Random Things Tours: Remember My Name by Sam Blake

In life, we never know for sure when we are about to seal our destiny, and other people´s destiny as well. A simple word, or phone call, or a random encounter, or a stupid mistake can put into motion a chain of happy or tragical events. 

It´s what happened when Cressida Howard - indeed, it´s the most unusual name one may encounter in contemporary literature those days, but its origin is explained a bit later in the book ´her name betrayed her parents´ aspirations for grandeur´ - listened to a call instead of turning it off. A simple thing that started a merry-go-round of crimes and blackmail, on the backdrop of betrayal. A cheating husband, but a rich husband, not easy to divorce on your own terms. Thus, the need to use the knowledge of security expert Brioni O´Brien, keen to get into the darkness of Laurence Howard´s online communication and his infidelities, as a husband and a businessman as well.

Remember My Name by Sam Blake is my first crime novel of the year, and only my very busy beginning of the year business prevented me from reading it in one exceptional sitting. The first sharp mysterious sentence is an entincing start for not giving up exploring the maze of betrayal and greediness. The plot follows in small yet fully eventful installments, at a cinematic pace, increasing the suspense and surprise - of the bad kind, anyway - from one episode to the other. By adding a subplot involving the couple´s daughter Emily-Jane, the curiosity of the reader is amplified, creating a welcomed distraction from what that looks like, at least at the beginning, as a story of marital betrayal.

With its mixture of business ambitions and cyber intelligence and bubbling Irish economic opportunities, Remember My Name has strong contemporary roots which make the story even more interesting, especially for readers like me who mostly breath and work in such contexts. 

On the critical part, I´ve found sometimes that the characters do a bit too much of introspection to sound genuine. Also, there are too many background information and explanations in off about various life episodes which may make sometimes the story artificious. 

Starting my crime reading with this book, looks like a good omen for this year. Particularly because this genre is, besides being entertaining and suspenseful, also a meditation on human limits and self-limitations, on the free will and overall, on humans quest for illusions - either power, sex or money, or all of that at once. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own