Memory Closet (Modern Contemporary Fiction) - Softcover

Ninie Hammon

4.15

2,556 ratings by Goodreads

9780979903533: Memory Closet (Modern Contemporary Fiction)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 097990353X ISBN 13: 9780979903533

Publisher: Bay Forest Books, 2010

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What really happened to Laughs in the Wind? When Anne Mitchell was 11 years old, something happened to her that erased the whole first decade of her life. Twenty-five years later, she has come home to re-claim her past. Oh, she gets it. She understands that something profoundly evil lurks in the swirling purple haze of her amnesia. Fear of facing that secret held her hostage for a quarter of a century. Like a schoolyard bully, it twisted her arm behind her back and forced her to accept that her life began in the dirt beside the ditch where the family station wagon burned like hell had opened up a crack in the world right there in the back seat. For 25 years, she was enslaved by what she called the "Boogie Man"-- images from her lost childhood that appeared in the shadows behind her reflection in mirrors and wine glasses, haunted her dreams and attacked her in screaming night terrors. Then the monster shattered her career. And Anne saw him in her dying mother's eyes. With her last breath, Susan Mitchell begged for her daughter's forgiveness. She didn't mean for it to happen, she gasped, but she'll burn in hell for what she did all the same. What did her mother do? Anne has to know. So she has come home to a small Texas prairie town to live with her crazy grandmother in the rambling old house where she grew up to take her stand against the Boogie Man. But Anne isn't really prepared for how expensive remembering might be. The cost of her memories could very well be her sanity. Each new revelation loosens Anne's grip on reality. Surely her crazy grandmother didn't do THAT to Anne's beloved parakeet Petey! Yes, the old woman DID! No ... actually, she didn't. The mystery of the mantle clock with a broken/unbroken face. The horror that attacks her in the garage--it can't possibly be real...can it? And most important: what REALLY happened to the little girl with a face like a china doll whose name was Laughs in the Wind? The Boogie Man knows. He also knows Anne's here. He knows it's showtime. And he knows what she doesn't--that Anne might very well have to pay for her past with her future, that the cost of remembering could be her life. Ordinary READERS praise The Memory Closet(Goodreads and Amazon.com)

Hammon writes stories full of empathy, raw honesty and grace. Her characters are memorable, the dialogue believable. No Ninie Hammon book allows you to coast through without being changed. Bestselling author Eric Wilson, Top 100 Amazon Reviewer
A psychological suspense story with a female protagonist who has amnesia. That's the premise of this women's fiction. It's about what happened that erased Anne Mitchell's past. But what remembering might mean to her future remains a mystery. Thrillers and suspense lovers will gobble this novel up. The tension in it winds tighter than a watch spring. Sarah Bridges
Just when you think you know what's going on (just like Anne) WHAM, there's something more to it. The story unfolds like a graceful origami animal that sinks it's teeth in and doesn't let go. Loretta Lynn
Riveting riveting riveting, page turner- all the cliches- but they're true. Ninie Hammon's ability to weave that magic carpet threaded with emotion, suspense and hope is second to none. Look out Dean Koontz, you have a serious rival! Karen Pillay
Ninie Hammon is fast becoming my favorite mystery, thrillers and suspense author. She weaves a magnificent tale in the Memory Closet, a crime fiction story about a woman with amnesia, that tangles the reader up in a web of psychological suspense. The female protagonist Anne Mitchell remembers nothing before age 11 and is determined to find her past. A fiction story based on a real crime, this novel's plot twists and turns until you're dizzy. If you think you've guessed the ending, you're wrong. B.J. Frye

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From the Author:

I dedicated this novel to two real children because the contemporary suspense story told in The Memory Closet isn't totally fiction. It was sparked by the abduction of a 4-year-old Kentucky child years ago.
"This book is dedicated to a little girl with haunting eyes who vanished from her home in Ft. Knox, Kentucky and was never seen again. And to another little girl who saw it all, and who went to police when she grew up with the shocking story of what really happened to her little sister."
I remember the abducted little girl's picture in the newspaper. The picture and the mystery of what happened in that house haunted me. And years later, I was sickened when the child's older sister--by then a teenager--told police the family secrets, described what really happened to her little sister. This novel is NOT the story of what happened to that little girl. But that sad event was the seed from which this novel grew.

From the Inside Flap:

Mama's bony fingers gripped my arm so tight her fingernails dug into my flesh like an eagle's talons.
"Sweet Annie, I never meant for it to happen. I swear before God I didn't intend to ... I wouldn't have ..." The little burst of emotion-fueled energy flamed out and her grip loosened. Her hand dropped to the sheet and her words were soft, a whisper on a breath. "I didn't mean to, I swear." Another wheezing gasp. "But I'm going to burn in hell for it just the same!" She closed her eyes. "Mama? Mama!" She didn't answer. Either couldn't or wouldn't. I think maybe she'd just said everything she had to say. Before sunup, she was dead.

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