Deadly Memories

When Becker’s elderly neighbor finds a catatonic woman hiding in a hollow tree near their houses, he is happy to let the local police handle the case. Except kind-hearted Mrs Blackmore insists he check up on the woman, dubbed Jayne (“Jane-with-a-y”) Doe, and Becker finds himself drawn to her. When an adversary from Becker’s past makes a re-appearance, he’s pulled into the case, falling into old routines of protection and investigation. And falling for Jayne.

Deadly Memories uses the well-worn trope of the amnesiac victim who can’t remember their past, but only knows someone is out to get them, along with the old “retired cop haunted by his past” theme. But O’Donnell manages to work in some novel — or at least less common — twists so that even with those familiar elements, the plot works quite well.

Even though Saul Becker is very much the ex-cop archetype, he was three-dimensional, with enough unique traits to make me believe in him as a character. Similarly, Jayne, the amnesiac victim, turned out to have strengths of her own. She begins the story as a blank slate even to herself, and the reader gets to see her discover who she is. And then discover that she isn’t who she thought she was.

Though I like clever plots and great writing, it’s the characters that determine how much I’ll love a story in the end. And Deadly Memories has some very good characters. Good enough I’d love to see them in another novel, and another after that.

Reviewed by Niko Silvester for IndieReader