While under the influence of pain pills following his double knee replacement surgery, J.P. Beaumont feels as if two important individuals from his past visit - the victim from his first homicide that was never solved to his satisfaction, and the soldier he served under in Viet Nam.

He reopens the homicide case, and all hell breaks loose.

As always, Jance presents a fine read. ( )

JP is haunted by an old case from many years ago. Working with Mel, his spouse, they solve both the old case - a young woman stuffed in a barrel of kitchen grease, and new ones. Some of the text surrounding his Vietnam experience seemed overdone in places, but, overall' one of Jance's better mysteries. ( )

One of the best. Using the device of having Beaumont visited by "ghosts" from his past while he's under the influence of heavy pain killers after double knee replacement surgery, we get to meet a young J.P. and work with him to settle his still open first ever homicide case. At the same time, we relive his service in Vietnam, and enjoy more of his steadily deepening relationship with wife Mel.

Can't wait to read more. ( )

J. P. Beaumont is on medical leave while he has dual knee replacement done. While under the influence of pain-killing drugs, he has a series of weird dreams. One series involves a cold case that was never solved; the other series is about his time in Viet Nam. Determined to do the right thing, he endeavors to reopen the cold case and to right a sin of omission. Unfortunately, digging into the past has unexpected results. This tightly-written thriller has all the necessary elements for a great suspense novel – well-developed characters, an intricate plot, a good blending of past and present time periods, and several twists along the way. Besides the suspense, this novel offers a secondary story of the sacrifices our military personnel freely gave during the war in Vietnam. Highly recommended. ( )

The venerable J. P. Beaumont, Jance's signature hard boiled Seattle detective, takes on a new dimension as he recovers from knee replacement surgery, and he is haunted by the first homicide case he ever worked, one with potentially lethal consequences. In his quest to solve a forty-year-old homicide, he sets a chain reaction in motion that keeps the reader glued to page after page. As part of his personal retrospective, Beaumont, takes himself back to his time serving in Vietnam and unfinished business that has never left him.

It is the war of my generation, and its images will never leave those who served, those who watched it on T.V., and the 58,000 who never made it home, wherever they are. The story has many twists and turns. When the reader is pretty well assured a situation has been resolved, the story veers off in a different direction. The author masterfully injects her real-life thoughts into the Vietnam portion. This might well be the best of J.A. Jance's many novels. One senses that the author has a personal stake in this one. ( )