Finished Su 1/18/21
This is a paperback that Janny loaned me the last time they visited. It's like all Baldacci novels, an enthralling plot, yet little character development and not much noteworthy writing.
A black man is headed for the NFL when he is convicted of murdering his parents. Miles Mars serves twenty years on death row in Texas when another man confesses to the murders. Then, we learn that Miles's father is behind the murders...but why?
His father was white and mother was black. Later we learn that his father was involved with Klan bombings in the south during the 60's.
The plot was so contrived that it bordered on the unbelievable.
"It's fun while you're reading it, but you'll hate yourself in the morning".
One of the officers, Amos Decker, suffered from 'synesthesia' and 'hypermnesia'.
***SYNESTHESIA- When one sense is activated, another unrelated sense is activated at the same time; when you 'remember' you see color. When Decker thinks of murder he sees blue.
***HYPERMNESIA- unusual power or enhancement of memory, typically under abnormal conditions such as trauma, hypnosis, or narcosis. Miles Mars was tackled his first game in the NFL and ended his career, but heightened his ability to remember almost everything he has experienced. Marilu Henner (TAXI) has this condition.
From the book's page at Amazon:
"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."
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