The Forgotten Girl

Collins provides an entertaining reading of Youers’s supernatural thriller. The book begins as Harvey Anderson, a 26-year-old street performer who lives and works in New Jersey, receives a vicious beating from a group of thugs who are looking for his girlfriend, Sally Starling. The problem is Harvey has no recollection of anyone with that name. He soon learns that Sally has the ability to erase people’s memories and has deleted herself from Harvey’s mind, despite their intense relationship and love for each other. As Harvey goes looking for the mysterious Sally, he is trailed by a powerful politician who is seeking revenge against Sally for a past betrayal that left his own memories expunged. Collins, with his animated reading, keeps the story moving at a brisk clip. However, while his spirited reading of Harvey’s first-person narration is clean, articulate, and fitting for the story’s action scenes, the more intimate and emotional moments between the characters, especially Harvey and Sally, are too often overrun. A St. Martin’s/Dunne hardcover. (June)