Amnesia

I have to keep reminding myself that the stars you 'award' to a book are not about how good or bad a book is but about how much you liked or didn't like it, and I really didn't like this one. I had my suspicions early on when a headache was described as like elephants wearing stiletto heels dancing in his head, and had further suspicions some pages later when the elephants started dancing again. I persevered much beyond what might have been wise but finally gave up when I realized i had had no interest in the characters from page one and the plot was unable to create an interest in them. I am sure there are lots of people who will like this, but for me 'Amnesia' is a memory I would be only too happy to lose.

This book starts in the thick of the action, immediately drawing you in and encouraging you to read on. Within the first few chapters the author establishes, very confidently and clearly, the two main characters, Clemence and Alastair who develop a clever and sometimes amusing, relationship. <br /><br />Trying to regain his memory and piece together his life becomes a novel within a novel as the two read a seemingly autobiographic manuscript they find back at the cottage.  The reader is taken back to Alastair's life as a young man at University and the relationships he develops there which result in long reaching consequences.  A truly tangled web of deceit is woven involving love lost, money and murder. <br /><br />At first the plot seems clear, the reader is being told the true story via the novel, but several elements do not quite make sense and Clemence is not convinced things are as straightforward as the book suggests, and indeed they aren't. Thus you are taken on a blind excursion of discovery with the characters to find out just what piece of vital evidence has been taken away and why and by whom, which is when matters start to get a little bit dark ... <br /><br />The use of the environmental setting, dark and brooding Scotland in winter, is the perfect backdrop for the tone of the novel, as in looks can be deceiving. The beauty of Scotland can draw you in but be lethal if not handled correctly. Well written, structured and paced this novel is gripping and enticing.  I had my suspicions about half way through of what may happen at the end and although it did there was also so much I did not see coming!  I have to say, the final two pages of the novel were brilliant and I loved what the author has done - it certainly made me smile.  <br /><br />I will most certainly be reading more from Michael Ridpath.

I really enjoyed reading this novel. Sheila McInnes is responsible for renting out a cottage to Alastair Cunningham. She cleaned it for him once a week and popped in to see him almost every day. On a visit to him she found him at the bottom of the stairs. The hospital said Alastair is suffering from retrograde amnesia, which means he has lost the ability to recall events of his past back to his childhood. The rest of his life gone, erased as if it never existed. Alastair was writing a novel, it started of with a murder. Could it have possibly been the truth that Alastair Cunningham was writing?

Amnesia - what happens when you wake up from a sleep knowing you have forgotten everything? Nonetheless, that you killed - your wife.<br /><br />Clemence was appointed to care for her family friend, Alastair Cunningham, who wakes up in a hospital with total Amnesia. Clemence found a peculiar manuscript hidden and read it. She learned that Alastair had killed her biological grandmother, Sophie, back in time. And now, Clemence has to take care of her grandmother's killer? Or she has to run away.<br /><br />I loved the first few chapters. It made me glued. One thing I enjoyed reading about Amnesia was that the relationship of both Alastair and Clemence was splendidly beautiful. It is pretty rare to witness this kind of relationship in a novel. Scotland was imaged well throughout the book. Since this book plays in almost two timelines, I didn't feel like being messed up. I was not confused, and the thrill eventually grew immaculately. <br /><br />The subplots were great. I enjoyed the love drama, the message of love that we are forbidden to fall in love with. The character development was the chef's kiss. I did not feel like putting the book away at all. I just wanted to know what happened in the past. And why did Alastair 'kill' Sophie? The climax and plot twist are well too.<br /><br />If you ever read Verity by CoHo and enjoyed reading that, Amnesia is a definite pick for you as well! This book deserves better hype!<br /><br />4.5 stars

Alistair wakes up in hospital with a head injury and almost total amnesia. He's had a fall and remembers nothing about his life. <br /><br />Young family friend Clemence is sent to take him home and help jog his memory. Then she finds a book, seemingly a novel but it turns out is more autobiographical...the disturbing thing is that there's a murder. The victim? Clemence's grandmother.<br /><br />Is Alistair dangerous? She reads the book to him and together they find out who he is, and what her family's secrets are. <br /><br />This book was a great read. It is told in 2 time frames, the present and in the 1930's to 50's. <br /><br />Alistair is very vulnerable and you can't help but like him. But is he a threat to Clemence once she's read the whole book? Why are her family so fragmented? And how is Alistair connected to her grandmother and family? <br /><br />The description of rural Scotland is beautiful. You feel like you're at Loch Glass and can sense the tension build. I couldn't wait to peel back the layers to get to the heart of the story. You won't be disappointed! <br /><br />I would like to thank Readers First &amp; Bonnier Zaffre for a copy of this book in exchange for an open and honest review.

