Review of "The Last Mile: An Amos Decker 'Memory Man' Mystery" by David Baldacci

In this second book in the 'Memory Man' series, newly hired FBI consultant Amos Decker helps free a man from Death Row. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****



Background: Amos Decker, 6'5" tall and over 300 pounds, was a professional football player until a massive hit ended his career and left him with hyperthymesia and synesthesia. The hyperthymesia gives Decker a permanent detailed memory of everything he's ever seen or experienced - like a combination photo album/video in his head. And the synesthesia makes Decker see things in false colors - like death scenes glowing blue. Unfortunately, Decker's hyperthymesia doesn't allow him to dim the memories of his dead wife and child, who were murdered a few years ago.

On the upside, Decker's phenomenal memory helps him in his career as a detective, and he now works for the FBI. Decker's FBI partner is Alexandra (Alex) Jamison, a woman who understands his problems and has his back.



The story: Amos Decker and his partner Alex Jamison have been hired to work with an FBI team that aims to free prisoners who were wrongly convicted. The team, led by Special Agent Ross Bogart, consists of Decker, Jamison, a psychologist named Lisa Davenport, and a pushy agent called Todd Mulligan.



The squad is trying to decide between two cases, one sponsored by Mulligan and one sponsored by Decker. After Decker decimates Mulligan's case using his superb memory and observational skills, the squad takes up Decker's case of an African-American man named Melvin Mars, who's on Death Row in Texas.



Twenty years ago, Melvin Mars was a college football star headed for the NFL and a lucrative contract. Melvin's plans were shattered when he was convicted of killing his mother and father and sent to Death Row. Melvin languished on Death Row for decades, losing appeal after appeal.

Mars was just hours away from execution when a man named Charles Montgomery suddenly confessed that HE killed Mars' parents. Montgomery is also on Death Row, in the state of Alabama, and he's scheduled to get the electric chair in a few days.



Interviews with Montgomery establish that he knows all the details about the murder of Mars' parents, even those not made public. So the Texas courts accept that Montgomery is guilty and Mars is innocent. Melvin is released from prison and Decker - who also lost his family to violence - takes the former prisoner under his wing.

Still, something about Montgomery's confession strikes Decker as not kosher, and - feeling compelled to uncover the truth - Decker pushes his squad to investigate further. This leads to more murder, a kidnapping, threats against the FBI team, attempts on Amos and Alex's life, and all manner of trouble. Part of the trouble has it's roots in racism, since some people are furious that African-American Melvin is now a free man.

In any case it's pretty clear that people out there want the case dropped, and the reasons why are corkers.



The story is VERY convoluted and has elements that are not credible. For example, I don't believe a car can be rigged to break down in front of a specific building that's an hour away from where you started. (I mean, really?) And after someone breaks into your hotel room and threatens your life, wouldn't you start putting a chair under the doorknob or something? There's more iffy stuff, but to say more would be a spoiler.

On the upside, Alex's prodding gets Decker - who's out of shape and overweight - to take an interest in his health. So Decker starts going to the gym and eats what Alex puts into his fridge - even quinoa and salad.



And it's funny when Melvin Mars, who's in superb shape, asks Decker if he wants to work out with him and Decker responds, "I'd be dead in five minutes." LOL 😊

I enjoyed the book because I like the characters, and the overall mystery is interesting, but it's not the best entry in the series. (I've read the books out of order.) Still, the book is worth reading for Decker fans.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "He, She and It: A Dystopian Novel" by Marge Piercy

It's the near future and the Earth has been decimated by war and pollution. The world is run by huge corporations (multis) whose chosen employees adhere to rigid, stylized rules for dressing, working, and living.



Most people, however, live in far-reaching, dangerous, poverty-ridden slums called The Glop.



A few towns that are able to create and sell original technology to the multis remain free.



People around the world have access to an extensive computer network into which they can project themselves to obtain information, do research, play games, communicate, and so on. However, users of the network can be cyber-attacked and even killed so defensive computer technology is in high demand.



As the story opens, Shira, an employee of the Yakamura-Stichen (Y-S) corporation has divorced her husband and lost custody of her son, Ari.



