Amos was a standout college football player at THE Ohio State University (Go Bucks!) and his big time opportunity came with the Cleveland Browns (Go Browns!). On the first play of his NFL career he was brutally injured, not only ending his career, but changing his life forever. From that day forward he couldn’t forget anything, total recall of every moment of his life that he could flip through like a photo album anytime he wanted. This was the case when he went home one night after his shift as a police detective and found his wife, daughter and brother-in-law murdered in his home. The case wasn’t solved and Amos lost his way and ended up living in a dive hotel. That’s where we first meet Amos, at the hotel buffet.

Amos is one of those quirky, damaged characters that is also agenius that I always seem to like. Maybe it’s because at his core he’s just a good person who wants todo what’s right. Because of his remarkable mental abilities (called hyperthymesia) he is able to see things that other people miss. I’ve liked the secondary characters, especially Alex, Melvin, and now Freddie and the love they’ve shown to the sometimes hard-to-take Decker. The mysteries themselves are out there, but not so ridiculous that you can’t appreciate them.

In the latest book, Long Shadows, he gets a new FBI partner, listens to his first partner commit suicide, and also some concerning news about his health. I don’t know what the future will hold for Amos, but I’m excited about how many interesting changes there were in this 7th installment.

Read if you like – Smart but grouchy detectives, tragic backstories, well plotted mysteries, character growth.

The series linked to my thoughts about each book.

#1 Memory Man

#2 The Last Mile

#3 The Fix

#4 The Fallen

#5 Redemption

#6 Walk the Wire

#7 Long Shadows

I just finished Long Shadows this week (9/23) and will update this post as more books are published in this ongoing series.

Any other Amos Decker fans out there?