Gary Braver Flashback

Flashback

Gary Braver

Forge, Oct 2005, $25.95, 400 pp.

ISBN: 0765302519

Thirty years ago his mother died when he was not quite two so restaurant owner Jack Koryan's aunt and uncle raised him. Still he commemorates his mom every few years by swimming off Homer's Island, Massachusetts where she drowned on the anniversary of her death. However, this time while swimming, Jack is stung by a bloom of jellyfish and falls into a coma though he has dreams.

Three years later Jack awakens with an extraordinarily enhanced memory and to find research pharmacologist Rene Ballard wanting to test his reactions to the toxins that she feels will prove beneficial in combating Alzheimer's victims. However that incredible recall includes pleasant obscure childhood memories and seemingly repressed incidents of violence that frightens Jack. Rene informs him that her tests on people with Alzheimer's have had mixed results with folks recovering what they lost and more, but some individuals have reacted violently. Both wonder what is happening to him and others, but neither is prepared for what they will learn.

The key to this strong medical thriller is the high degree of believability that something sinister is happening to Alzheimer's victims beyond just the devastation of the disease. The author pulls off this sense of authenticity through his brave lead couple who seems like genuine individuals, he being a soul struggling to regain control of his and she as a dedicated scientist. Gary Braver provides a fantastic tale worthy of award nominations as one of the sub-genre's best tales, if not the top medical thriller, so far this year.

Harriet Klausner