Long Shadows
New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2024. First U.S. Premium Mass Market Edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Mass market paperback. [26], 496, [6] pages. The cover has some wear and soiling. This is one of the author's Memory Man series. David Baldacci (born August 5, 1960) is an American novelist. An attorney by education, Baldacci writes mainly suspense novels and legal thrillers. While practicing law, he turned to novel writing, taking three years to write Absolute Power.[4] Published in 1996, it was an international bestseller. To date, Baldacci has published more than 50 novels. Baldacci's first novel, Absolute Power, tells the story of a fictional American president and his Secret Service agents who are willing to commit murder in order to cover up the accidental death of a woman with whom the President was having an affair. It was adapted as a film, Absolute Power (1997), starring Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman.
Baldacci wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of his novel Wish You Well; the movie was shot on location in southwest Virginia with Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn, Josh Lucas, and Mackenzie Foy in the lead roles. Baldacci was a consulting producer on King & Maxwell, a TNT television series based on his characters Sean King and Michelle Maxwell. The Christmas Train, Baldacci's eighth novel, was adapted in 2017 by Hallmark Channel as a Hallmark Hall of Fame feature presentation. The TV movie starred Dermot Mulroney, Danny Glover and Joan Cusack. Baldacci's novel One Summer was adapted in 2021 for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and starred Sam Page and Amanda Schull. Baldacci's novels have been published in over 45 languages and in more than 80 countries as of 2018. Long Shadows is an American crime thriller written by David Baldacci and published by the Grand Central Publishing. It is the author's 51st crime book and 7th in the Memory Man/Amos Decker series which features an eponymous detective as the central character. The novel was ranked as the New York Times Best Seller in October 2022. The book has received positive reviews from Kirkus Reviews and other independent book reviewers. Derived from the Kirkus review: A thriller with bloody murders and plenty of suspects and featuring an unlikely partnership between two FBI investigators. FBI consultant Amos Decker has a lot on his mind. The huge fellow once played for the Cleveland Browns in the NFL until he received a catastrophic brain injury, leaving him with synesthesia; he sees death as electric blue. More pertinent to the plot, he also has hyperthymesia, or spontaneous and highly accurate recall. On the one hand, his memories can be horrible. He’d once come home to find his wife and daughter murdered, dead in pools of blood. Later, he listens helplessly on the telephone while his ex-partner shoots herself in the mouth. On the other hand, his memory helps him solve every case he's given. Now he's sent to Florida with a brand-new partner, Special Agent Frederica White, to investigate the murder of a federal judge. Both partners are pissed at their last-minute pairing, and they immediately see themselves as a bad fit. White is a diminutive Black single mother of two who has a double black belt in karate “because I hate getting my ass kicked.” Their case is strange: Judge Julia Cummins was stabbed 10 times and her face covered with a mask, while her bodyguard was shot to death. Decker and White puzzle over the “very contrarian crime scene” where two murders seem to have been committed by two different people in the same place. The plot gets complex, with suspects galore. But the interpersonal dynamic between Decker and White is just as interesting as the solution to the murders, which doesn't come easily. At first, they’d like to be done with each other and go their separate ways. But as they work together, their mutual respect rises. The pair will make a great series duo. And Baldacci shouldn’t give Decker a pass on his tortured memories, because readers enjoy suffering heroes. It's not enough that his near-perfect recall helps him in his job. Fascinating main characters and a clever plot add up to an exciting read. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Amos Decker, FBI, Synesthesia, Frederica White, Brain Injury, Murder, Federal Judge, Julia Cummins, Memory Recall, Cleveland Browns, Espionage, Dysfunctional Family, Relationships, Law Enforcement, Criminal Investigation, Hyperthymesia
ISBN: 9781538719831
[Book #88879]
Price: $22.50