Blackout

February 27, 2006
False memory, an interesting if overly familiar plot device, forms the basis for the latest romantic thriller by Solomon (Blind Curve
), an enticing read that shamelessly plants The Bourne Identity
in the fertile soil of the current War on Terror. Margo Scott, owner of a small Washington, D.C., bookstore, awakens to find she can't remember the last month of her life. Worse, that same day she's questioned in the murder of Frank Temple, the deputy director of Washington's elite Terrorism Control Force, a man she swears she's never met. Soon Margo realizes she has no evidence of the normal life she knows—no photos, no contacts in her PDA—while evidence of a life she has no recollection of piles up, including her expert combat skills and a government tail named Jack Wise. With a suspicious Jack at her side, she must find out how and why her memories were falsified, who murdered Temple and what happened during her lost month. Solomon takes her time getting to the heart of the story, but once the action kicks in the pace picks up considerably. Despite a forced romance between Margo and Jack (standard-issue bickering included), Solomon's latest is twisty and diverting, with well-written action sequences and a winning lead.