Synopses & Reviews
Nick Petrov was a world-famous private investigator until a brain trauma destroyed part of his memory and changed who he is forever.
Now a killer is on the loose, looming up from a past that Nick can no longer remember.
Review
"Abraham draws extra tension from dicey scenes that put the reader two steps ahead of the oblivious Nick....Abrahams creates palpable empathy for the bruised Nick, and his pitch-perfect prose is a joy." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[A] first-rate thriller....[M]arvelous...a novel that is at once classically suspenseful and completely fresh....[A] twisty, ingenious horror story... (Grade: A)" Entertainment Weekly
Review
"Unforgetable...Oblivion is composed in spare yet often poetic prose...a new thriller from an unheralded master of suspense." New Yorker
Review
"Stunning...so natural and easy that not enough people recognize the effort and talent at work in his books." Chicago Tribune
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"Oblivion is so circuitously plotted that the reader's memory gets as much of a workout as Nick's does." New York Times
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"Oblivion is full of funny, touching and alarming surprises. A reader is never sure what this book's quirky characters might say or see or do." Los Angeles Times
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"[D]ynamite...there is no one writing today who does it any better. A+." Michael Palmer, bestselling author of The Society
Review
"A spare, ironic, and pulse-pounding tale that I couldn't stop reading." Joseph Finder, author of Paranoia
Review
"The mystery in this novel is garden-variety stuff, and you have to wonder how many pulp-seeking readers will even notice the elegant, low-key artistry of what Abrahams has achieved in the writing. But it's there, all right, like all clues Nick missed before cancer flipped a switch in his brain. Abrahams has as good a shot as anyone at bringing back detective fiction where the wordplay counts as much as the gunplay." Laura Miller, Salon.com (read the entire Salon.com review)
Synopsis
Blending evocative imagery with psychological complexity, Oblivion is a dark, disturbing story of identity and memory from the acclaimed author of The Tutor and The Fan.
Synopsis
What determines your identity? Is it the clothes you wear? The way other people treat you? The stories, anecdotes and experiences you have stored in your memory? When Nick Petrov wakes up in a hospital room, his clothes are two sizes too big. Everyone treats him like a victim. And he can't remember how he got there in the first place.
Nick Petrov is a brilliant private investigator with a reputation for bringing missing children safely home. Launched to tabloid stardom when he apprehended a brutal serial killer named Gerald Reasoner, Petrov has become something of a celebrity. When a woman approaches him, begging him to use his unique gifts to find her missing daughter, Petrov's instincts sound an alarm. He senses that she's concealing something. But is she lying to get Petrov's help or to set him up? Three days later, just as he has amassed all the answers he needs to close the case, they are swept away into oblivion.
Petrov awakes in a hospital bed, his memory of the past two weeks a complete blank, his personality altered. He is tempted to just put the trauma behind him and move on with his life, but there are too many things holding him back. When he returns home, he discovers a photograph full of strangers. In his office is a greeting card with a cryptic message inside, both the receiver and the sender completely unknown. His bank account has been augmented by a $450 check from a woman he can't remember. All of it points to a case he cannot recall.
Digging for answers when he doesn't even know the questions, Petrov begins to fear he is searching for the most elusive quarry he has ever hunted: himself. Uncomfortable truths about his past rise up from this hauntinginvestigation, truths that force him to reinterpret the events of the notorious Reasoner case from years before. But the closer Petrov comes to solving the mystery, the more likely it seems that the monster he's looking for is staring back at him in the mirror.
About the Author
Peter Abrahams is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five books, including the Edgar Award-winning Reality Check, Bullet Point, and the Echo Falls series for middle graders. Writing as Spencer Quinn, he is also the author of the Chet and Bernie series—Dog on It, Thereby Hangs a Tail, and To Fetch a Thief. He and his wife live in Massachusetts with their dog, Audrey.