Devastated, Shira returns to her original home in Tikva, a free Jewish town. There she lives with her beloved grandmother Malkah - a whiz at designing protective computer technology.



Shira takes a job with Avram - a scientist who has created a humanoid cyborg called Yod, designed to protect the townsfolk from corporate raiders and assassins who want to co-opt its technology.



Shira's childhood boyfriend Gadi, who broke her heart, is also back in town, having been suspended from his job creating stimmies (recreational interactive holograms).



Much of the story revolves around Yod, who develops desires and emotions - essentially becoming more of a person - as he works with Malkah, Shira, and other townspeople. As the story proceeds the Y-S corporation perpetrates various shenanigans in an attempt to get their hands on Yod, going so far as to use Shira's child, Ari, as bait.

Meanwhile, in alternate chapters, Malkah relates a story to Yod about a medieval Jewish ghetto in Prague where the rabbi created a Golem (a powerful clay being) to protect the ghetto from raids staged by the surrounding Christian population. Like Yod, the Golem developed the characteristics of a human.



The book examines the question of what it means to be a 'real person' and whether an artificially created being has rights. I thought the various characters in the story were well-written and interesting and I cared about their lives and what happened to them. I also enjoyed the story though I felt it should have ended with more of a bang instead of a fizz.

It's a good book though, and I recommend it, especially to fans of sci-fi cyberpunk literature.

Rating: 4 stars

Review of "Don't Look For Me: A Novel of Suspense" by Wendy Walker

Molly Clarke has been a mere shell of herself since her car struck and killed her 9-year-old daughter Annie five years ago. The incident was an unavoidable accident but Molly can't forgive herself and - in her profound grief - has become distanced from her husband John, teenage son Ethan, and 21-year-old daughter Nicole (Nic).

Nic, who was babysitting Annie at the time, also feels guilty, and fills up her 'hollow spaces' with vodka and one-night-stands.



Molly still makes it her business to make the four hour drive to her son's boarding school every other Thursday, to watch his football games. As Molly is returning home one evening, a storm hits and her car runs out of gas. Being just outside Hastings, Connecticut, Molly gets out to seek help, hails a passing truck, and vanishes.



When Molly's car is found, her family descends on Hastings, but the police can't find a clue to Molly's whereabouts. Two days later a note signed by Molly is found in a hotel room, asking her family not to look for her.



Molly's family won't give up that easily and offers a big reward for information about her whereabouts. Two weeks later, while Molly's husband is away on business, a woman comes forward with information and Nic returns to Hastings to check it out.



The book is told from the alternating perspectives of Molly and Nic. Molly's sections provide a day by day precis of what she's experiencing; and Nic's segments detail her search for her mother and her interactions with people in Hastings, especially the sheriff;



deputy sheriff;



hotel manager;



and bartender.



The tension builds up little by little as we learn of Molly's plight and observe the suspicious behavior of people in Hastings.

That's all I can say without spoilers.

The book is suspenseful but moves too slowly for my taste. I don't enjoy books that are (mostly) step by step descriptions of what people are doing. I also got tired of seeing the phrase 'hollow spaces', which is used again and again to describe Nic's state of mind. Moreover the story's climax is overwritten and has elements that are not believable. That said, many readers loved the book so you might want to check it out for yourself.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Wendy Walker), and the publisher (St.Martin's Press) for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Station Eleven: A Novel" by Emily St. John Mandel

On the same night that Toronto-based movie/stage actor Arthur Leander dies of a heart attack while playing King Lear the 'Georgia flu' begins a deadly rampage that soon kills 99.99% of the human population.



Societies collapse and the few remaining individuals eventually congregate in small communities and try to get on with their lives.



Most of this book follows the story of a few people connected to Arthur Leander - family, friends, acquaintances - that survived the flu. This includes ex-wives, his son, his best friend, fellow actors, and a paramedic in the audience who tried to save his life. There are threads that vaguely connect this group of people. For example, Arthur's first wife, Miranda was a writer/artist who wrote comic books about a group of people who escaped an alien invasion of Earth to live on a space station.



This group is led by a character named Dr. Eleven.



