“Echoes Of Memory” by Sara Driscoll
Book review by Amy Atzert, collection development librarian
For Quinn Fleming everyday is a battle to remember even the slightest details. She experienced a traumatic attack on her way home one night that resulted in a brain injury that affects her memory. Her apartment has become a Post-it note library with all the daily chores and special instructions she needs to function each day. She needs help remembering things like turning off the stove and where she stores particular items. Despite this upheaval in her life, she does find solace in her job at the floral shop, a place she loves. She is also going to counseling for her memory issues and that gives her some peace.
One night after closing the flower shop, Quinn’s life is thrust back into trauma. While she is throwing away the trash in the alley behind the shop, she witnesses a murder. She has enough sense to hide in the shadows until the assailant leaves. She rushes back into the shop to write every detail down because she knows if she doesn’t it will all be lost to her; she can tell the police all the important details and everything she witnessed. After experiencing her own attack she just wants to help. So begins the roller-coaster ride of Quinn having to face yet another tragedy not directly her own but in some ways even scarier. Did the attacker see her? Should she just mind her own business and stay out of it?
Through detailed characterization the reader gets to know not only Quinn, but also the secondary characters of detective Nura Reyes who is determined to solve the mysterious case and supports Quinn wholeheartedly and Will Dawsey, the therapy group leader, whose wise counsel champions Quinn to take back her life. The reader is taken on a swift ride of exciting details and plot twists as the characters work to solve the case. A serious look at memory loss encased in an absorbing and engaging mystery.