Customer Reviews

Memory

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I like psychological thrillers and this is an exceedingly interesting concept. To take a drug that releases the memory of your ancestors embedded within your DNA seems a compelling premise and this section of the book is handled expremely well. The characters themselves are not particularly well drawn, and the book feels more like a screenplay to me. (This is not surprising as the the author is a scriptwriter) The ending is a major let down. Every single loose end is ticked off by the last paragraph but the coincidences are just too convenient for my liking. With a re-jigged ending this might make a cracking modern film noir; apparently it has been made into a film. It will be interesting to see what they did with it.

Near Manaus, Brazil, Harvard graduate student William Terrel spends time with the dangerous Yanomano tribe when he stupidly steals a powder the natives use in rituals. Nearly dead, he is brought to St. Augustine's Hospital in Manaus where Dr. Costas performs an MRI whose results stun the physician.

In New England, medical researcher Dr. Taylor Briggs seeks a cure to Alzheimer's that is killing his once brilliant mother and he fears will one day him. When he sees an email of Terrel's MRI, Taylor decides immediately to visit the ailing man, whose brain's activities make no sense.

In Brazil, Taylor learns that Terrel died and was cremated, but Dr. Costas, assuming he is from the American consul, gives him the deceased's backpack. Inside Taylor finds a strange powder as he brews tea. He soon "hallucinates" about his father's car. Not long after that in New England he sees a painting by S. Jacobs of a man wearing a coat that reminds him of his dad. After meeting the artist Steph, he has memories of girls being killed that are not his; he believes the powder has enabled him to "recall" the memories of a serial killer genetically linked to him.

This exciting thriller will grip readers from the first memory that Taylor envisions when he loses his shoe in the muddy bank of a river while still in his Manaus hotel room. The story line is loaded with twists of memories that can become difficult to follow for the reader and the hero who finds red herrings, death, and love; the latter is a fascinating concept as Taylor ponders if he is in love or is he feeling someone else's memory. Suspense fans will enjoy Bennett Davlin's tense thriller that focuses on what is a real memory (I have seen the movie so cannot comment on it).

Harriet Klausner

I loved this book!!!!!It was fast-paced and a great read. The characters are unique and provocative. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to get lost in a great book and who loves a good twist. Think Sixth Sense

You've got to buy this book! What a page turner! I couldn't put this book down! The character development was superb! It's hard to believe that this is this authors first novel! A true joy to read! I just bought a few copies for the guys in the office.

Is there more than genetic traits in a strand of DNA? Davlin presents, in this wonderful book, the idea that ancestral memories are there too. The story starts with William Terrell running for his life through the Argentinean jungle. He had stolen something from the native people there. Taylor and coworkers find a hidden pack of an unknown drug among William's belongings. Taylor tries it on himself, and finds that it accesses DNA-linked memories of ancestors. This, in turn, leads him to investigate a series of kidnappings. The action never stops in this novel. The unexpected twists and turns make this a difficult book to put down.

Davlin grabs you on the first page, and does not let go until the end. A great thriller with multiple twists. Don't start it unless you are prepared to finish it in one sitting!! Can't wait for the movie!

Davlin has crafted a well paced yarn based upon a unique premise with a cool unpredictable twist (like lime in your milk). Davlin's twisted mind has imagined for us an interesting debut novel, and I only hope that his movie will be just as good.

This book, was a page turner, I could not put it down. Be ready to read the whole book at once, because you will be haunted by it until you finish it. I can not wait for the next one by this author!!!

Simply put, this is the best book I have read in years. Think of a roller coaster. It is smart, provacative and fast paced. It is not the run of the mill predicatable action/thriller plot. I can't wait for the movie-----true genius.

For someone who never used drugs, this book is incomprehensible. It may make sense to those who have--and perhaps the author was on a trip when he wrote it.

Suffice it to say that the protagonist's drug-induced revelations about his father, cameras, abduction victims, South America, refrigerators, lakes and all seemed unconnected. It was one of those rare mysteries that I abandoned at the 230-page point, unable to find a reason to continue.