Some of these comics end up in the hands of Kirsten Raymonde, who was a child actor in the fateful production of King Lear. Fifteen years after the disastrous flu Kirsten is part of a traveling symphony/acting troupe that makes a circuit of upper Michigan, entertaining people in small settlements.



Arthur's second wife was Elizabeth, an actress with whom he had a son. When the flu hit, Elizabeth and her son happened to be on the same plane as Arthur's best friend Clark. The plane was forced to land at an airport short of their destination and the surviving passengers took up residence there, inhabiting the various concourses and now useless planes.



After a time Clark starts a museum in the airport, displaying relics - such as phones, credit cards, passports - of the 'old times'.



The story jumps around in time from the years before Arthur's death, to the night of his heart attack, to the days following, to twenty years later, and to various times in between. It was interesting to read the author's take on what would happen in the aftermath of a disaster that wiped out almost all of humanity: practical considerations like getting food, clothing, and shelter; people in denial; people trying to make sense of the calamity; violence and looting; cults forming; and so on.



As the story proceeds the members of the traveling symphony come into contact with other survivors, and - in the various conversations and inner thoughts among the characters - there's plenty of introspection and philosophical thinking.

What bothers me a little about dystopian stories like this is the unrealistic (to me) notion that people would continue to live in primitive conditions for years and years.



These aren't, after all, cave people who never heard of technology, electricity, industry, computers, and so on. It seems likely that some smart, capable people would make it their business to improve living conditions very quickly.

The characters in the book are interesting and there's some danger/suspense as 'good guys' encounter 'bad guys'. There's also a little bit of a mystery with clues for the reader to ponder. All in all, an okay book.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Snatch 2&20: A Satirical Romp Through The Wall Street and Silicon Valley Swamps" by Luke E. Fellows

This comic novel is about the greedy 1% who suck in money using financial shenanigans most people don't understand. Giles Goodenough gets caught up in the system with dire consequences. (Not a spoiler. Giles wakes from a coma at the beginning of the book.)

*****

American financial analyst Giles Goodenough studied the classics in England before his father finagled him into a job at Merrill Lynch in New York.




By sheer chance Giles was assigned to one of the great story stocks of the century, Zyxview, which has risen steadily in the ten years Giles has been on the job.




Giles knows nothing about stock analysis, so his modus operandi is just to upgrade the stock whenever Zyxview CEO Egon Crump announces a new objective. Things have gone well so far, though Zyxwiew hasn't marketed anything, and no one knows what the company is developing.



With his easy-peasy job, a small trust fund, and an open marriage to his beautiful wife Cherry - a stripper/beauty product influencer - Giles is high on life.



Things take a tricky turn, however, when Giles is hired by Peter O. Silver - the leader of hedge fund 'POS Capital' - who has the mistaken notion that Giles actually knows something about Zyxview.



It turns out Giles is accumulating a large position in in the stock, and he tells Giles to "Make sure you know more about Zyxview than Zyxview knows." Giles would then presumably convey the information to Peter without actually telling him, to avoid insider trading. In fact just getting secret information about Zyxview is illegal, so this is a VERY risky assignment for Giles.

Giles does manage to meet Zyxview CEO Egon Crump, a wildly eccentric man who attends a business conference wearing mirrored sports shades, black leather pants, brown leather flip-flops, and a luxuriant fur vest (sans shirt) that wouldn't be out of place on a stripper.



Giles tries to get information about Zyxview without getting information, which is a tough call. In the process, Giles makes an accidental remark that strikes Egon Crump as 'genius', with consequences that are unpredictable and fun.

The story includes a bizarre orgy;
















a sneaky spy;



online nudity;



someone's comeuppance; a mirrored 'surveillance chandelier';



kooky business meetings; elegant dining; a COO who played college lacrosse;



naïve easily-gulled investors; and much more.



There's a good bit of talk about how hedge funds work, the 2&20 fee structure, financial chicanery, and so on - which is incomprehensible to this scientist - but I didn't mind. 🙂

If you need a laugh about the reprehensible 1%, pick up this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the author (Luke E. Fellows) for a copy of the book.

Rating: 4 stars