Publisher Description
This "impossible to put down" #1 New York Times bestseller introduces Amos Decker, a gifted police detective with a perfect memory who must solve a mystery he wishes he could forget: his family's murder (Washington Post).
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 play in the NFL. 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 forever, and left him with an improbable side effect--he can forget nothing.
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Amos Decker can’t forget anything, and we can’t forget Amos Decker. A devastating gridiron hit should have killed Decker, but instead it left him with hyperthymesia: a condition where memories are perfectly preserved and effortlessly accessible. That blessing ends up being a curse for David Baldacci’s ex-cop protagonist when he discovers the dead bodies of his entire family, leaving his career and health in tatters. Unpredictable, vivid, and exceptionally powerful, Memory Man follows Decker as he uncovers connections between two seemingly unconnected tragedies: the brutal murders that haunt him and a methodically executed school shooting engulfing his hometown.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This strong first in a new thriller series from bestseller Baldacci (The Escape) introduces Amos Decker, the memory man, whose unique abilities are the result of a vicious hit he suffered as a 22-year-old NFL rookie that ended his football career. The injury induced hyperthymesia and synesthesia in Decker he forgets nothing, and he counts in colors and sees time as pictures in head." Years later, the murders of his wife and daughter left him too grief-stricken to continue working as a cop in what may be Burlington, Vt. At age 42, the grossly overweight Decker is barely scratching out a living as a PI. The arrest of Sebastian Leopold for the slaughter of his family and a mass shooting at a local high school combine to put an unwilling Decker back into the game with temporary credentials as a policeman. Rusty but still brilliant, he rejoins his former partner, detective Mary Lancaster, in investigating both cases. A startling discovery links the school killings and those of his family. Baldacci supplies a multitude of clever touches as his wounded bear of a detective takes on a most ingenious enemy.
Customer Reviews
A Nice thriller
Good read. All elements of a good thriller murder mystery.
A Darker Baldacci
It was really hard to put this book down! It's not action, but the mental puzzling out of situations in the story. David Baldacci made the mind, and man, of Amos Decker brilliant, complex, tragic and, in some regards, enviable. This new (main) character is a little darker than his others, but every bit as human and I think, more impudent. I can't wait to read the next installment of what may be his attempt to reclaim part of his soul.
Page Turner
I did not want to put this book down!! Loved the characters and can’t wait to follow Amos Decker in the series!