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 from almost everyone around her: eighteen months ago she escaped from serial killer Blake Bram's clutches. But has he followed her, to kill again? 

What People Are Saying

"In Wegert’s standout third crime thriller starring Shana Merchant (after 2020’s The Dead Season), the former NYPD detective continues to pursue Blake Bram, who abducted her after killing three women he’d met through a dating website…Fans of Denise Mina’s Alex Morrow will be pleased.”

— Publishers Weekly starred review

"Louise Penny meets Ruth Ware in this small town mystery that bubbles with secrets and intrigue."

— Charlie Donlea, internationally bestselling author of Twenty Years Later

"Tessa Wegert's Dead Wind showcases one of my favorite fictional detectives, brave, smart — and secretive — New York State Senior Investigator Shana Merchant. An atmospheric, sophisticated thriller with layers upon layers of secrets lurking amidst the beauty of New York State’s Thousand Islands, Dead Wind shows Shana Merchant and Wegert at the top of their game."

Megan Collins, author of The Winter Sister and Behind the Red Door

"Dead Wind is a bone-chilling mystery that crackles with suspense. Tessa Wegert plunges into the dark heart of human nature as tough-minded detective Shana Merchant confronts a twisted new mystery and her own troubled past...all the while hunting a killer who’s already hunting her."

— Joanna Schaffhausen, author of Gone for Good

 

"Wegert melds the police investigation so deftly with Shana’s endless family drama.”

— Kirkus Reviews

“Perfect for readers who want a blend of police procedural elements coupled with psychological suspense.”

— Crime by the Book

 

"Wegert writes an engaging detective novel with relatable characters, interesting diversions and, ultimately, a tight and convincing plot which delivers the perfect amount of suspense.”

— Crime Fiction Lover

"I absolutely adore Wegert’s Shana Merchant series…These are not the mystery books of the 90s and I am so glad.” .”

— The Gloss Book Club

 Dead Wind is available wherever books are sold

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“This series is really fantastic. Wegert is a terrific writer, imbuing her thrillers with real emotional complexity as well as such evocative imagery that you can feel the fog and the chill around you.”
— Larry H.