"Prisoner of Memory is a sentence well served."
Reviewed by Jennifer Vido
Posted March 23, 2006
Mystery Woman Sleuth
When a not-so-plum assignment about roaming mountain lions
lands her smack in the middle of an unexpected murder
case, newspaper reporter Eve Diamond finds herself
embroiled in a mess involving the KGB, the Russian Mafia,
and the FBI. Trying to further her career and land her
story on page one, Eve must induce the elusive Russian
émigrés into revealing their secretive past so that she
can uncover the truth behind the slaying of an innocent
Russian boy. As the crime scene quickly unfolds, it
becomes quite clear that there is more here than meets the
eye. It is not every day that a reporter stumbles upon a
story that could catapult her career to the next level.
Eve Diamond is determined not to let this opportunity slip
through her hands. Unbeknownst to her, Eve's mysterious past plays a central
role in this complicated investigation. When a Russian man
enters her life claiming to be her long lost cousin, Eve
finally believes that she has found the key that will
unlock her family's past. With unanswered questions
whirling around in her mind, Eve is forced to put aside
her own curiosity and concentrate on the media frenzy
surrounding this gruesome murder case. Always the
reporter, Eve's sixth sense kicks into overdrive as she
starts to suspect that perhaps everything is not as black
and white as it may appear. Too many stones are yet
unturned and the suspect list seems to be growing longer
as the days rapidly go by. Eve will stop at nothing to
break this incredulous story.
PRISONER OF MEMORY is the fifth book in Denise Hamilton's
immensely successful Eve Diamond series. Hamilton's latest
action-oriented novel captivates the reader with its
gripping plot twists and suspenseful drama as her lead
character, Eve Diamond, stops at nothing to bring her
victim the truth that is cloaked behind the Iron Curtain.
A former suburban reporter and winner of the Best Book of
2004 by the Los Angeles Times, Hamilton's fans will surely
be pleased.
SUMMARY
While investigating the sighting of a mountain lion in
L.A.'s Griffith Park, Eve comes across the body of a
teenage boy who has been shot to death execution-style.
The son of a Russian émigré scientist, the victim was an
exemplary student with no ties to gangs or drugs. Was his
murder a random act of violence, the result of a teenage
love triangle, or the work of the Russian Mafia? Eve, also
the child of Russian immigrants, feels an instant rapport
with the boy's grief-stricken father, Sasha Lukin, a
cultured old-world gentleman who she senses is not telling
her all he knows about his son's murder. Forced to partner on the story with her newsroom rival,
police reporter Josh Brandywine, whose interest in her
turns disconcertingly personal, Eve uncovers connections
between the victim's family and a fascinating, chameleon-
like FBI agent and a brutal Russian mobster who warns Eve
not to pry into the teenager's death. Complicating Eve's
pursuit of the story is the arrival at her door of a young
Russian man who claims to be her long-lost cousin. Is he
truly a link to the family she thought she'd lost or an
impostor sent by the Russian mob to spy on her? As the violence surrounding the Lukin family escalates to
encompass Eve, and as she moves closer to unraveling the
motives of a brilliant, vengeful killer, Prisoner of
Memory races to a thrilling resolution that holds
surprising personal revelations about Eve herself.
ExcerptChapter 1The mountain lion had marked his territory, powerful claws
shredding the bark of a sturdy oak tree just yards from
where the chaparral gave way to terraced backyards.
Standing on a hiking trail in Griffith Park, I wondered
where the big cat was now and felt a primal twitch of
fear. In the sudden stillness, every sound seemed
amplified: the high, clear voices of children echoing off
the canyon. The agitated bark of a dog. The drunken
buzzing of bees harvesting the last dregs of nectar before
winter settled in for good in Southern California.
Beside me, California Fish and Game tracker Jeff
Knightsbridge fingered the bill of his baseball cap and
cleared his throat. Placing my sharpened pencil against my
notepad, I inhaled the tang of wood shavings and waited.
"He's not after humans," Knightsbridge said. "He's after
the deer. Let me emphasize that, because I don't want to
open my paper tomorrow and see a sensational story about
mountain lions stalking hikers in Griffith Park. Your
average puma goes out of its way to avoid people."
