Death in the Family by Tessa Wegert

Death in the Family by Tessa Wegert ISBN-13: 9780593097892 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: February 18th 2020

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
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 fiancé'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 that 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-fueled flashbacks for company, Shana will have to trust the one person her abduction destroyed her faith in—herself.


My Review:
Death in the Family is a suspenseful detective mystery. There were two mysteries: what happened in the serial killer case (which was slowly explained throughout the story, yet still left open-ended) and the case of the missing son. Shana was convinced that the missing son had been murdered, though she considered other ideas. Her partner for the case believed that murder was very unlikely (especially with no body), and his doubt combined with the past made Shana doubt herself. She fought her insecurity and traumatic stress responses while trying to sort out the truth from lies.

Much of the story was a series of interviews that contained sometimes conflicting information. Shana asked good questions and clearly knew her job well. I strongly suspected whodunit (and why) fairly early on, but there was enough confusing information that I questioned if I had guessed correctly. And the solution was more complex than I had guessed. The characters were varied and interesting, and I liked Shana (though she doesn't like herself). There was a fair amount of bad language. A character stumbled across a couple having sex, but it was only briefly glimpsed and not graphically described. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting detective mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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