classics and bestsellers such as The Innocent and Absolute Power.