Backstory

At the start of this impressive standalone from Myers (the Philadelphia Legal series), a man regains consciousness after someone repeatedly smashes his head against a wall. He’s in a bar where people know him as Bob, a name unfamiliar to him. Gradually, Bob learns that he’s in Kansas, and that his wife, Helen, a popular schoolteacher, has recently died by suicide from a pill overdose. As he tries to function in a world he doesn’t remember, faking knowledge of his coworkers at a Goodyear tire plant and the nature of his job, Bob becomes convinced that Helen was murdered and that the killer is the same person who recently broke into his apartment. Bob’s search for answers takes him to Philadelphia, where his own secret past, involving crooked cops and possibly his own infidelities and life outside the law, may explain what happened to Helen. Myers immediately creates sympathy for his amnesiac lead’s situation, and the plot races at a breakneck pace toward the surprising conclusion. Cornell Woolrich fans will want to check out this contemporary noir. Agent: Cynthia Manson, Cynthia Manson Literary. (June)