THE LAST THING I REMEMBER by Andrew Klavan

Think YA version of The Fugitive meets post 9/11 terrorism.

Charlie wakes up in a room he doesn't recognized, tied to a chair, hearing voices saying they are about to kill him and all he knows is he has to get out. It seems the last day he remembers is about a year ago when everything was normal and all he had to worry about was getting the most popular girl in school to notice him and doing a presentation of his Black Belt in Karate for assembly. But things aren't normal anymore.

At first, Charlie doesn't even realize that it's been a year, he thinks his last memory happened the day before. But he is more worried about getting away from the men who are about to kill him. When he finally finds someone to help him, they turn him into the police where he discovers it's been a year and he's been convicted of his best friends' murder. Charlie is also plagued my names and snippets of conversations he picked up from the men who's been holding him. He realizes that the Secretary of Homeland Security on his way to meet with the President, is the target of homegrown terrorists and Charlie is the only one who is privy to this information. He must get away from the police taking him back to prison and stop the attack. But when he does, he's mistaken for one of the terrorists and is back on the run.

Now he only has one name, whispered to him by someone he didn't see, telling him he was a better man than he knew and to find Waterman.

It was an interesting and fast read. There are definite moments when you are reading at breakneck speed trying to get to a part that well explain why this good, All-American kid seems to be in so much trouble and why he doesn't remember anything that's happened to him and how he went from an ordinary life to such crazy circumstances.

The chapters alternate between what's currently happening to Charlie and what happened on the last day he remembers. the moments of his last day of normalcy are so boring, I found them hard to read. But the juxtaposition between that day and what's happening now are so drastically different, they do help to propel the story forward. Although God and country aren't beaten over your head, it's clear that this is a Christian novel, which always puts me off a little. I like things like that to be a little more organic and subtle.