I thought I have read most of the David Baldacci books, but it seems like I have missed an entire series altogether – The Memory Man series. Amos Decker, a former pro football player has suffered a bad head injury that has affected some of his mental processes – he can never forget anything. Now he uses his talents working as a police detective in the FBI.
The Fallen is the fourth book in the series, and the first book in this series that I have read.
Synopsis of The Fallen
Something sinister is going on in Baronville. The rust belt town has seen four bizarre murders in the space of two weeks. Cryptic clues left at the scenes–obscure bible verses, odd symbols–have the police stumped.
Amos Decker and his FBI colleague Alex Jamison are in Baronville visiting Alex’s sister and her family. It’s a bleak place: a former mill and mining town with a crumbling economy and rampant opioid addiction. Decker has only been there a few hours when he stumbles on a horrific double murder scene.
Then the next killing hits sickeningly close to home. And with the lives of people he cares about suddenly hanging in the balance, Decker begins to realize that the recent string of deaths may be only one small piece of a much larger scheme with consequences that will reach far beyond Baronville.
Decker, with his singular talents, may be the only one who can crack this bizarre case. Only this time when one mistake could cost him everything, Decker finds that his previously infallible memory may not be so trustworthy after all.
~ Synopsis from goodreads
My Review
Although I started this series from the middle, I had no problems getting into the thick of things. Amos’ past is explained very succinctly, and soon I was thrust headlong into an excellent thriller.
When Amos and his partner Alex visit a small town (Baronville), they are flung into a series of unsolved murders. Soon, they are assisting the local police, and soon uncover a hornet’s nest where it seems everyone in the town is a suspect.
This would be a regular standard thriller, but Baldacci ups the ante very well. I loved how skillfully Baldacci develops the back history of Baronville, and generalizes it with the fate of small towns in the Midwest going to seed in today’s America – populated with junkies and desolate retirees.
At first, it seems like there are too many things going on. There seems to some drug peddling, and then an insurance scam, and implausibly a story of hidden treasure as well. In the hands of a lesser author, I would have found it all a bit too much. This book however is incredibly fast-moving, and Baldacci knows how to set up a story, and space out the clues. At every point when I thought I had figured out the plot, there was a plot twist.
I went through goodreads and there were quite a few reviewers who said this wasn’t their favorite Memory Man book. Damn! The other books in the series must be red-hot thrilling then. I have to start this series from the beginning now.
Have you read the Memory Man series? What do you think about David Baldacci’s books in general?
Huge thanks to Pan McMillan India for sending me this book for review consideration.
You can also buy a copy of this book from Amazon.