<i>Scroll down for the English version.</i><br /><br /><b>Storia dall’esito prevedibile, salvata da una trovata alla fine</b><br /><br />Ci tengo subito a dire che la trovata finale non ha nulla a che vedere con la trama. Si tratta di un’idea che mescola finzione e realtà, cosa che apprezzo sempre molto nei romanzi. In questo caso è stata in grado di aumentare il mio giudizio di una stellina.<br />Il romanzo, per i miei gusti, non ne vale più di tre.<br />Ma andiamo per ordine.<br />Il libro si svolge tra due linee temporali. Quella presente vede la giovane protagonista Clémence, che si trova a dover accudire l’ultraottantenne Alastair dopo che quest’ultimo a causa di una caduta ha perso la memoria. Quella al passato è il libro che i due leggono insieme e che racconta alcuni eventi della vita dell’uomo quando era giovane, culminanti nella morte dell’amore della sua vita.<br />La parte al passato è senza dubbio quella migliore di tutto il romanzo. Qui i personaggi prendono vita, anche grazie all’evidente maggiore dimestichezza che l’autore ha nel mostrarli attraverso il punto di vista di un uomo. La storia si dipana tra la Francia, Capri e poi la Scozia, e ogni luogo emerge dalle pagine con tutti i suoi colori, coinvolgendo il lettore e dandogli l’impressione di trovarsi lì.<br />Di contro, la parte al presente sembra scritta da un autore alle prime armi. Il personaggio di Clémence è bidimensionale. Il suo essere esageratamente ingenua e credulona appare irrealistico. I suoi ragionamenti sono a dir poco tirati per i capelli. Nessuna persona arriverebbe a certe conclusioni, su cui poi si basano le sue decisioni, evidentemente mosse dalla necessità di portare la trama in una certa direzione e non dalla logica. L’ambientazione, poi, e il ristretto numero di personaggi, invece di contribuire all’accrescere della suspense e del senso claustrofobico della narrazione, finiscono per mettere in evidenza la debolezza nella caratterizzazione degli stessi personaggi, che appaiono fin troppo banali.<br />In quanto al delitto al centro della storia, per quanto l’autore si sforzi per mandarci fuori strada, in maniera così spudoratamente evidente, questo ha ben poco di misterioso. Basta pensarci su per un attimo e ci si rende conto che solo una persona può essere l’assassino: l’unica che avrebbe ottenuto un vantaggio dalla morte di Sophie. Non ho mai avuto alcun dubbio sulla sua identità e ho trovato il fatto che i personaggi, soprattutto Alastair, non ci avessero neppure per un attimo pensato semplicemente impossibile da accettare.<br />Verso il finale vengono rilevati alcuni dettagli che non erano invece deducibili dal resto e solo per questo motivo devo dire di averlo letto quasi avidamente. La narrazione del precipitare degli eventi fino alla risoluzione, insieme alla trovata finale, salvano il libro, ma solo perché, appunto, si trovano alla fine.<br />Infine, ho trovato un po’ strano che si parlasse di un romanzo nel romanzo, quando, tenendo conto della lunghezza dei capitoli letti dai personaggi (che a loro detta erano tutto il libro), ne esce fuori al massimo una novelette. Sì, capisco le necessità di spazio, ma allora avrebbero fatto meglio a specificare che alcune parti erano state saltate (lette dai personaggi e non riportate, perché non importanti) o che si trattava semplicemente di un racconto lungo.<br />Nel complesso è comunque stata una lettura interessante, se non altro perché nel modo in cui il romanzo è stato strutturato presenta una certa originalità. Mi rendo inoltre conto che si tratta probabilmente di un’opera un po’ affrettata, che l’autore si è divertito a scrivere per sviluppare un’idea che gli era venuta, senza alcuna velleità di dare luogo a un prodotto di elevato livello letterario nell’ambito dei thriller. Ma, tutto sommato, il suo ruolo di divertire, nonostante i difetti, lo svolge egregiamente.<br /><br /><br /><b>Story with a predictable outcome, saved by a smart expedient towards its end</b><br /><br />I immediately want to say that the final expedient has nothing to do with the plot. This is an idea that mixes fiction and reality, which I always appreciate a lot in novels. In this case it was able to increase my rating by one star.<br />The novel, for my taste, is not worth more than three.<br />But let’s proceed in an orderly fashion.<br />The book develops in two timelines. The one set in the present sees the young protagonist Clémence, who finds herself having to look after the eighty-three-year-old Alastair after the latter has lost his memory due to a fall. The one in the past is the book that the two of them are reading together and that tells some events of the man’s life when he was young, culminating in the death of the love of his life.<br />The part in the past is undoubtedly the best part of the whole novel. Here the characters come to life, also thanks to the evident greater familiarity that the author has in showing them through the point of view of a man. The story unfolds between France, Capri and then Scotland, and each place emerges from the pages with all its colours, involving the reader and giving them the impression of being there.<br />In contrast, the part set in the present (which is actually 1999) seems to be written by a novice author. The character of Clémence is two-dimensional. Her being overly naive and gullible appears unrealistic. Her reasoning seems a bit of a stretch to say the least. No person would arrive at certain conclusions, on which their decisions are then based, evidently driven by the need to bring the plot in a certain direction and not by logic. Moreover, the setting and the small number of characters, instead of contributing to the increase of the suspense and the claustrophobic sense of the narrative, end up highlighting the weakness in the characterisation of the same characters, which appear far too banal.<br />As for the crime at the core of the story, as much as the author strives to send us astray, in such a shamelessly obvious way, this has very little mystery. Just think about it for a moment and you realise that only one person can be the murderer: the only one who would gain an advantage from the death of Sophie. I never had any doubts about their identity and I found the fact that the other characters, especially Alastair, didn’t even think about it for a moment simply impossible to accept.<br />Towards the end we find some details that were not deductible from the rest of the plot and only for this reason I must say that I read it almost greedily. The narration of how the events rush to the resolution, together with the above-mentioned final expedient, save the book, but only because, in fact, they are at the end.<br />Finally, I found it a bit strange that they were talking about a novel in the novel, when, taking into account the length of the chapters read by the characters (which they said were the whole book), you can at most end up with a novelette. Yes, I understand the limited space in the book, but then they would have rather specify that some parts had been skipped (read by the characters and not reported, because not important) or that it was simply a long story.<br />Overall, however, it was an interesting read, if only because this novel has a certain originality in the way it was structured. I also realise that it is probably a rather hasty work, which the author enjoyed writing to develop an idea that had come to him, without any fancy of giving rise to a product of high literary level in the scope of thrillers. But, all things considered, despite its faults, it plays very well its entertaining purpose.

