This book grabs you at the beginning but loses you near the middle. It seems so impossible that this could happen to someone, therefore, it made it harder to continue the story.

Jackson Robert Hunter has amnesia following a head injury outside of a bar. Tantalizing and confusing glimpses of his past appear to him in brief flashbacks, as he starts to piece the memory of his life back together. His wife is dead - at first he believes it was suicide, but later becomes convinced she was murdered. As he embarks on a journey to search out her murderer, he also uncovers his own history, or backstory, which reveals him as a complicated person capable of dark deeds.

I liked the concept of this novel very much - dealing with the socially acceptable good citizen side of personality and then the darker, hedonistic side which we all try to control and hide. If you woke up and didn't know yourself, would you like what you found out? I had expected the novel to be a thriller, when in actual fact it is more psychological mystery or suspense. The revelations came rather slowly and gradually, as perhaps they might with regaining memory, but it lacked tension and excitement for me. The ending as well was rather anti-climactic.

Thank you to NetGalley & Oceanview Publishing for providing me with a copy.

This book was sent to me electronically. by Netgalley for review. It is a dark mystery woh characters who are intriguing but somewhat off putting. I didn’t feel like pulling for any of them…the story moves slowly, and I found myself having to concentrate on what was happening …that being said, the author does weave a journey that keeps the reader’s interest in determining the conclusion. .

My review copy was a mess. There were huge formatting issues, missing paragraphs and so on. So it’s really impossible to give a proper review.

First book by this author I've read and it didn't disappoint. Great pacing, good characters, reliable narrator and much more. Quite enjoyable.

The Backstory is this claimed psychological thriller that revolves around a man named Jackson Robert Hunter who one evening wakes up outside a bar with a wound bleeding out of his head, almost as if someone bashed his head, making all his memories washed out of his head. On interacting with some people around him who had come to aid him, he discovers that he is popularly known as Bob and his wife had just recently taken her own life. Having no memory of his own, he feels helpless not knowing who could have attacked him and it is this question that makes him question everything around him…even his wife’s suicide and whether it was really even suicide or did someone make it look like it was suicide.

Sounds riveting, right? It did to me too but unfortunately this book was not for me, and here’s why.

Let me put this right out of the gate, it’s more of a mystery than a thriller (a mystery answering who’s the criminal while a thriller spans the journey of something that is going to happen) at least in my opinion which is not a problem. Neither was it in the story.

The story mostly talks about a man with no memory trying to look for the killer of his wife while going through this overarching trope of the main character who wants to save the day until he realises that he’s the villain of the story all along (not a spoiler, it’s there in the blurb). Again, this is not the problem either. In fact, I love this trope as I know so many other people do too. The problem, however, was with the execution of the novel in general.

For instance, the slow pacing. The book starts painfully slow with nothing much happening, which was also the reason why I picked up another book as I read this one. I get that the author was probably trying to establish the familiarity of the main character’s life with his non-exposition-exposition. That’s okay but it becomes a problem when the reader doesn’t feel that powerful urge to go back to reading the book right after their they take their eyes away from the story. And I certainly didn’t feel that urge when life got busier for me. I guess, it takes like good 30% of the book at the beginning for the story to actually hit the reader…and even then, some things slowed me down.

Some several unnecessary details and characters had little or almost nothing to do with the actual plot of the book. There is this phrase in the writer’s world that goes that a writer must kill their darlings wherein the “darlings” are the unnecessary characters and plot points that do nothing to advance the story but are just there for the sake of being there. The author in this book evidently didn’t kill his darlings as he should have. The lack of these details could have improved the pacing greatly, in my opinion.

Another thing about this book that troubled me greatly was the characters of this book and especially the main character. The problem with them wasn’t the fact that they were all highly unlikeable but was actually in the fact that they were all also highly one dimensional, at least that’s what I felt.

Like the main character, for instance, is this thug, tough-looking guy who you wouldn’t want to mess around with and he always beats his opponent because he’s just soooo tough. And like okay, but give me some layers! Tell me what is his weak point. Tell me what’s that thing that scares the shit out of him and why is he so cynical, so tough and dark? Give me the backstory, full pun-intended.

There were a few scenes where you obviously get to see the past and what happened but none of it really solved the puzzle for me about why the main character became the way he became. In this book mostly the bad guy is the bad guy and the good guy is the good guy. There is no grey area in either of their characteristics which made the characters look unrealistic and unrelatable.

Because of this, I didn’t care at all about any of the characters. Except maybe Kimmie and Penny. That’s it.

Also, I felt that there were a few troubles with the prose writing as well. Not that the language was not easy to understand. It was the fact that with each time the main character got reminded of the memory, there was no transition between what was actually happening in the present and what he was remembering from memory, because both of those instances were written in the present tense and that sometimes confused me, so I had to keep going several lines up again and again to figure out if what the scene just narrated was the memory that the main character is just remembering or is it actually happening to him right now.

