All Is Not Forgotten

May 30, 2016
In Walker’s novel, a controversial mind-altering drug erases a rape from teenager Jenny Kramer’s memory. Her parents, Tom and Charlotte, consider it a kindness when the drug works. But Jenny is stuck with damage to her body and a sense of fear and unease that, to her, have no cause. Dr. Alan Forrester, the story’s narrator, is a psychiatrist who eventually treats Jenny and others connected to the rape. The doctor’s approach to the story is professional and clinical, interrupted by his views on psychopharmacology; the book is more case history than thriller (except for certain sequences). Actor Baker has no trouble presenting most of this tale of rape and its aftermath in a voice as bloodlessly objective as the author intended. He does display emotion when necessary—­­such as when depicting Charlotte’s close-minded denial, Tom’s obsession with finding the rapist, and Jenny’s tragic decline as she searches for an explanation her increasing trauma. A St. Martin’s hardcover.

Starred review from May 16, 2016
The rape of 15-year-old Jenny Kramer in the well-to-do town of Fairview, Conn., propels this exceptional psychological thriller from Walker (Social Lives). The masked rapist wore a condom and was careful to leave no forensic evidence at the spot in the woods where he attacked Jenny after she wandered away from a party attended by nearly everyone in the 10th grade at Fairview High. Jenny’s parents, Charlotte and Tom, have vastly different reactions to this horrible assault on their daughter. Charlotte worries about her social standing, while Tom wants vengeance. When a doctor suggests a medication that will erase Jenny’s memory of the attack, Charlotte immediately agrees. As her parents grapple with their own emotional responses, they ignore Jenny’s pain. Alan Forrester, the family’s psychiatrist, provides the nonjudgmental, almost clinical narration. Forrester only wants to help the Kramers, but as Jenny’s treatment continues, he fears that the investigation will implicate someone close to him. While secret after secret about the residents of Fairview add to the suspense, Forrester’s secrets may be the most stunning of all. 250,000-copy first printing. Agent: Wendy Sherman, Wendy Sherman Associates Literary Management.

Narrator Dylan Baker affects an emotionally detached tone for Walker's new novel. This may seem an unusual choice, given the dramatic depiction of sexual assault that is at the heart of the story. But Baker uses a distant manner to build tension and take the listener inside the attack. As Walker's character, Jenny Kramer, recovers physically from being raped, she's given a controversial drug to wipe the assault from her memory. Baker's deliberate pacing reflects the ambiguity that results. The event itself is gone from Jenny's mind. But can its emotional effects really be wiped clean--just like that? And what might such an open psychic wound do to a young woman as she goes on with her life? R.O. Winner of AudioFIle Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine