Death in the Family

December 9, 2019
In the prologue of Wegert’s solid debut, former NYPD homicide detective Shana Merchant, who’s recovering from a traumatic incident, meets with therapist Carson Gates. Merchant was involved in a serial killer case in Manhattan in which three women were killed after dating a man they met online, Blake Bram, who happened to be from her hometown, Swanton, Vt. Flash forward 13 months. Merchant is now engaged to Gates and working for the New York State Park Police in a part of the state “where violent crime doesn’t exist. Until, one day, it does.” On an island in the St. Lawrence River, Jasper Sinclair, the scion of a prominent family that made its wealth in the fashion industry, and his girlfriend, Abella Beaudry, go to bed one night. The next morning, Beaudry wakes up to find Sinclair gone and the sheets soaked with blood. Merchant investigates as a big storm closes in. Wegert maintains suspense by gradually parceling out her lead’s backstory and how Bram ties in with the Sinclair case. Fans of golden age closed circle murder mysteries will enjoy this effective update. Agent: Marlene Stringer, Stringer Literary.

February 7, 2020

DEBUT Despite some modern trimmings, this debut murder mystery is curiously old-fashioned, a throwback to Golden Age detective fiction, when sleuths such as Hercule Poirot and Philo Vance solved cases by observation, lots of talking, and sheer brain power. Here, the Sinclair family reunites for dinner on a private island in upstate New York. One son goes missing; there's blood everywhere. Two detectives sent to investigate arrive just before a storm locks everyone in, isolating the house and eliminating hope of outside help. It's up to lead detective Shana Merchant to solve the case by talking to suspects and ferreting out their secrets. But Shana suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder in the aftermath of her imprisonment by a missing serial killer, and her over-controlling fiancé's phone calls are undermining her confidence in her ability to solve the case. Suspicion shifts from suspect to suspect. There's a second murder, and revelations about the state of the family fortune, various acts of hanky-panky, and who's related to whom and how. The resolution, unnecessarily complicated, clanks at the joints. VERDICT Wegert's first foray into mystery may be met with limited appeal for lovers of the genre but is overall a valiant effort.--David Keymer, Cleveland

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2020
As a nor'easter rears up against New York State's Thousand Islands region, NYPD Detective Shana Merchant and her new partner, Tim Wellington, respond to a missing-persons report from a private island. Jasper Sinclair, an heir to Sinclair Textiles, has vanished from a family gathering that included his grandmother, his siblings, and their significant others. After a fruitless search of the island, Norton, the caretaker, shows them Jasper's room where the bed is soaked with a large bloodstain. Assuming that Jasper couldn't have survived, Merchant corrals the family under Wellington's watchful eye and begins solo interviews. It doesn't take much prodding to uncover a truckload of motives among the Sinclairs' financial deceits, infidelities, and festering jealousies. Then, when Jasper's grief-stricken girlfriend is strangled during a brief relaxation of their supervision, Shana fights to control her panicked realization that the killer has gained the upper hand. This locked-room thriller has all of the requisite tangled motives and deductive crime-solving, along with a riveting introduction to edgy survivor Shana and Tim, her steady, easygoing foil.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)