“Forget what hurt you, but never forget what it taught you.”
– Dinyar Bharucha
If ever there is someone who has experienced the worst kinds of hurt, it is D.I. Kim Stone. Somehow, she survived a horrific childhood and has become a functioning adult. No, she is not a warm, fuzzy person. Most would call her difficult. But she is a darn good police detective.
Does she have enemies? Oh, heck yeah! In Angela Marsons’ Dead Memories, we meet several of them. All become suspects in a cruel series of murders that seem designed with one purpose in mind: to cause mental torment to Kim Stone. Somehow, someway, someone with a burning hatred of D.I. Stone has learned of the terrible, traumatic details of her past and is now replicating them by murdering innocent people who are staged in the same places and positions designed to induce agony and despair.
Kim’s partner Bryant knows some of the details, and he pushes her to recuse herself, as does her boss Woody. To no one’s surprise, Kim assures everyone she can handle it, as she is a master of compartmentalizing her feelings – or stuffing them, as others might say. Can she really manage, or will it all come out sideways? Or will she explode?
In the tenth book of this marvelous series, Ms. Marsons brings back our favorite team of hard-working detectives. Stacy has a more prominent role than ever, and she amazes us with her computer skills and quick thinking. On the down side, she is prone to pouting and shooting small jabs at co-workers when she’s miffed, but in the end, she owns these faults. We are getting to know Penn, the newest member of the team. He is diligent and resourceful, and he is willing to go the extra mile, as is everyone else on the squad. Bryant does his best to get Kim to open up, but, ever the loyal sidekick, he knows when to say when.
The plot is also enhanced by the addition of profiler Alison Lowe, whose job in this case is to observe Kim and report back to Woody. There is no love lost between the two, and there are some rather amusing exchanges between them. Kim calls upon her skills to draw up profiles on the plethora of suspects. Alison also veers off on her own separate case, teaming with a reluctant Stacy, as she feels the need to prove that a prior “mistake” attributed to her was really an error on the part of the police in another district, one that she feels could cost an innocent man his freedom.
The main plot is clever and captivating. What kind of twisted mind comes up with a tale like this, Angela Marsons? What kind of criminal does these things? It’s really quite brilliant, and while there are many suspects who have deep hatred for Kim Stone, not all are smart enough, devious enough, or have the opportunity to pull off these crimes. So who is behind these dastardly deeds? What event will the killer choose next? Who will the victim be? Can Kim and her team get there in time?
Once again, Angela Marsons has penned a brilliant thriller. My only tiny problem was that I couldn’t remember these bad guys and gals from the previous books. That may have helped me get a better handle on who may have been doing all these nasty deeds. Nah! I’m not that smart! I was just smart enough to figure out who it wasn’t.
So much pain, but, “...never forget what it taught you.” Despite the difficulty that Kim has coming face to face with the painful memories, which have never left her and never will, time and again we see her humanity shine through as she responds to the victims with compassion. She honors their dignity in ways that she was not honored as a child, and she recalls the times in her life when she felt loved and cared for. I believe it is her way of paying it forward.
5 stars