By Rio Youers

Titan, out now

Memories can sometimes be painful – but the lack of them is worse…

I’m quite certain that there are very few people reading this (if anyone) who hasn’t experienced the pain of a bad break up with a significant other – whether it’s that first teen love that burns too brightly to survive, or a long relationship that just somehow is not meant to be. And I doubt that there are many people who, in the first flush of that break up, haven’t wished that they could forget all about the person who’s caused that pain. But what if that person was able to remove themselves from your memory completely? And worse, what if your life was on the line because of what they did?

That’s the situation facing Harvey in Rio Youers’ gripping new novel. We’re thrown in, just as Harvey is, into what seems to be a completely random attack, an obvious case of mistaken identity that is actually anything but – and from there things just escalate in strangeness as someone who exudes evil asks him questions that simply don’t make sense. Until they do.

That’s hopefully as much of the scenario as you need to know to be intrigued by the story, and suffice it to say that Youers doesn’t let his grip on you fade from first to last page, with plenty of twists and turns alongside beats of frenetic action. The story is told in the first person, from Harvey’s perspective, and Youers negotiates the inherent problems with that skilfully – you never feel as if you’re getting back stories infodumped on you, but equally you’re never left without relevant information, unless it’s important that Harvey lacks that knowledge also.

It’s a story about memory and how and why that’s important to us, but it’s also a tale about the power of love and all that we’ll do for it – and its twisted mirror, an all-abiding hatred that links people just as strongly. There are some real eccentrics in here who could easily have descended into caricature, but never do – reminding me a lot of some of Robert McCammon’s stories from the early 1990s (notably Mine in terms of its realistic depictions of almost everyday evil) – but it’s Harvey and Sally, the girl who he loved and lost more than anyone has ever lost before, who you’ll remember.

Verdict: A dark and twisted tale told with great style. 9/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order The Forgotten Girl from Amazon.co.uk