The Memory Game

Wow. A brilliantly crafted mystery that's much more than the typical exciting, action-packed thriller.

All about Jane Crane, architect, and her beautiful childhood memories of both her family, and her husband's family. Alan Martello, Jane's larger-than-life, successful writer; father-in-law and master of the Stead, a large, comfortable home to his 4 sons and 1 daughter.Parties of all kinds like mushroom hunting, holiday dinners, barbecues with wonderful 'golden' memories.were held there year after year. But... then Jane's closest friend Natalie Martello goes missing.

Twenty-five years later Jane dissolves her marriage to Claud recognizing her unhappiness but unable to articulate or explain why. The two families are so intertwined and so show more Jane continues visiting, socializing and cooking at the Stead and plans an extension of the home. It is when she starts digging the area for the extension that the past crashes into the present.

Families are both wonderful and awful.

I found the endless drinking and smoking time-wasting and used as filler material. Other than that, lol, excellent intelligent psychological read. show less

What a fine book this is -- every bit as good as anything written by Nicci French. During construction of a house on the property of Jane's (soon to be ex-) husband's family, a human skeleton is discovered. It is Jane's childhood friend Natalie, who disappeared 25 years ago, when they were teens. The mystery as to who murdered her and why is deeply embedded in her past and that of Jane and her husband's extended families. There are dark secrets to be uncovered, and long- suppressed memories to be recovered. The characters are distinctly drawn and memorable -- especially that of Jane's father in law, Alan Martello. He is a larger-than-life figure, the center-of-attention in any gathering, a man who takes pride in being outrageous and show more iconoclastic, and whose continued fame pathetically lies with a single novel he wrote decades earlier. This is a book that holds the reader's interest from start to finish, satisfying on every level. The Memory Game is a true winner. show less

My first Nicci French. And I liked it very much. The combination of family secrets, an unsolved disappearence that turns out to be a murder. Very good ingredients for a thriller. It was a good read: once I started, I could not put the book down.
Tasts for more :-)

This book cost me a national title once. Well, at least a shot at one. I settled down with it in bed the night before a Nationals started and at 5am I was still wide awake glued to it. I finished the book...and my chances of playing okay the next day. From a professional faller-asleeper - it is by far the thing at which I shine - this is really saying something.

How odd. I've read plenty of this sort of book, it isn't the best written (or the worst by any means). It even has the kiss of death of being written by a couple - who could ever make that work and even if it did, we wouldn't think it did. Yet there is something about the formula - and having read a few more, it is hard to call it anything else - that succeeds in spades.

This book cost me a national title once. Well, at least a shot at one. I settled down with it in bed the night before a Nationals started and at 5am I was still wide awake glued to it. I finished the book...and my chances of playing okay the next day. From a professional faller-asleeper - it is by far the thing at which I shine - this is really saying something.

How odd. I've read plenty of this sort of book, it isn't the best written (or the worst by any means). It even has the kiss of death of being written by a couple - who could ever make that work and even if it did, we wouldn't think it did. Yet there is something about the formula - and having read a few more, it is hard to call it anything else - that succeeds in spades.

This book cost me a national title once. Well, at least a shot at one. I settled down with it in bed the night before a Nationals started and at 5am I was still wide awake glued to it. I finished the book...and my chances of playing okay the next day. From a professional faller-asleeper - it is by far the thing at which I shine - this is really saying something.

How odd. I've read plenty of this sort of book, it isn't the best written (or the worst by any means). It even has the kiss of death of being written by a couple - who could ever make that work and even if it did, we wouldn't think it did. Yet there is something about the formula - and having read a few more, it is hard to call it anything else - that succeeds in spades.

This one only loses points because I was expecting a thriller / suspense novel, which it isn't. It's more about recovered memory -- hence the title, I suppose!

The protagonist, an architect, is supervising the construction of a guest house on her former in-laws' Shropshire estate when the excavation reveals human remains proving to be those of the family's daughter who vanished 25 years ago. Her own dissatisfaction with the police investigation leads back through a memory trail that may or may not be true.

There's never any real suspense here -- Jane never appears to be in any real danger, and the biggest mystery for most of the book is why she suddenly decided to end her 20-year marriage. The ending is especially problematic, as it show more requires the reader to accept the notion that the ultimately-revealed killer could then go on for the next 25 years leading a perfectly normal life. show less