A review by mustafai
Memory Man by David Baldacci

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

February 13, 2025
Amos Decker used to be in the Burlington Police Force. That was before his wife, daughter, and brother-in-law were brutally murdered. Overwhelmed with grief, Decker's life falls apart, loses his job as a detective, his house, and his self-respect.

Now, a year and a half later, working part-time P.I., and being overweight, he gets informed by his former partner that someone has confessed to the murders of his wife, daughter, and brother-in-law Decker knows that it's time to get justice.

Amos Decker's head injury during his youth NFL career gave him a kind of cognitive memory where he starts seeing things in photos, symbols, and in people's expressions that others can not. This special talent helps him crack many cases in Burlington Police Department and even during the detective work he does after someone confesses to his wife's murder.

I used to be an avid reader of David Baldacci novels in the 2000s. If you change the motive of the antagonist, then this book reminded me quite heavily of Baldacci's earlier novel named LAST MAN STANDING(2001). There was a mass school shooting interconnected to the protagonist's professional life in that one, and in Memory Man, a mass school shooting in connected to Amos Decker's personal life.

Baldacci's writing and story telling is brilliant as always, but there is a certain world that he does not get out of. If one reads other writers like Karin Slaughter, for example, you feel what the protagonists feel. Here, you feel disconnected to the emotions of the protagonist. It is only about the plot and twists.

Its a series but I don't look forward to go much further in this one.

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