The Memory Game [Paperback]

Nicci French (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 1998

A psychological thriller in which the body of a 16 year-old girl, missing for 25 years is found buried in the garden of a country house. When it is established she had been murdered, her sister-in-law begins her own investigation.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nicci French is the author of Catch Me When I Fall, Secret Smile, Land of the Living, Killing Me Softly, The Red Room and Beneath the Skin. She lives near Ipswich, England. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

Harriet Walter, an English actor of wide experience, performs this clever English mystery with imagination. Jane Martello sets out to find the murderer of her childhood friend, Natalie, whose body has unexpectedly turned up in the garden many years later. Since the murder happened so long ago, Jane must depend upon the memories of others and on her own recovered memory, which is nudged to the fore by the convincing psychiatrist, Alex. Walter's voices are superb, especially her male voices (which are notoriously difficult for female interpreters). Her authentic-sounding British dialects, her perfect enunciation and pacing, and her perceived pleasure in spinning a good story all make for a worthy production. Just wait until you get to the ending! P.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Penguin; First Edition edition (January 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140271295
• ISBN-13: 978-0140271294
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,476,408 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For a first book? Wonderful, June 23, 2001

By 

Bridget Hockney (Jacksonville, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Memory Game (Audio Cassette)

Their first book, I'm told. I don't know why I relate to so many of their main characters. Whatever the reason, they are one of my favorite authors of the past year. Memory Game has eye raising twists and turns throughout. No one seems to be as they appear to be. One downfall...I could not keep all the names straight-- and the first few chapters helped none for me in discerning them. Could be the interuptions of RL.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Memory a game?, January 1, 2003

By 

Hetty Clews (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Memory Game (Audio Cassette)

Whether it be "Memory Game" or "Kim's Game", as the narrator describes them and then confesses to confusing the two, game theory becomes the controlling conceit for this exploration of family solidarity and family secrets. A terrible murder (with attendant ramifications of incest) is disclosed 25 years after the victim, a beautiful and enigmatic teenager, has been buried in a pit right outside the front door of her home. The gruesome discovery of a pregnant girl, who had been thought--by all but the murderer--to be merely missing, becomes the stimulus for the narrator, her childhood friend and rival, to embark on a quest to recover dark hidden memories of a vanished childhood among the "blue remembered hills" of her "land of lost content." The account that follows--with its frequent forays into psychotherapeautic sessions--is gripping, even as mesmerising as the psychotherapist himself seems to be, and the narrator goes through an ominous process of question and answer only to find ultimately that the "truth" of her breakthrough is not truth at all. The only disappointing part of this process comes in the rushed conclusion following her acceptance of the validity of the "false-memory" syndrome (an exposition of which is glossed over far too hurriedly); the denoument seems strangely contrived and much less believable than what has preceded it.
Nevertheless this is an absorbing read. It will please the literary minded as well as mystery lovers. It has certainly left this reader with a taste for more from this spell-binding writer.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Overall..., January 24, 2000

By 

G Phillips (Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Memory Game (Audio Cassette)

Having just read 'The Memeory Game' while I was sick, I can recommend it as a good novel to while away the hours, and an interesting look at issues surrounding repressed memory. It is one of those novels that creeps up on you, and before you know it, you've become engrossed and finished half the book. The one problem that I had with it was that the ending was too abrupt - it felt like the author had reached a word limit and now had to wrap up as quickly as possible, a disappointment after an otherwise good read. Recommended for holidays or plane trips where you want something interesting but light at the same time.