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Early Review: Memory Zero by Keri Arthur (Spook Squad #1)

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Memory Zero by Keri Arthur // VBC ReviewMemory Zero (Spook Squad #1)
Keri Arthur
Published: Aug. 26, 2014 (Dell)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Samantha Ryan has no memory prior to the age of 14. She’s spent her entire life trying to find out what happened to her and who her parents are. For the most part it’s been a fruitless endeavor.

Being a cop lends Sam access to many files not open to the public, but her search is put on hold when, weeks after disappearing, her partner of five years suddenly shows up again, albeit changed into a vampire. Sam’s faced with the possibility that maybe she doesn’t know her friend as well as she thought, and if that’s the case then how much of the life she’s built can she trust? When she’s accused of murder and suspended from the force, her only means of help is from the secretive Gabriel Stern.

Gabriel has ties to an organization trying to keep an all-out war from happening between humans and supernaturals. He sees Sam’s connection with her partner as a possible lead he can use, but he has to keep the intriguing cop at arm’s length. He’s lost partners, in all sense of the word, while on the job before and he’s not willing to go down that path again. Then there’s the matter that he doesn’t actually know how much he can trust Sam. They’re both going to have to decide what to believe in order to prevent catastrophe.

Memory Zero continues Keri Arthurs re-releases of her back catalog, and it is by far the best of the bunch so far. There are still minor echoes of some of the things that made her earlier writing seem a little stilted, but mainly Memory Zero showcases the style that Arthur exhibits in her later, and most recent, works.

I was immediately drawn into the story. Sam, having been a detective for 10 years, is a little wary when her partner contacts her out-of-the-blue after having disappeared. And so, Arthur draws readers in setting up the mystery of what exactly her partner is involved in and how much of Sam’s life has been a farce.

Memory Zero is told in alternating points of view between Gabriel and Sam, which I both liked and didn’t like. Obviously in getting both sides of their story and their thoughts and feelings we know their true intentions, which I always like. This fact, though, made it difficult to buy the whole ‘distrust’ issue posed between because we know their true intentions. I just found any suspicion between them a little unnecessary.

What I extremely liked in Memory Zero was the spark between Gabriel and Sam. Let’s face it, even in the face of distrust there can be attraction, and attraction is certainly acknowledged on both sides. Arthur plays it very well in that nothing happens between our hero and heroine, but she certainly lets us know of the promise and possibility of something happening. That more than anything else, even the lingering questions about Sam’s past, will get me to read the next book Generation 18.

Memory Zero has all the makings of a good police proceduralwhich is a genre Im finding myself more and more interested in readingbut with Arthurs signature vampires, shifters, etc. thrown into the mix. You can’t go wrong with that combination.

Sexual content: None

One Response to “Early Review: Memory Zero by Keri Arthur (Spook Squad #1)”

  1. Jill says:

    ohhh this sounds awesome!

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