The Memory Collector

Publisher Marketing: Forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett s specialty is the psychological autopsy an investigation into a person s life to determine whether a death was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. She calls herself a deadshrinker instead of a headshrinker: The silence of her patients is a key part of the job s attraction. When Jo is asked to do a psychological autopsy on a living person one with a suspect memory who can t be trusted to participate in his own medical care she knows all her skills will be put to the test. Jo is called to the scene of an aircraft inbound from London to help deal with a passenger who is behaving erratically. She figures out that he s got anteretrograde amnesia, and can t form new memories. As his thoughts drift away like tendrils of smoke, Jo finds herself racing to save a patient who can walk and talk yet can t help her figure out just what happened to him. For every cryptic clue he is able to drag up from his memory, Jo has to sift through a dozen nonsensical statements. Suddenly a string of clues arises something to do with a superdeadly biological agent code-named Slick, missing people, and a secret partnership gone horribly wrong. Jo realizes her patient s addled mind may hold the key to preventing something terrible from happening in her beloved San Francisco. In order to prevent it, she will have to get deeper into the life of a patient than she ever has before, hoping the truth emerges from the fog of his mind in time to save her city and herself." Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 02/01/2009 pg. 54 (EAN 9780525950752, Hardcover) Library Journal 04/15/2009 pg. 83 (EAN 9780525950752, Hardcover) Publishers Weekly 04/27/2009 pg. 114 (EAN 9780525950752, Hardcover) Booklist 05/01/2009 pg. 30 (EAN 9780525950752, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Contributor Bio:  Gardiner, Meg Meg Gardiner is the author of The Memory Collector, The Dirty Secrets Club, and five novels in the Evan Delaney series, including China Lake which recently won the Edgar Award for best paperback original. She lives with her family near London. Contributor Bio:  Ericksen, Susan Susan Ericksen, an Audie Award and "AudioFile" Earphones Award winner, has recorded many audiobooks, including "Naked in Death" by J. D. Robb.