Despite dismissing her advice âe" arenâe(TM)t any writing âeoerulesâe made to be broken? âe" I admit to skepticism upon picking up Hank Schachte's debut novel, Killing Time. Not only did the jacket copy promise a car accident, but what seemed one worse, the resulting amnesia.

Long a disorder as endemic to soap operas as it is rare in the real-life population, I worried over the melodrama such a set-up promised. Not to mention that even the bookâe(TM)s press release makes the link to the film Memento, which has, you know, been done.

I was wrong.