This was incredibly good! The whole novel is excellent, well written, the mysteries are expertly interwoven, the characters are amazing. The narrator of the audiobook also does a terrific job.<br /><br />I love books with stories within stories and the way they were presented here was so innovative, I loved, loved, loved it! <br /><br />I specially loved the interaction between Clémence and Alistair. What a lovely pair, and how the characters grow.<br /><br />And that ending...specifically, the very last sentence. Masterpiece!

I found the beginning of this book intriguing as it described the relationship between an elderly gentleman with his young carer extremely well. I don't usually like a novel where the time flicks backwards and forwards between two eras, but this one was so well written that it all fitted in really well. I did find the plot a little complicated and the coincidence of a covered up murder occurring twice in the main character's life rather unbelievable. The descriptions of both characters and the surrounding Scottish landscape were extremely good making them all rather dark. There was a good twist at the end too.

This story intrigued me from the start, and held my interest throughout. I enjoyed the way the narrative used a novel, memories and contemporary events to reveal the story.<br />Clemence seemed wise beyond her years, and the relationship with Alastair was well developed , respectful, to a point, but also showing a young person’s irritation and frustration with the older generation. <br />The descriptions of Scotland in winter are wonderful, and easily imagined., particularly in some of the later scenes in the book.<br />There were a few coincidences which stretched credibility a little, but it has many twists, and even though I thought I had guessed the outcome, Michael Ridpath still had a few tricks up his sleeve! <br />Unsurprisingly, it is a very slick, well written novel and I loved the ending.<br /><br />Thank you ReadersFirst and Corvus for my ARC<br />

3.5 stars. I thought it would shape up to being a lot less predictable than this. Also the memory loss plot is getting overdone. Peter May with Coffin Road did a much better job.