Knightsbridge scuffed a booted toe on the trail, and a
plume of dust rose into the milky light. It had been a
long, scorching autumn in the City of Fallen Angels, but
the heat had eased into a brittle cold as the holidays
approached.
"Can you tell how old those marks are? Or how big he was?"
I asked.
The furrows started ten feet up the trunk. I imagined the
mountain lion rearing up, muscles rippling under tawny
skin, the explosive crackle of dry wood as he put his
weight into it. What such claws might do to human flesh.
From far away, children's cries resounded off the rock
escarpments. Bees droned, an atavistic murmur from the
hive-mind.
Knightsbridge ran his hand along the defiled trunk. The
deep scratches exposed the pale fibrous innards of the
tree, its amber tears.
He shrugged. "Three days, give or take."
Lifting his chin, he scanned the brush. "Can you smell
that?"
"What?" Looking up at the sky, where charcoal clouds were
swiftly overtaking the blue, I wondered if he meant rain.
As a hopeless city slicker, I'd benefit from a wilderness
survival course that taught me to sniff out a storm and
navigate by the North Star. But in my line of work, a
martial arts class in self-defense was way more practical.
I was a journalist for the Los Angeles Times and this was
my first day as a downtown Metro reporter. But instead of
a juicy investigation, I'd drawn mountain lion patrol
after commuters spotted a big cat grooming himself under
the snowflakes and candy cane decorations of Hillcrest
Avenue, where the asphalt met the urban wilderness of
Griffith Park. In a city bedeviled by crime and
corruption, distraction was a drug and now everyone was
breathlessly fixated on a 160-pound feline. And I wasn't
about to leave Griffith Park without a killer story.
"Not rain." Knightsbridge wrinkled his nose. "Like meat
that's gone bad. I caught it again just now on the wind.
Over there."
I turned in the direction of his outstretched finger and
took a deep breath. Through the dust we had kicked up,
beyond the resinous scent of anise and sage, I thought I
detected it, a faint, sweet charnel house smell.
"If it killed recently," Knightsbridge was saying, "the
puma will hang around. And it will perceive anything that
gets too close as threatening its meal." His hand went to
the gun at his waist. "C'mon."
He set off through the scrub, and I scrambled to follow.
The buzzing grew louder. I paused, shrank back. There must
have been a hive nearby.
Looking down, I saw the San Fernando Valley sprawl,
arteries already starting to clog with afternoon traffic,
commuters getting a jump-start on their holiday shopping.
A thin layer of brown haze blanketed everything. Winter
often brought the clearest light. But not today.
Knightsbridge had stopped too. He sniffed the air like a
bloodhound. In the distance, a black cloud rose and swayed
off the trail. The angry humming grew louder. I grabbed
his arm.
"Are those...bees?"
"No," he said, his voice taking on an urgency I didn't
like.
Knightsbridge set off for the cloud, with me tagging
reluctantly behind.
He disappeared around a bend. Then came a disembodied
shout. He came staggering back, face white, bandanna
clasped to his mouth.
"What?"
But he only fumbled for a radio at his belt.
"Cat didn't do this," he said, his face a rictus of
disbelief.
I pushed past him. I didn't care about getting stung
anymore. The smell of decomposing flesh grew stronger.
As I rounded the bend, what I saw made me avert my eyes
and breathe through my mouth, but it was too late, the
stench already seeping into my lungs. A body lay facedown
at the edge of the dirt trail. A black cloud of flies
hovered, swaying and rippling with each breeze. I couldn't
look. I couldn't not look. Tearing my eyes away, I focused
on the dirt trail and tried not to hyperventilate. Among
the rocks and footprints and tread marks from mountain
bikes, a bullet casing twinkled in the afternoon light. * * * A wave of nausea swept over me, and I bent to retch, but
only dry-heaved.
It was the flies that put me over. That revolting black
mass swarming over the head and nearby ground, dark where
something had spilled and dried.
