CORRUPTED MEMORY

A second case for computer programmer Aloysius Tucker (Terminated, 2014) continues to chop away at all he holds near and dear.

It isn’t enough that there’s a dead man outside Tucker’s place in the South End of Boston. It isn’t even enough that his FBI buddy, Bobby Miller, has to pull him out of Fenway Park, where he’s making excellent progress with Lucy, a biology teacher on her third date with him, before he can find out whether the Red Sox beat the Orioles. No, it gets worse: the stiff is named John Tucker, which just happens to be the same as that of Tucker’s late father. It turns out that the old man, an engineer for Global Defense Systems, had been keeping a second family in Pittsfield for many years: another woman—Cathy Byrd, who was Tucker’s babysitter when he was a child—another son, who's the dead man on the sidewalk; another collection of framed photographs; another set of memories Tucker’s never going to share. While Tucker’s still recovering from this punch to the gut, someone kills Cathy. Then, shortly after Tucker’s mother, world-class hoarder Angelina, pulls a knife on him when he grabs some documents of his father’s from one of the enormous piles of papers all over her house, someone sets fire to the house, trusting that all those papers will burn hot enough to destroy the last of Tucker’s family—unless you count Sal Rizzo, the mobbed-up cousin whose family business suddenly seems perilously close to Tucker’s own. Forget the elementary mystery; Daniel and his soulful hero seem to be reworking the tribulations of Job.

In just two adventures, Tucker’s managed to lose his job, his wife, his mother, and a half brother he didn’t even know he had. You have to wonder what losses remain for the next installment.