Friday, May 21, 2010

A New Meg Gardiner Mystery

The Memory Collector (Jo Beckett)

This was one of the mysteries in the boxes of books given to me recently. I'm finally free to dig into the boxes and enjoy, for a while anyway. I read it quickly; it's that kind of book. Just hold on and enjoy the ride.

Forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett is the hero (heroine?) of this mad chase from South Africa to San Francisco. It takes a bit of stretching to let your mind believe for the duration that a company has invented a product called "Slick" that has gone terribly wrong. It enters the blood stream, heads to the brain, and destroys memory from that time forward. Ian Kanan has been infected and from that moment on can only remember things for about five minutes. Stop a minute and think about that.

He remembers perfectly everything that happens up until then so all of his special forces and sniper skills are intact. Trouble is, he can contaminate anyone he comes into contact with. What a setup, huh? Add to that the kidnapping of his wife and son and you have a real thriller.

No spoilers here. I can't say much more about the story. What I can say is that Gardiner writes well enough to pull me in even though the premise of the story made me laugh at first. The panic, the danger, the idea of what could happen did get to me and I read the last third of the book in a sort of tense anticipation, wondering how it would end.

I think I had read a review of this book somewhere some time ago but can't remember where - and no, I'm not contaminated with "Slick." :)

The Memory Collector is available from Amazon. I am an Amazon Associate.

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