Memory Man

David Baldacci’s Memory Man is the first book of Amos Decker series. Background of Amos is not much different than the general theme of that of the protagonists in thriller books - a tragic past and a gifted ability.

For Amos Decker, the tragedy is the brutal murders of his family, while quite opposite to the main characters in movies ‘Memento’ or ‘Ghajini’, a college football accident has given him the ability to not forget anything. He remembers every single details of every single moment after that accident and can go back to any day, any place, any event that happened. He also has synthesia - he associates colors with emotions and events.

Sixteen months after the murders took place, Amos has left his job as a Detective in police force and is living a directionless life. The story starts with the news of a man confessing the triple murders of Amos’s family. And the same day there happens a school shooting in the school Amos attended leaving ten victims dead and the weapon used matches the weapon used to kill his family through ballistics.

I had read Daldacci’s ‘First Family’, and the plot of that book was built on the events that occurred in the past. I felt the same while reading this book too and it seems to be a theme of his books. The events that take place in the story after the man’s confession have their roots in incidences and experiences that certain characters have gone through long back in their past.

The story development is good which left me wondering about the next things to come. I couldn’t guess about the perpetrators and when the book reveals about them it also described their background in detail - describing their justification for the actions.

Overall it gave me a very familiar feeling I had long back while reading First Family, and it sets base for upcoming books of Amos Decker series where Amos is hired as an FBI agent in the end!