Lastly, the thing that I didn’t like at all about this book is that there were many plot points and characters that were not given enough closure. Like they were just introduced midway in the novel but then they just disappeared from the narrative without giving any value to the advancement of the story.

In addition, there are frequent mentions of sexual intercourse, depression, suicide and drugs, so please give a thorough look at the content guide if you are considering reading this book.

So anyway, I liked the concept of the story about how people are most of the times blind to their own mistakes and flaws and when they realise their mistakes, it is too late. But it was the execution of this concept that this novel failed for me.

Overall, I guess, I would give this book a 3 out of 5 stars because I liked the concept but again it didn’t reach its potential. I would still recommend this book nevertheless to anyone who likes plot-driven stories, unlike me, you can definitely give this one a try and let me know your thoughts about this book.

Thank you so much for reading! This book gets published on 7th June 2022 and I would like to thank Netgalley and Oceanview publication for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book in return of an honest opinion.

Have a good day!💜

The advance PDF copy I received had missing letters, words and format issues but, I muddled through. These issues will surely be ironed out before publication.
This is an author I'm familiar with, but this story took a new path in psychological suspense. It is the dark tale of a man who has suffered head trauma resulting in large memory gaps. The journey he takes to discover who he is now and who he has been is related back and forth with flashbacks interspersed during the present timeline.
Jackson is a complicated man with a past to unravel. He has several aliases, identities and a persona to blend with each one. He's quite the womanizer, but he was a loving husband.
There is death, theft, murder, and other criminal activity in his troubled past. There is violence and torture.
He has a twin brother, a dominating and unsavory father, X-wife, niece, an illicit half-sister and a wife who took her own life. Could it get any more dramatic and complicated? Yes it will. Is he evil or is he a good person who lost his way? You'll have to pay attention as you race to the explosive conclusion.
Thanks to Netgalley, William L. Myers, Jr. and Oceanview Publishing for the advance digital copy of "Backstory". These are my thoughts and opinions given voluntarily.

This book is thrill ride from start to finish. Reminds me of Jason Bourne, A thriller that has interesting characters and backstory.

Great book! Wow what a great storyline! This book had suspense, intrigue, action, murder and mafia! It was a rough story with a bunch of bad guys lol I really enjoyed reading this one! I highly recommend reading this book! Its well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

Unfortunately the copy I received to my Kindle is messed up. Missing words, letters and part of sentences, the paragraphs are chaotic. etc.. Impossible to read.

Backstory
by William L. Myers, Jr.
Description
Jackson Robert Hunter wakes up with a badly battered head and no memory. When clues convince him that his wife’s recent suicide was murder, he sets out to find the killer. But his cross-country odyssey triggers damning memories, suggesting that Jackson may be the true villain of his story.

This was a good book. It started slowly and seemed to finally pick up... midway. I would say it was not great, but good. Not a thriller.

Thanks Netgalley for this ARC, however, the copy I had was so messed up--missing words, half of sentences, and letters--I was unable to read it let alone finish it.

Definitely my kind of mystery/psychological thriller, so I saw it all the way through to the end on principle. Great storyline overall, but occasionally it became difficult to suspend disbelief in with the incredulous twists & turns. Noticed a few typos I'd love to go back and fix with my teacher's pen, but the story was good enough I tried to ignore them. Looking forward to reading more by this author despite these minor complaints.

A man who loses all his memory of himself and others and embarks on a journey to find his wife's killer. On this journey he is really finding himself and the person he really is (or was). It did not hit me as much of a thriller, but it was still an enjoyable read. It started off pretty slow to me, so it did take me some time to actually get into it.

First book i read by this author and it was brilliant !! Gripping story , amazing characters and all and all an amazing plot . Yes it gets cringe at certain places but definitely worth the read and time you spend on it .

An In-Depth Analysis Of Jackson Robert Hunter

His wife is dead, he is beaten to a pulp and now suffers from amnesia. Backstory is the life he had being re-created and re-remembered as he follows his life backwards through events as he remembers them piece-by-piece. He confronts old gangster ties, old girlfriends, and even ex-wives as his journey takes him from place-to-place.

This is a sordid story, difficult to follow and cringe-worthy at times. It is well-written by William A. Myers, Jr. who has captured the paranoia of the character completely. Not a casual, fun read, but a look inside the demented mind of a man trying to find himself.

Whenever I see a book by William L Myers I automatically pick it up and read it. this author has never let me down and this book is no exception. Fabulous story that I read in an afternoon as I had to find out where it was going and what was going to happen. I loved the characters but cannot say too much as it will give away parts of the story as it moves back and forth in time. If you have not read any books from this author I suggest you give them a go you will not be disappointed. Highly recommended, 5 stars!!

Thank you so much publisher for providing an arc! I just devoured this book. It was so nerve-wrecking so I can not express enough about the plot. The plot is so interesting that you will find yourself gasping everytime you find something new.
I really like the worldbuilding, and how the author can create a world that has the capability of making us vicariously live through it. I feel like the introduction was a bit too slow-paced for me. The characters are fairly interesting.
Henceforth, it was quite a good read.