Dead Wind (Inspector Shana Merchant, Book 3) by Tessa Wegert

 

Release date: April 5, 2022

Subgenre: Police Procedural, Psychological Thriller

 

About Dead Wind:

 

Senior Investigator Shana Merchant must dredge up dark secrets and old grudges if she's to solve the murder of a prominent local citizen in the Thousand Islands community she now calls home.

The body is discovered on Wolfe Island, under the shadow of an enormous wind turbine. Senior Investigator Shana Merchant, arriving on the scene with fellow investigator Tim Wellington, can't shake the feeling that she knows the victim - and the subsequent identification sends shockwaves through their community in the Thousand Islands of Upstate New York.

Politics, power, passion . . . there are dark undercurrents in Shana's new home, and finding the killer means dredging up her new friends and neighbors' old grudges and long-kept secrets.

That is, if the killer is from the community at all. For Shana's keeping a terrible secret of her own: eighteen months ago she escaped from serial killer Blake Bram's clutches. But has he followed her . . . to kill again?

The Shana Merchant novels are a brilliant blend of chilling psychological thriller and gripping police procedural, set in an atmospheric island community with a small-town vibe.

 

Excerpt:

 

PROLOGUE

Alexandria Bay, New York

“Have you ever played Never Have I Ever?”

The game had been a favorite of mine as a kid, from grade school all the way until junior high. I wasn’t sure if it was still in fashion, if Trey would even have a clue what I was talking about, but he did something with his head that I took as affirmation, so I folded my hands on the sticky table and leaned toward him with a smile. 

“So, it’s a really fun game, and it goes like this: I say ‘never have I ever’ about something I haven’t done, and you tell me if you have done it. If you’ve done it, then you win. It’s easy. Should we try?”

A nod.

“Here we go,” I said. “Never have I ever eaten worms.” 

Trey’s eyes widened, and a smile tugged at his lips. He looked up at his mother, whose expression was already softening. “Do gummy worms count?” Trey asked, his voice barely audible even in the quiet room.

“Yes!” I beamed at him, making sure he knew how pleased I was that he was playing along. “That means you win the round. And then you get to ask the question. Sound good?”

Trey nodded again. He was in. 

“Okay.” I took a breath and tried to keep my eyes on the kid. Behind him, Tim reached for his notebook. “The first question I want to ask isn’t actually about you. It’s about that man.”

Trey stiffened, and his dark eyes grew wary. But he didn’t shrink away from me. 

“When you answer,” I told him, “say what he would say if he was playing. Get it?”

Virginia shifted in her seat. This wasn’t why she brought her son here, not part of the plan, and her trepidation was plain to see. Where Trey’s recovery was concerned, the questions I was about to ask would do no good. If anything, they might cause Trey to regress, and that prospect made my stomach clench and a wave of acid swell in my throat. If I was going to succeed at finding his captor, though, and eliminate the possibility of more victims, more damaged psyches, more death, I had to get Trey to talk on my terms. I tried to convey this to his mother without words, a silent exchange that played out over Trey’s head. Her lips were pinched tight when she pulled the nine-year-old onto her lap as if he were a toddler, but she didn’t argue. She knew as well as I did the black presence that loomed over her child would never be fully vanquished until the man who’d taken Trey was found.

 

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About Tessa Wegert: 

Tessa Wegert is the author of the Shana Merchant series of mysteries, which includes DEATH IN THE FAMILY, THE DEAD SEASON, and DEAD WIND (2022). A former freelance journalist, Tessa’s work has appeared in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Adweek, and The Economist. She grew up in Quebec and now lives with her husband and children in Coastal Connecticut.

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