Book Review: The Fallen

Synopsis:

FBI detective Amos Decker and his colleague, Alex Jamison, set out to solve four increasingly bizarre murders in a dying rust belt town. But the closer they get to the truth, the deadlier their investigation becomes.

Something sinister is definitely going on in Baronville. The four murders have taken place in the span of just two weeks. Cryptic clues left at the scenes — obscure bible verses, odd symbols — have stumped the local police.

Decker and Jamison are in Baronville visiting Alex’s sister and her family. It’s a bleak place — a former mill and mining town with a crumbling economy and rampant opioid addiction. Decker has only been there a few hours when he stumbles on a horrific double murder scene.

The next killing hits sickeningly close to home. With the lives of people he cares about suddenly hanging in the balance, Decker begins to realize that the recent deaths may be only one small piece of a much larger scheme . . . with consequences that will reach far beyond Baronville.

Decker, with his unique talents, may be the only detective who can crack the case. But when one mistake could cost him everything, Decker finds that his infallible memory may not be completely trustworthy after all.

Review:

It’s another fast-paced quest for answers for bestselling author David Baldacci’s Memory Man, Amos Decker, and his partner, Alex Jamison in the fourth installment in the series.

In The Fallen, Decker is supposed to be enjoying a brief vacation with Jamison. They’ve traveled to Baronville, an ironically-named town, to spend time with her sister. She has just moved to the depressed area. In the formerly bustling center of industry, the Baron family ran mills and mines in which the local residents toiled.

Baronville is a very different place now. The mills and mines have long been closed and stand in silent testament to a time gone by. Now unemployment rates are staggeringly high and residents are struggling to survive. The town is fully in the grips of America’s spiraling opioid crisis.

A local fulfillment center where Alex’s brother-in-law is employed represents the town’s chance for economic revival.

At the top of the hill stands the dilapidated Baron mansion in which the surviving son, John, quietly resides. Reviled by his Baron’s citizens because his family’s excesses, failures, and haughty treatment of generations of Baronville residents, John is, like most in the town, just hoping to eek out a living that is sufficient get by.

When Amos inadvertently witnesses activity in the house adjacent to Alex’s sister’s home, he springs into action. Decker is characteristically unable to ignore his intuition and training. He — and Jamison — quickly find themselves embroiled in a murder investigation, even though they are supposed to be off duty and relaxing. They also become targets of the criminals who do not want them to discover what is really happening in Baronville.

The Fallen is fast-paced and full of Baldacci’s signature, frequently shocking plot twists. And Baldacci leaders readers deeper into the heart and soul of Amos Decker, revealing more details about the character who is already firmly entrenched in readers’ hearts. Alex has a young niece whose life is inalterably impacted by the events unfolding in Baronville. Decker’s his interactions with the girl dredge up the pain he carries with him about his own family’s demise. Baldacci allows readers to understand Amos better through heartbreakingly tender moments and exchanges between the two characters.

Once again, Baldacci has tautly crafted a thoroughly satisfying story with plausible resolutions that resonates emotionally and leaves readers anxious to read the next book in his Memory Man series.