ECHOES OF MEMORY

The only witness to a San Diego murder is a woman with short-term memory loss.

When Quinn Fleming was robbed on her way home from a night out with friends, a brain injury left her with severe memory deficits. Adjusting her life to cope with the fact that events pass swiftly from her memory, she still works at the florist shop Gaslamp Blooms. Quinn’s apartment is covered with Post-it notes to help her find things, and she has a notebook to write down anything she knows she’ll need to remember. She goes to group therapy classes for people with traumatic brain injuries and is slowly making progress supported by group leader Will Dawsey. Taking out the garbage to an alley behind the shop one night, she sees a man being attacked and killed, his body dragged off to a van. The police think she’s making it all up, leaving her extremely frustrated. Then Detective Nura Reyes comes to investigate and understands her problems with memory. Quinn uses her artistic skills to draw what she saw, but she holds off telling Reyes everything while she does a little sleuthing of her own. When a body that washes up on a beach miles from San Diego is identified as that of journalist Jack DeWitt, Reyes suspects that what he was investigating may provide a motive for his death. Quinn’s always felt there was a chance the killer may have sensed someone was watching, and when she narrowly escapes being run over in the street, both she and Reyes realize that she’s in mortal danger.

A fascinating and compelling look at memory loss wrapped in an exciting mystery.