The first description I read for Death in the Family included the concept that it would read like Olivia Benson (from Law and Order SVU) in an Agatha Christie novel. It sounded too good to be true, but it turned out to be a spot-on perfect description for this fun, exciting, twisty thriller!
We are introduced to Investigator Shana Merchant, who is suffering from PTSD after her interactions with a serial killer when she was a detective with the NYPD. About a year has passed since then, and she now lives and works in upstate New York where she expects to see nothing more serious than a burglary.
But on a small, privately owned island in Shana’s jurisdiction, a wealthy young man named Jasper Sinclair has disappeared from his bed overnight, leaving a large pool of blood. While this has been called in as a murder, the family can’t even come to an agreement on that, much less on anything else. Shana and her investigative partner Tim Wellington, a local who knows a little bit about everybody around town, head to the island to inspect the scene, but unfortunately, a storm is moving in as well.
The ultimate ‘locked-room” mystery, as this private island houses only the Sinclair estate, and the eight people in front of them are the only ones who have been on island since the previous night. That is not a lot of suspects, but Shana and Tim have to wade through a swamp of lies – and family secrets – before they can even begin to untangle the mystery of what has happened to Jasper Sinclair. Some of the family members believe he is dead, some believe he is wounded and out in the storm waiting for rescue, and still others think he has just pulled a prank for attention.
At least the lines of communication are still open to the outside world, and Shana is able to reach out for help. But soon, the reader starts to wonder if that “help” is actually helping at all. Dealing with a family who vary from grief-stricken to brutish, the outside pressures of her family and supervisor, the unrelenting storm outside, and the PTSD issues that she hoped were in her past, Shana has a full plate and Wegert does an excellent job of weaving this tale through all different twists and turns.
Without going into any spoilers, I’ll say that there is one trope that I absolutely despise, and at one point during the book I was afraid we were headed in exactly that direction. But we weren’t and if you hate this trope too, you’ll know it when you see it and remember these words and you will then breathe the same sigh of relief that I did.
I am absolutely thrilled that Wegert considers this a first in a new series, and I love that by the end of the book we still don’t know 100% of Shana Merchant’s backstory. Taking the time to slowly develop this character is a fantastic choice. I can’t wait for the opportunity to watch Shana Merchant work again!
Is there a way to physically force an author to write faster? Asking for a friend…
Death In The Family is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of February 18th.
Synopsis | Goodreads
A storm struck island. A blood-soaked bed. A missing man. Senior Investigator Shana Merchant believes it all adds up to a killer in their midst – and that murder is a family affair.
Thirteen months ago, former NYPD detective Shana Merchant barely survived being abducted by a serial killer. Now hoping to leave grisly murder cases behind, she’s taken a job in her fiance’s sleepy hometown in the Thousand Islands region of upstate New York.
But as a nor’easter bears down on her new territory, Shana and fellow investigator Tim Wellington receive a call about a man missing on a private island. Shana and Tim travel to the isolated island owned by the wealthy Sinclair family to question the witnesses. They arrive to find blood on the scene and a house full of Sinclair family and friends on edge.
While Tim guesses they’re dealing with a runaway case, Shana is convinced they have a murder on their hands. As the gale intensifies outside, she starts conducting interviews and discovers the Sinclairs and their guests are crawling with dark and dangerous secrets.
Trapped on the island by the raging storm with only Tim, whose reliability is thrown into question, the increasingly restless suspects, and her own trauma-filled flashbacks for company, Shana will have to trust the one person her abduction destroyed her faith in – herself. But time is ticking down, because if Shana’s right, a killer is in their midst and as the pressure mounts, so do the odds that they will strike again.
