A missing document can be searched for. A witness can be questioned. But what happens when the person looking for answers cannot remember the part of her own life that might explain them?
That is the uncertainty at the center of Forgotten Secret. Clara Khoury has spent two decades living with gaps in her memory. She has a family and a life in the present, even though important pieces of her past remain out of reach.
A discovery she cannot leave alone
When a young woman’s remains are found, the discovery triggers something in Clara and draws her into an investigation. As a magazine writer, she knows the importance of asking questions. This time, some of the questions are about herself.
The danger reaches her family. Her husband is framed, and their daughter is abducted. Clara needs to uncover what happened, with far more at stake than satisfying her own curiosity.
The reader has to live with the gaps, too
A memory mystery asks readers to be patient with uncertainty. We want to know what the character knows, but we also need to understand what she cannot yet tell us. A missing recollection can change the meaning of something that seemed settled a few pages earlier.
What interests me about Clara is the life she has built during those missing years. The past matters because she has people to protect now. Learning the truth could help her, but getting there puts the present she values at risk.
I will leave the answers in the novel. If that kind of suspense appeals to you, take a look at Forgotten Secret, part of the Mirror Estate series.
When you read a mystery involving lost memories, do you try to fill in the gaps yourself, or wait for the character to remember?