carolesrandomlife

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life.

4 Stars!

This ended up being a book that I liked quite a bit but I didn't love it. I have never read any of David Baldacci's work which is actually quite surprising since I have been a big mystery thriller reader for a very long time. Even though I had a hard time getting into the story initially, this book really kept me guessing. I must admit that I tried really hard to figure out the direction the story was going. There was a lot of excitement packed into this story.

Amos Decker is an incredibly interesting character. His uniqueness really drives the entire story. Amos spent about half a minute as a professional football player. He was hit so hard by another player in his first play that his heart stopped and his brain was forever changed. Amos cannot forget anything. His ability to interact with other people has also been altered so he doesn't always behave as you would expect.

Amos's ability to remember every detail and every moment helps him solve crimes in a way the other detectives cannot. He was an excellent detective until his family became the target and his life fell apart. He is called in to help as a consultant on a school shooting in his town. Amos is able to help connect the pieces of the puzzle together as the story takes one twist after another.

I think that this book did a lot of things really well. The characters were interesting. I found myself wondering how difficult it would be remember ever detail of my life. Everyone has things that are best forgotten. All of the characters were flawed which made them seem more realistic. The pacing of the story was perfect. I found that I had a very difficult time setting the book aside at some points because I just had to know what happened next.

The main issue that I had with this book is that some of the plot twists were unrealistic. I like to try to figure out how the pieces fall together every time I read a mystery. I had no clue with this book because some of the twists ended up being rather improbable, at least in my mind. Everything did end up fitting together in a rather exciting and interesting manner so this is really a minor concern for me.

I would recommend this book to fans of mystery thrillers. This is a smartly written novel that sets a wonderful basis for a new series. I definitely plan to continue with this series and would like to read some of David Baldacci's other books in the near future.

I received a copy of this book from Grand Central Publishing via NetGalley for the purpose of providing an honest review.