Memory Man cover art

Memory Man

The Gripping Thriller You Won't Be Able To Forget

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free + £10 Audible voucher

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

Memory Man

By: David Baldacci
Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy, Ron McLarty
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.20

Buy Now for £12.20

The first in the Amos Decker series, Memory Man is an astounding audiobook from blockbuster author David Baldacci, where an extraordinary man races to hunt down a terrible killer.

When Amos Decker returned home eighteen months ago to find the bodies of his wife and only daughter, he didn't think he could carry on living. Overwhelmed with grief, he saw his life spiral out of control, losing his job as a detective, his house and his self-respect. But when his former partner in the police, Mary Lancaster, visits to tell him that someone has confessed to the murder of his family, he knows he owes it to his wife and child to seek justice for them.

As Decker comes to terms with the news, tragedy strikes at the local school. Thirteen teenagers are gunned down, and the killer is at large. Following the serious brain injury Amos suffered as a professional footballer, he gained a remarkable gift – and the police believe that this unusual skill will assist in the hunt for the killer.

Amos must endure the memories he would rather forget, and when new evidence links the murders, he is left with only one option.

Memory Man will stay with you long after the final chapter. The series continues with The Last Mile.

 Crime Thrillers Detective Fiction International Mystery & Crime Mystery Police Procedural Private Investigators Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Crime Exciting Murder Injury
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

One of the world's biggest-selling thriller writers, Baldacci needs no introduction . . . Brilliant plotting, heart-grabbing action and characters to die for
The page-turner of the season
Baldacci is still peerless
Baldacci inhabits the skin of his creations - tripping us up with unexpected empathy and subtle identification
All stars
Most relevant
Couldn't stop listening, well read and written, great description, twists and turns in the plot. Kept me riveted to the last sentence. David Baldacci never ceases to amaze, great writer, you get submersed in the story. Would recommend without hesitation.

Fantastic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good enough story with loads of twists and turns and was very happy to read it. I found the cut and edit of the narration really poor and frustrating. Orlagh was only ever used for female narration with Ron concluding with "she said" or similar. lead to a disjointed read.
Even Ron's bits were spliced and you could tel they had recorded bit in different studio. My guess this was to fix errors. That said the story was OK and i got used to it.
Found the conclusion a little hard to swallow. Some of the justifications as to why and when just felt a little unlikely.
BUT. I would happily read another of David's books

Good Slow Reveal Yarn. Odd Narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
David Baldacci is one of my favourite authors so I was really looking forward to Memory Man, the first book of his new series, and I was not disappointed.

Amos Decker’s career as an American football player was cut short when he suffered a serious traumatic head injury in his first game. The accident left him with hyperthymesia (the capacity to remember everything) and synthesia (the ability to link all experiences to colours and numbers). These gifts help him in his next career as a detective in the police force.

One night Decker comes home from a stakeout to find his wife, young daughter and brother-in-law brutally murdered. Despite his best efforts he is unable to solve this crime, and feeling a failure he gives up on everything, leaving his job, becoming homeless and losing his will to live.

Over a year later, out of the blue, Sebastian Leopold walks into a police station and confesses to the murders. On the same day that there is a mass shooting at the local high school, the school that Decker himself attended as a senior. It soon becomes apparent that these events are links, and so begins Decker’s journey to discovery and recovery.

David Baldacci has created a strong but damaged character. He does a sympathetic job of not only describing Decker’s gifts but also his inadequacies. It is easy to feel the frustrations of his associates dealing with someone like him and his insensitivity to this. Despite being a little contrived in parts, the storyline had plenty of twists and turns, delivering a thrilling ride from beginning to end. I loved this book!

Plenty of twists and turns

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This introduction to Amos Decker is hopefully not the last a great story well told as always and believe me it's not to be missed, can't wait for the next book in the series.

Another Baldacci great

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It's rare I review narrators as I'll pretty much listen to anyone - but I'm going to start with narration here as it really messed with my enjoyment of this book. For some reason this is narrated by a male/female 'team' where whenever a women says a line a female voice appears to simply say the dialogue. Given we occasionally return to the man for the descriptive text on how she said it I just found this super weird and hard to get into. I've heard tons of books where narrators did female & male voices themselves and it worked fine, why the need to bring a second voice in I've no idea.

I more or less got used to that however, but never got used to the clear and frequent 'retakes' the narrator did, apparently in an entirely different studio! Every so often there would be a few lines or dialogue (or sometimes just a word) that was at a different pitch or intensity to the surrounding bit, that at times almost felt like a third narrator had joined the team. I listen at faster speeds so it might be less noticeable slowed down, but the audio engineer behind this needs re-training for sure! Again in many many other books I've never noticed this problem before, so others with sensitive ears may want to prepare for annoyances!

Story wise it was pretty good though -

The opening chapters were maybe a bit abrupt - Decker's life is torn apart, then torn apart some more, then we discover he already had his life abruptly change previously, then he's in a new career and hey now he's kinda building his life back up and this is all before chapter four! It felt very much like 'well you need to know this, this and this' - right now let's begin the story...

Still the plot was compelling, and Decker's back story while fast was a pretty unique take on a semi-typical tortured detective narrative. Although the characters felt pretty believable I found the story logic itself absurd even for detective-thriller standards. Although the conclusion works to an extent, the vilians 'plot' had enough illogical actions and overly complex plans inside to leave me rather underwhelmed - especially given the slow time frame and pretty flimsy key motivations...

Still ot moved along fast enough and kept me listening, and the characters were interesting enough I shall be seeking out book 2 to hope decker gets a more believable mystery to work on. Just hope they've got a better sound guy to do the production on that.

Flawed.. but plan to continue with the series

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews