Recollection

If you had a flawless memory, how far would you go to forget all the terrible things that happened…

When every unforgivable thing you’ve seen and done is seared into your mind, on constant replay?

Washington D.C. radio talk show host Jeremy Peoples is cueing up the broadcast of his career on New Year’s Eve. Listeners are poised at the edge of their seats at the prospect of what he’s about to say.

Tormented by an onslaught of memories from a killing spree seven years ago at his small-town high school—and convinced it’s his fault—Jeremy decides to confess all during an on-air interview with the shooter. He’s within reach of a resolution and the forgiveness he desperately needs to stop his self-destructive spiral once and for all. But instead of mercy, Mason, the killer, delivers a cryptic message. 

Even worse, an unexpected call from Jeremy’s past (one he should avoid at all costs) brings a shocking revelation and request: Return to Wisconsin, where everything started. His chance for redemption destroyed, Jeremy scrambles across the country, fueled by drugs and alcohol, to confront his past sins.

Once home in Sugar River, nothing feels like it should. Jeremy’s memory, always perfect in every way, begins to fail at the worst possible time. He can see the puzzle, but he’s incapable of piecing it together.

Until it’s too late.

In his debut novel, Recollection, Jeremiah Beck defies conventions to create a profound, twisty and heart-rending work of fiction fraught with claustrophobic suspense. Beck proves himself a stylish storyteller, assembling a rogue’s gallery of characters, internal dialogue, gritty situations and thought-provoking conversations that challenge our views on forgiveness, atonement, faith, trauma, and fate.

Inspired by A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, Recollection is for fans of slow-burn psychological thrillers like Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River and Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects, contemporary fiction like The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb, and anyone who likes their historical fiction set in the 1990’s.

Warning: This story contains content that may be troubling to some readers, including—but not limited to—depictions of attempted suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, vulgar and insensitive language, bullying, a mass casualty event, PTSD, sexual content and vivid nightmare imagery. Please be mindful of these and other possible triggers contained within this work of fiction.

Jeremiah Beck is a radio personality with 25 years behind the microphone. Born and raised in Wisconsin, he's garnered rich experiences and met fascinating people while traveling to 49 states and 11 countries, and has since settled in New Orleans. Recollection is his debut novel.