Memory Man by David Baldacci

Amos Decker is a detective at the local police station when his wife and daughter are brutally murdered.  Since their deaths, his live slips drastically until he loses his job and ends up living on the street.  He is drawn back into detective work when there is a tragic mass shooting at the high school where he was once a star quarterback.  As he helps his old partner investigate the murders, he gradually finds his way out of the emotional pit he has lived in for five years.

David Baldacci is, of course, a huge name in modern thriller fiction, and this is the first in one of his most popular series.  It's fame is well deserved.  The plot is intricately crafted, and Decker, with his perfect photographic memory, and his wounded soul, is an interesting and sympathetic character.  The book doesn't have some of the more offensive elements of "men's" murder mystery literature, like description of aberrant sex or rivers of gore (though there was a bit of gore, it is less than in some of the other "men's" mysteries I have read).  The thing that clearly marked it as a man's mystery instead of a cozy mystery was the ending (don't worry, no spoiler).  I think the ending Baldacci chose will make more sense and feel more right to men than women.  I am glad I read it, and now have another book I can recommend to male patrons who like this genre. (405 p. 2017)