The Beaumont series now spans over three decades, but it is still as fresh as the day the Seattle investigator first burst onto the scene. In this latest thought-provoking adventure, Beaumont takes time off to have a knee replacement. A little downtime would be good and give Beaumont some much needed rest, but that’s not exactly how the recovery period shakes out.
Experiencing an odd series of dreams that hearken back to his early days as a cop and even farther back to his service in Vietnam, the investigator wonders why he is suddenly recalling events and people he hasn’t thought about in years. Is there a connection to the present and some current investigations that are troubling him? Apparently so, and this trip down Memory Lane will perhaps do more than just lay a few ghosts to rest.
The inspiration for this tale comes from a situation in the author’s own life as she creates a fictional character based on a real soldier she once knew who died in Vietnam.
Jance calls Second Watch not only a mystery but also “a literary thank you note to all the people who served during that era—the ones who came back as well as the ones who didn’t—and to their loved ones, too.”