by J. A. Jance
Part of J.P. Beaumont, book 21
First published 2013
J. P. Beaumont checks into the hospital for knee replacement surgery, expecting a routine recovery. Instead, the anesthesia unleashes a flood of vivid dreams that drag him back to his rookie years with the Seattle Police Department and further still to his tour of duty in Vietnam. The dreams feel too real to dismiss as medication side effects. They dredge up faces and incidents Beaumont buried decades ago. When he starts investigating these resurfaced memories, the threads lead directly to fresh corpses in present-day Seattle. Someone is killing people connected to cases from Beaumont's past on the second watch. The detective must navigate between his hospital bed and active crime scenes, piecing together how events from the Vietnam War era connect to current murders. The investigation forces Beaumont to confront painful truths about his service and the lasting wounds that war inflicts on those who survive it.
Genres: fiction, mystery, crime, thriller, detective, action
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigation, past-coming-back-to-haunt, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Seattle, Vietnam
Period: Vietnam War, Present Day
340 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow
Content warnings: violence, war