Quiet towns keep big secrets.Private investigator Jessica Shaw is leading a quiet life in a Californian desert community, where she spends her days working low-level cases. But when a former resident asks Jessica to help her sister, Rue Hunter—a convicted murderer whose execution is days away—Jessica can’t resist the offer.Rue doesn’t remember what happened the night two high school students were … high school students were killed thirty years ago, but everybody in town is certain she’s guilty. As Jessica looks for answers, she finds that local rumors point one way and evidence points another. And nobody wants to face the truth. Meanwhile, Jessica can’t shake the feeling that someone is stalking her—now more than ever, she knows she can’t trust anyone.
As Jessica digs deeper, she encounters local secrets in unlikely places—including the police department itself. But the clock is ticking, and Jessica must find the truth fast—or Rue’s bad memory may be the death of them both.
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Bad Memory is the second book in the Jessica Shaw series and is every bit as good as the first. Now working for a P.I. firm in the small town of Hundred Acre, Jessica is hired to exonerate Rue Hunter, a woman who faces lethal execution in a few weeks, for murders she confessed to thirty years ago. The task seems impossible but with each new bit of evidence she uncovers, Jessica is convinced Rue is innocent. After many twists and turns and a close brush with death, Jessica uncovers a web of lies and cover-ups that finally lead to the truth. Even though the plot is intricate and spans decades, Lisa Gray ties everything together nicely in the end.
Just as in Book 1, Jessica Shaw in Book 2, is a kick-ass heroine whose PI-exploits in this novel echo a range of dysfunctional family dynamics. A sister comes to Jessica at the last minute to prove her death-row sister is innocent. Without informing the owner of the PI company, Jessica takes off for the women’s prison. Not until near the end of the novel do we learn that this partner knows the very strong motivation the real killer has to commit the brutal murder. The same goes for the sister’s part–specific knowledge–in hiding another murder years earlier. That murder leads to the death-row character’s dissociation from that killing while the sister lets her sit for ten years on death row. These two glaring logic holes made me feel as if the author was trying to play with my head, but failed. She did, however, twist the lives of the characters together tightly enough to keep me reading.
What started as an investigation of a 10 year old case ended being so much more.
Jessica Shaw Has A Week To Discover the Truth of a 30 Year Old Murders
The novel opens with a soon to be executed prisoner having a repeated nightmare of the murder. It was not lucid dream but distorted images, because she was very drunk and very high during the murders so her memory of it is bad.
Since the last novel, Jessica Shaw decided to stay in California. Through Detective Pryce suggested working for a friend of a friend’s detective agency in a small town of Hundred Acres, a desert community sixty miles north of Los Angeles. She had been working there for six months while her California PI License was pending. One afternoon, she notices a woman in a car just waiting. When Jessica left late after 6 pm, the woman approached her wanting to hire her to determine if her younger sister did murder two friends more than 30 years before. Jessica tries to blow her off until Monday, but the woman tells her that is too late as her sister is to be executed in seven days. After some research on the Internet, Jessica’s interest was piqued.
The novel takes off from here but the road is not easy. Everyone from that time believes that since she confessed, she must be guilty and getting what she deserves. Her boss, who probably has most of town’s secrets locked up in his file drawers, wasn’t a help. Even Detective Pryce has “dog in this fight” also. The investigation does seem to have some holes. With all this, Jessica must find her way through a maze to discover the truth. There is a concurrent minor storyline that Detective Pryce and his partner start investigating the murder of Pryce’s old partner.
The B-storyline also is rich. The reader will learn more about Jessica through relationships with her boyfriend, her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, Detective Pryce, her boss, the Rue Hunter and her sister. More is revealed with the Detective Pryce character in his search for his partner’s killer. The author integrates these B-storylines into the main storylines that it enriches both. As B-storylines from previous novels do cause problems with reading a later novel in a series without reading the prior novels, reading this book first should not be a problem as adequate background is provided when needed.
There is some vulgar language including some f-bombs. There is some violence described both after the fact and as it was occurring. There are not any graphic sex scenes. Therefore the content is definitely adult, but, in my opinion, should not be a problem unless the reader is very sensitive some vulgar language. There is one major issue in that California has not executed anyone since 2006, and Governor Gavin is having the death champers dismantled. Please read the Author’s note at the end of the novel, then read and enjoy the novel.
The novel did capture my interest that is my major criteria high star rating. I enjoyed reading this novel and look forward to the next novel in this series. The author gave a hint at the end that it will be a missing persons case — Jessica’s specialty. I have rated this book with four stars.
I have received a free e-Book version of this novel through NetGalley from Thomas & Mercer with an expectation for an honest, unbiased review. I wish to thank Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read this novel early.
Bad Memory is the second book in the Jessica Shaw series. I have not read the first one yet but did not have any trouble keeping up with this story line. P.I. Jessica Shaw is hired by Rue Hunter’s sister to find out if Rue really did commit murder. The clock is ticking because Rue’s execution is drawing close and the case does not seem to be a simple open and close case Jessica thought it was. Digging into small town secrets lands Jessica in some real danger. Action packed, the story took some unexpected turns before a somewhat expected ending. The mystery was interesting and the pages turned easy for a satisfying thriller that had me looking up the first book to download. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.
There is something with small towns and their secrets. buried for long times. Everyone knows it’s not right, but nobody talks. Even when there is a young girl sitting in jail and waiting for the death penalty to be carried out. When Jessica Shaw is hired by Rue’s sister Rose to have a look in the 30 year old case of the murders Rue is sitting in jail for, she doesn’t know that her life is going to change or that she is getting herself in a lot of danger. I really liked the new story as much as the first one. Especially how two seemingly not connected murders slowly becoming clearer and then everything makes sense. Well written and entertaining.
This is the second book in this series featuring Jessica who is a investigator. She is approached by a woman called Rue Hunter who wants her help to clear her sisters name before she is put to death for a crime she did not commit. It was a good story but I couldn’t get past the question of why wait for so many years before hiring someone to clear her name? Other wise it was a fairly quick read that kept you reading just to see who really did dothe crime and who was stalking Jessica while she was investigating.