The Coldest Case

November 1, 2023
Wegert is back with another Shana Merchant mystery (after The Kind to Kill, 2022). This time, Shana and her fianc�, Tim, have agreed to take in Shana's brother's teenage daughter, Henrietta, much to Shana's chagrin. She doesn't understand teenagers, and Henrietta's behavior is ludicrous--and frightening. Henrietta is watching movies that focus on murder, drinking, and sneaking out, and then suddenly, she herself becomes a suspect in the murder of one of her friends. Desperate to prove that Henrietta did not commit the crime, Shana takes on the case and realizes that there is much more to it than she bargained for. Devils at the Door is an extremely well-written crime novel about the hard-to-see complexities of the growing pains of young people and the trauma that can drag us down, and Wegert well understands the fallout and consequences of what we can and cannot control. Though it works as a stand-alone, fans of the series will not be disappointed.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2024
Though there's stiff competition for which unsolved mystery (Edwin Drood? Jack the Ripper?) really is the coldest case, Wegert's latest is a definite contender in more ways than one. Four years ago, Shana Merchant and her NYPD partner, Dave Johansson, worked overtime to identify a Jane Doe fished out of the East River whose facial scar echoed the one Shana had received at the hands of her murderous cousin, Blake Bram. They never succeeded, and Shana moved on, taking a job with the state police's Troop D, posted near the Thousand Islands. Now she's called out in the hope that she can traipse through the omnipresent snow and find Cary Caufield, a graphic designer and online influencer whose absence makes quite a stir among his neighbors because he constitutes one-eighth of the population of the tiny island of Running Pine. Sylvie Lavoy, Cary's girlfriend and partner in the Instagram account Running Wild, manages to be both frantic and unhelpful, and Tim Wellington, Shana's "partner in every way," offers limited help himself before he goes missing, too. Wegert will put readers through endless flashbacks to the Jane Doe investigation, tales of the legendary misdeeds of the island's founders, rumors of a lost treasure that would provide a compelling motive for murder if it actually exists, and Shana's endless handwringing over a cousin who clearly merits every shudder before she pulls the curtain aside to reveal not one, but two murderers whose identities will leave most readers gasping-- and not from cold. Whatever the opposite of comfort food is, Wegert dishes out a heaping portion.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2024
Wegert's sixth Shana Merchant mystery (after Devils at the Door, 2023) is suspenseful and terrifying, centering on eight people stuck on Running Pine in the Thousand Islands in Canada. Six of those people are used to the freezing climate and isolation, but two are not: social-media influencers documenting their vacation on the island and getting quite an extraordinary monetary haul from it. When, perhaps inevitably, one of the influencers disappears, the other asks for Shana Merchant, and Shana Merchant only. Newly married and newly pregnant, Merchant must solve the case before literal and figurative storms threaten to engulf her. Paying homage to Agatha Christie's Poirot mysteries' intimate settings and isolated backdrops, Wegert takes on the themes of social media, trauma, and what people will do when faced with nothing but desperation. The Coldest Case is a brilliant mystery and yet another example of why Wegert is still going strong.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 9, 2024
An Instagram influencer vanishes from an island near the U.S.–Canada border in Wegert’s atmospheric sixth case for New York State investigator Shana Merchant (after Devil at the Door). It’s the coldest February on record in Lake Ontario’s Thousand Islands Archipelago, where a pregnant Shana is stationed with her husband, fellow investigator Tim Wellington. Shana’s unit responds to a call indicating trouble on Running Pine, an island made up of 5,000 acres of dense woodland and eight full-time residents. Two of those residents are newcomers: influencer couple Cary Caufield and Sylvie Lavoy, who’ve been documenting their yearlong stay on Running Pine. Cary has gone missing after a morning fishing trip, and a frantic Sylvie insists that Shana handle the case. As Shana digs into Cary’s disappearance, she discovers frightening echoes of an unsolved serial killer case she worked on four years earlier in New York City. Wegert effectively shifts between the island case and the Manhattan investigation, taking both to surprising places. The real draw, however, is Shana, whose toughness is both inspirational and refreshingly understated. Series fans will be satisfied. Agent: Chris Bucci, Aevitas Creative Management.