Only Marcus Sedgwick could turn a love story into a thrilling, historically set, French murder mystery exploring a complex time in French history as well as the deeper recesses of the human mind.
Form the blurb:
'In Paris, in the year 1899, Marcel Despres is arrested for the murder of his wife and transferred to the famous Salpetriere asylum. And there the story might have stopped.
'But the doctor assigned to his care soon realizes this is no ordinary patient: Marcel Despres, Mister Memory, is a man who cannot forget. And the policeman assigned to his case soon realizes that something else is at stake: for why else would the criminal have been hurried off to hospital, and why are his superiors so keen for the whole affair to be closed?
'This crime involves something bigger and stranger than a lovers' fight - something with links to the highest and lowest establishment in France. The policeman and the doctor between them must unravel the mystery... but the answers lie inside Marcel's head.'
Not for the faint of heart Mister Memory, in true Sedgwick style, is a book packed full of unseemly acts, described in intricate detail, that can leave even the most stoic of readers uncomfortable.
Told through a multitude of perspective Mister Memory is a slow burn story that, once it picks up pace, turns into a galloping ride that will through the reader down numerous rabbit holes before reaching it's breathtaking conclusion.
Written in Sedgwick's expert manner this gripping novel will not let readers go once they're in it far enough and soon has us picking apart every interaction looking for the true crime. Sedgwick gives nothing away till the close, however, on a second gander we may realize the clues are left scattered, flitting through the warrens that are our main character Marcel's incredible mind.
A marvelous mystery filled with tantalizing historical details Mister Memory is not a book any murder mystery fan will want to miss.
We give Mister Memory Five Stars
ISBN - 978-1-444-75198-7 Hardback Cover Price - £17.99 First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Mulholland Books