But even in my sorry state, I recognized that
Knightsbridge was right. Mountain lions don't leave bullet
casings behind.
I could hear him panting into the radio, announcing his
coordinates, then a mumbled, "Oh Jesus, hold on," and a
roar as churning liquid splattered. Then as he recovered,
the matter-of-fact recitation.
"Griffith Park. Off the horse trail, on the Valley side. A
half mile up the trailhead. Yeah. Don't worry, I'm not
going anywhere."
Notepad still in hand, I steeled myself to look at the
corpse. It's odd how the brain absorbs death in layers. At
first I had seen an indistinct shape, my mind fastened in
primal disgust on the flies. The second time I'd noted the
darker stains on the ground, the bullet glinting like a
malevolent jewel. Now I threw a rock, dislodging the
flies, and took in the scene methodically.
Long, baggy beige cargo shorts, exposing tanned legs with
golden hairs. Thin but muscular calves. A red, long-sleeve
T-shirt with fancy lettering that said Val Surf. The body
was scrunched where it had fallen. I saw a clunky metallic
watch around one wrist. Short blond curls matted with
dried black blood. Skin soft, hairs barely sprouting on
his chin. Maybe seventeen.
I wrote it down. Knightsbridge hitched the radio back onto
his belt and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt.
Despite the cool air, sweat beaded his temples.
"Whoo," Knightsbridge said, flapping his arms. "Seen
plenty of dead animals in my day. Do the autopsy, then
head off for lunch. Never blink an eye. But this..." His
hand twitched near his throat and he hunched his
shoulders. I thought he might be getting ready to heave
again. He took two shallow breaths, straightened. "Never
seen a dead person before. Not used to it."
"You don't get used to it," I said, unable to resist the
impulse to look around and make sure there was nobody
crouched behind a rock or bush, pointing a gun at us. Some
bozo out hunting human prey. In the Los Angeles hills, you
had more to fear from two-legged predators than those on
four.
"Homicide," Knightsbridge said.
I looked at the body on the ground. "How can you rule out
suicide?"
"You see a gun?"
I looked around. Unless the kid had fallen on it,
Knightsbridge was right.
The Fish and Game man again put his bandanna to his mouth
and hiked closer. The flies lifted, hovered. He unzipped
the boy's fanny pack and bent over it.
"Um, I don't think you're supposed to do that."
But I held my pencil ready just in case.
Do it.
"Oh." A disappointed pause. "I guess you're right." He
straightened, backed away. "I just thought I'd call in his
ID if I found any."
I shrugged. "Won't do him much good now."
"Somewhere he's got family. Parents. They'll be in shock."
"Who do you think he is?" I said.
Knightsbridge hiked to the edge of the hillside and looked
down.
"We're about to find out," he said. "Here they come." A woman and three men picked their way carefully along the
trail. They hauled a stretcher, metal boxes, cameras and
lights, enough to shoot a film. Two of them were armed.
One wore a red Santa hat.
I walked over to Knightsbridge and we stood at attention.
The crew fanned around the perimeter, marking off
quadrants, putting up yellow tape, squatting low to the
ground.
"Bullet casing over there," I said, indicating the
chapparal, but Santa's helper was already bagging it. With
its jaunty pom-pom, the man's hat seemed disrespectful,
but I guess when you work around death all day, it's
important to keep your spirits up.
"Hope we didn't mess up the scene too much," Knightsbridge
called out.
An LAPD honcho walked up, squinting against the winter
glare. I got the feeling he was sizing us up.
"Touch anything?" he said.
"Not me," I said.
Knightsbridge introduced us, told the cop how we had come
across the body.
The cop turned to me, wrinkling his nose as though he had
just smelled something worse than the body. "Media, huh?
Go give your statement to Jones over there," he said,
pointing to a uniformed officer. "Then you'll have to
leave."
I told Knightsbridge we could continue the tour another
day and he bobbed his shaggy head in agreement.
For the next ten minutes, I answered questions about how
we came across the body. The policeman said forensics
would call if they needed an imprint of my hiking-boot
sole and that I was now free to go. He went off ...
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