Where He Never Ever Forgets Anything Ever

Memoria total by David Baldacci
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

(I read the Spanish version, but I'm going keep my review in English.)

This was pretty good, IMO. I'm intrigued enough to see if I can find the second in the series in Spanish and keep it going. Probably. But it was slow going through the middle, I'm not gonna lie.

I like the idea of the ex-football player who, through a quirk of fate, acquired a perfect memory after being injured in a game. Prior to the start of the book, forced to quit football, he became a cop and then a detective, and then quit that when his wife and daughter were killed. The story starts with him depressed and a big mess, but then local cops ask for his help with a terrible school shooting.

Then most of the novel, the middle part...

It ends with him facing off against the killers, and that part is good, too.

The problem is that the middle part isn't all that fun. It doesn't show him being very impressive, despite the super-memory, and I expected a lot more of him performing amazing feats. He plods from scene to scene, surly and kinda obnoxious, and I'd be happier with that if he were being brilliant. He isn't. He's just like any other dude who's doing an investigation. And though it reads okay, the pacing is pretty slow.

My hope is that the author figures out what to do with his ability in the next novel or two. The setup is great. We've got a couple interesting characters. Let's see what you can do with them.

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