Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I am the author of this book and I am leaving this review solely for the purpose of maintaining a positive review ratio on this site.

This was a real edge of your seat thriller, with so many twists and turns, you wont know which way is up! Fantastic and gripping read! Lisa Gray is one of my favorites for this reason!

A gripping read. Enjoyed it a lot. I liked Jessica's character and would love to see more of her in the future.

This is the second book in the Jessica Shaw series, and though I haven't read the first book, it still reads nicely as a standalone. I do however think there is some threads I need to revisit in the first book. It was well written and I can't wait to see what Jessica does in the next book!

Someone doesn't want Jessica Shaw to find the truth about a 30 year old double murder. That doesn't stop her. though. It's a good read that isn't quite as twisty as I'd hoped but is nonetheless entertaining. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

So this book took me a little longer than I hoped, I found that it was because the story was quite slow in the middle. This may be that the story fluctuates between different characters and it gets a bit overwhelmingif you don't keep up... it starts off really well and I felt like I had to keep reading, HOWEVER the twists in this book were like so shocking!!

I flew through the last 30% of this book in just over an hour. It was so good!

I only gave 3 stars because although it was a pretty good read, I felt it was a bit slow in places and didn't keep my interest. I'm glad I finished it though it was well worth reading in the end!

Not a book I would tell my friends to read but still quite enjoyable.
Strong female character trying to save the life of someone on Death Row, a few twists and turns but nothing memorable.

Good, solidly plotted mystery with good pacing. There's a nice mix of characters and motives and I enjoy the way the tangentially related cases came together. It didn't have me on the edge of my seat, desperate for answers, but it was a diverting couple of evenings in my arm chair. I would be interested in reading more from this author/series and would recommend to lovers of detective fiction.

Thank you Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley for this book
This was the first book I have read by Lisa Gray and it won't be the last, although I didn't realise this one was in a series.
A good story which kept moving but I did find at times some of it annoying when the character of Rue I thought intentionally kept forgetting things.
The story kept me gripped but was a little predictable in places but the end was ok,.

Well written, well developed storyline, good pace, interesting from start to finish.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the access to this book. This is my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This is one intense, twisted, dark and addictive novel! Not only is this a very well-written book with wonderfully-interesting characters, but the suspense builds at just the right pace as the story unfolds. Compulsive, gripping and horrifying! Will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Leading a quiet life working low-level cases in a Californian desert community, private investigator Jessica Shaw can't resist when a death row inmate, Rue Hunter's sister asks Jessica for help. Rue doesn't remember what happened that night 30 years ago when her 2 best friends at high school were killed. Rue confessed at the time, but now she feels doubtful of her memories.

I'm a big fan of detective/police procedural books and this one was very good. The story was thrilling and the characters were intriguing. The only negative I found was the multiple POVs. I'm not a fan of multiple POVs. Overall, a very enjoyable and satisfying read.

Bad Memory is book 2 of the Jessica Shaw series. I'm reading this author for the first time, but I didn't have any issues with not starting the series with the 1st book. I give this book 4.5 stars. Thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Interesting book with lots of twists and turns keeping you reading till the end. The main character private investigator was like a dog with a bone.

This is the second novel in a series that features Jessica Shaw.

Rue Hunter is in prison for double murder. She is due to be executed in a week. Her sister Rose hires Private Detective Jessica Shaw to investigate the crime that happened thirty years ago. Rue was charged with killing her best friend and her boyfriend. But Rue can't remember killing them.

This was an excellent mystery. The author drops enough clues throughout the book to keep you guessing. I love a book told from different points of view. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of the book for an honest review.

I just want to clarify that I started reading Bad Memory 6 months ago, and due to life getting in the way, I have only just picked it up again and finished it. Because of this, my review might not be quite as detailed as I’d like.
However, my fear when I started to continue this story was that I’d have forgotten what I’d read, but that wasn’t the case - I picked up where I left off so easily, and that’s down to it being such a gripping and brilliantly written plot.

There are some fantastic twists throughout the second half of this book. I didn’t see any of them coming.
I was satisfied with how all the loose ends were tied up, and really enjoyed how the story really came together and had a much more pleasing ending than I expected.

This was the first book I had read by author Lisa Gray, but I will definitely look out for her other work.
Fantastic read - thank you.

Bad Memory is the second installment in the Jessica Shaw series by Lisa Gray. Jessica is a PI working in the small desert town, Hundred Acres, in California. She works for a small PI office for Ed Crozier, the town Pi who has been working forever, and the firm does mostly small jobs like missing persons and unfaithful spouses. However, Rose Dalton, sister of Rue Hunter comes to Jessica to ask her to find out if her sister really committed two gruesome murders 30 years prior. At the time of the murders, Rue confessed to the murders of her two best friends after hours of pressure from local detectives – she had been on drugs and drunk to the point that she couldn’t remember what happened that night. She has now spent 30 years in prison. Her execution is scheduled to take place in a matter of days, and Jessica cannot turn down the money offered to look into the case. Everyone in the small town is sure Rue is guilty, and friends of Jessica, including her mentor Jason Pryce, a well-respected detective, are furious that she would take the case.

As Jessica investigates, she opens up town secrets that have been covered up or forgotten. Her life is now in danger, and she must be careful. While Rue has nightmares from the past, her nightmares don’t give definitive answers. Like a good thriller, there are plenty of twists and turns, as well as a surprising dénouement. Suspense starts to build in the prologue and continues throughout the novel.

Gray is a good writer and the story is fascinating; this story will keep readers on the edges of their seats. She is also good at developing her characters. Most readers, however, want a protagonist that they can look up to – one that is upstanding, albeit a rule breaker and risk taker when necessary, and one that can do a little more than most regular people. While Jessica is an excellent PI, she is basically trailer trash. She drinks a lot (actually every day and spends a lot of time in bars), smokes cigarettes, and has a full sleeve tattoo on her right arm, as well as piercings. This is not the type of hero most readers want. She also uses a lot of profanity.

This is a series, but most readers may not want to read the subsequent novels because it’s hard to relate to or like someone who is so different from most of us. Readers who like a good story and aren’t bothered by a classless protagonist with a dirty mouth may enjoy this book as well as the entire series.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Second book I’ve read by Lisa Gray and I really enjoyed it. Love whodunnit/mystery books like this. Kept me guessing until the end. I love how fast paced it was and then how it just exploded at the end. A must read if you like anything with twists and turns.

I’m not sure why I took a chance on this second book in the series when I found the first one rather blah. I guess I hoped there would be improvements to pacing and structure and character development, but unfortunately this one was even worse than the first. I struggled through it and generally found all of the characters to be unlikeable, the dialogue unrealistic, and the plot flimsy. There were several points where a keen-eyed editor was needed including typos and one bizarre reference to “prohibition looming” which doesn’t even make any sense because the book takes place in the United States and bounces back and forth between the late 1980s and present day, both of which are incredibly far removed from Prohibition, which occurred 1920-1933. There were also a couple instances where something involving government procedure did not happen at all realistically and one of the characters would say something along the lines of, “even though it usually takes weeks to process the paperwork, I had it the next day.” Haha, what. Okay. Little things like that really threw me right out of the story and made me question the book, the author, and my own sanity. (Though, to be fair, I was reading an ARC, so it’s possible some of the issues I saw were fixed before final publication.) Even if some of these issues got fixed in the final version, it was still a slog to get through.

I decided to read this book because I loved the first Jessica Shaw book, Thin Air. I felt the different POVs added to the story. I would recommend this book and the other Jessica Shaw stories. I will now look for more by Lisa Gray.