Watches Of The Night (Ben Reese mysteries) [Kindle Edition]

Sally Wright (Author)

Book Description

Ben Reese, university archivist and ex-WWII Scout, gets swept back after 17 years to unfinished business from war torn Germany when Kate Lindsay, the widow of a Ranger friend of Ben’s, receives a grisly package lost in a dead letter office since 1944. A Scots medic, and keeper of secrets, living still in a mental institution, is silenced before he can tell what he knows of the package and much else.

Hunting his killer takes Ben and Kate from America, to Scotland, to the countryside of Tuscany, where Ben has to stop the murderer from killing again while he confronts his own long time hunger to take revenge for shootings he couldn’t prevent by a U.S. Army Tech Team leader in the last year of the war.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sally Wright has it pretty much mastered in her Ben Reese Series... In Pursuit and Persuasion... Wright provides nice variations on the mainstays of the whodunit: a picturesque setting, thick historical background, and an assortment of smart characters" New York Times "Wright not only provides clever leads to challenge the reader, but she has also created a strong and interesting protagonist in Reese" Publishers Weekly on Pride and Predator "Publish And Perish is put together with polish and precision. It echoes such classic writers as Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh" The Washington Times"

About the Author

Sally Wright is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she earned a degree in oral interpretation of literature. She has also completed graduate work at the University of Washington. Ms. Wright is the author of "Publish and Perish," the debut of the Ben Reese series, "Pride and Predator, "Pursuit and Persuasion (an Edgar Allan Poe Award finalist), and "Out of the Ruins. She lives with her husband in northwestern Ohio, and she travels widely to research the Ben Reese books--to England and Scotland for earlier titles in the series, to America's southeastern coast for "Out of the Ruins.

Product Details

• File Size: 456 KB
• Print Length: 245 pages
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007G0IQRQ
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,869 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Sally Wright does it again with her Ben Reese stories July 1, 2008

By Armchair Interviews

Format:Hardcover

Watches of the Night is the fifth book in Wright's series featuring university archivist Ben Reese. In the earlier books, many references are made to Ben's experiences as a scout during World War II, but readers have never been given Ben's war story. Finally, with Watches of the Night, you learn about Ben's war years.

Kate Lindsay, Ben's longtime friend, receives a most unexpected package in the mail some twenty years after it was mailed. When she opens the package, she discovers the eye of her husband who was killed in World War II. Startled to say the least and somewhat horrified by the eye, she contacts Ben who had served with her husband. Ben agrees to help Kate figure out who sent her the eye and why. While working through this strange mystery, a person who has haunted Ben's dreams becomes all to real again.

Meanwhile, professionally Ben has run into some problems at the university. Ben finds himself crosswise to the university president over a document in his possession and suffers the pain of academic politics. As a tenured archivist, he enjoys a great deal of freedom to travel and do outside work. However, both the head librarian and the president are threatening that freedom.

While Kate attempts to trace who sent her that eye, Ben is enlisted to help her locate the people involved using his skills as an archivist. Helping Kate triggers Ben's memories of the war. Through these memories, you follow Ben as he is moved from camp to camp, as he goes on a scouting mission and witnesses a horrific event during an ambush.

Wright tells Ben's story and unravels the mystery by shifting back and forth between the 1960s and 1945, following first Kate and Ben's investigation and then Ben's memories. The effect is perfect for building suspense.

While it is helpful to have read at least some of the previous Ben Reese books, readers who are not familiar with the series will have no problems sorting out the characters and their relationships early on in Watches of the Night.

Armchair Interviews says: Sally Wright is a very good storyteller.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Sally Wright mystery yet May 9, 2008

By Patricia H. Salomon

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

All the Ben Reese mysteries are fun but this is the most satisfying. Good character development, great settings and believable twists and turns to the story. I felt like I knew Ben Reese and was confident his skill would overcome the evil Ted Mitchell. This story would make a good movie.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Good Yarn In Need of Editor July 29, 2008

By J. Brown

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Ms Wright's main man, Ben Reese, is delightful and a joy to read about. I enjoyed her treatment of flashbacks. Her book, however, suffers from lack of editing. Sentences are broken. A character, to whom a page is devoted, is not included in the character listing at the beginning of the book.

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