Devils at the Door

October 15, 2023
Shana Merchant's unsettled upstate New York household is invaded by an unexpectedly troublesome presence: Shana's teenage niece. What could be more awkward for Shana, a senior investigator for the New York State Police, and her teammate Tim Wellington as they busily plan their Christmas wedding than to take in Henrietta Della Merchant, the wayward daughter of Doug Merchant, her brother in Vermont? But Hen's become so uncommunicative and unmanageable at home that Shana and Tim open their doors and hearts to her. The gesture's not returned: Hen continues obstinately silent even after Shana's called one night to Devil's Oven Island, where she finds Hen and three of her few school friends, one of them dead. A preliminary exam indicates that Leif Colebrook has drowned, but the medical examiner rules otherwise, and Shana, still burdened by her neighbors' identification of her with Blake Bram, the cousin whose many murder victims include her ex-husband, finds her position compromised even further by Hen's involvement in Leif's death. The most ironic twist of all, Shana thinks, is that the very reason Mia Klinger, the leader of the three teens discovered with Hen at Devil's Oven, befriended the outsider was because she was fascinated by her link to Bram. But Shana, who feels guilty because she didn't stop Ford Colebrook, Leif's grieving father, from kissing her, is wrong. That's not nearly the most ironic twist in a tale whose secrets keep getting more and more devastating. Missing your relatives and your summer vacation? Wegert has the perfect antidote.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 30, 2023
Wegert’s chilling fifth mystery featuring New York State Police investigator Merchant (after 2022’s The Kind to Kill) successfully builds on her protagonist’s loaded backstory. In previous entries, Merchant discovered that her cousin, Abraham Skilton, killed more than a dozen women while living under the alias Blake Bram. Despite Bram’s violent death, Merchant remains haunted by nightmares about the murders. Now, Merchant’s troubled teenage niece, Henrietta, has been skipping school and damaging her parents’ property in response to being bullied by classmates about her familial connection to Bram. Merchant’s brother pleads with her to take in Hen for a semester, and she agrees—but the move to a new town doesn’t end the teen’s torments. After students at Hen’s new high school start a Bram fan club, she becomes the prime suspect in the drowning death of a boy discovered with a suspicious head wound—and Merchant is assigned to investigate. Wegert expertly renders Merchant’s quandary, ratcheting up the personal and professional stakes, and keeps readers off-balance as the investigation unfolds. Fans of David Mark’s DS Aector McAvoy series should check this out. Agent: Marlene Stringer, Stringer Literary.

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.