Investigator Shana Merchant returns to solve the case and find her kidnapper
DARIEN, CT – In Tessa Wegert’s chilling third offering in the Shana Merchant series, Dead Wind (April 5, 2022, Severn House), readers follow Shana back to the Thousand Islands where a recent murder disrupts the peace the residents have come to expect from their small town. But it’s not just the secrets of this small town that Shana unveils. Still rattled by the truth behind her kidnapper’s true identity, Shana pulls all her resources to find the killer and track Blake Bram.
The body is discovered on Wolfe Island, under the shadow of an enormous wind turbine. Shana, 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? “Wegert melds the police investigation so deftly with Shana’s endless family drama.” – Kirkus review
“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.”
— Sarah Stewart Taylor, author of The Mountains Wild and A Distant Grave
“Dead Wind”
Tessa Wegert | April 5, 2022 | Severn House
Hardcover | 978 1 4483 0712 8 | $28.99
Ebook | $18.99
Mystery/Thriller
More about Tessa Wegert
Tessa Wegert is the author of the Shana Merchant series of mysteries, which includes DEATH IN THE FAMILY, THE DEAD SEASON, and DEAD WIND (2022). A former freelance journalist, Tessa’s work has appeared in Forbes, The Huffington Post, Adweek, and The Economist. She grew up in Quebec and now lives with her husband and children in Coastal Connecticut. Find out more about Tessa at www.tessawegert.com.
Follow Tessa on social media:
Facebook: @tessawegertbooks
Twitter: @tessawegert
Instagram: @tessawegert
In an interview, Tessa can discuss:
- Creating the character of investigator Shana Merchant and her serial killer blood relative, Blake Bram.
- The Thousand Islands as the setting and her Canadian roots
- Modernizing Agatha Christie-style detective fiction
- The theme of anxiety and PTSD throughout the series
- The strategy involved in writing a mystery series
- The difference between mysteries, thrillers, police procedurals, and suspense
- Current publishing industry trends like female-led detective stories and “killer in the family” plots
An Interview with Tessa Wegert
1. Shana Merchant is such a smart and secretive detective with a ton of layers beyond being a senior investigator. How did you start developing her character?
I grew up watching Columbo and reading Agatha Christie’s Poirot novels. I was dazzled by the way Columbo manipulated suspects into revealing the truth, while Poirot was so attuned to the psychology behind the crimes he investigated. I think my fascination with both characters contributed to the development of Shana Merchant. I knew I wanted to write a female investigator who was complex and a little bit flawed rather than a cookie-cutter “tough as nails” detective with something to prove. As a result, Shana really analyzes her suspects’ behavior and neuroses to get to the root of the crime and uses their weaknesses to her advantage. Because she has some mental health issues of her own, there’s a real push and pull between her and her suspects that makes her more vulnerable and ups the story’s tension.
2. As a native Canadian, I can understand wanting to use it as a setting in your books. What led you to choose the Thousand Islands specifically as the setting for this series?
Five years ago, I took a trip to Wolfe Island, Ontario and was struck by its vast, flat landscape and massive wind farm. I thought it would make for an arresting crime scene. While the majority of the Shana Merchant series is set on the American side of the Thousand Islands, Wolfe Island allowed me to challenge Shana and her team by taking some of the action to Canada, where they would have to collaborate with the Ontario Provincial Police. Islands already feature prominently in the series, mainly because I love the dichotomy between the sleepy, sheltered communities on the mainland and the remote and rugged islands. This is a region where violent crime is an exception to the norm on both sides of the border…but I grew up in a small town myself, and I can attest to the secrets that lurk in the homes of neighbors and friends. The more familiar and comforting the setting, the greater the sense of disquiet when the mystery unfolds.
3. Did you know Bram’s connection to Shana before writing the first book in the series?
I knew from the start that I wanted Shana and Blake Bram, her one-time abductor and the killer she’s been hunting, to be connected by blood. The idea that a police investigator could be related to a serial murderer was so disconcerting, and there was a ton of moral and emotional material there for me to unpack. Imagine discovering a member of your family had committed the most heinous of crimes — and then being tasked with apprehending them? That notion was just too chilling to pass up.
4. What was the attraction of putting a contemporary spin on classic, Agatha Christie-style detective fiction?
I’ve always been a fan of Agatha Christie’s novels, but I hadn’t come across many contemporary takes on the Golden Age detective fiction of old. I wrote the first book, Death in the Family, as an homage to And Then There Were None, and realized the series had similar characteristics to Christie’s books: a clever, independent detective with some quirks, a wide variety of suspects, themes of justice and morality. I’m always immensely flattered when readers tell me my books remind them of Christie’s masterful stories.
5. The story also deals with a lot of mental health concerns. Why did you decide to incorporate anxiety or PTSD?
Mental health is a relatively common theme in thrillers, but with the exception of depression and addiction — which plague a good number of fictional detectives — it’s primarily the antagonist who suffers from mental illness. I just don’t think that’s realistic. Shana not only investigates violent crime, but was a victim of abduction and psychological manipulation herself, and it was hard to imagine that this wouldn’t have a profound effect on her mental health. Depicting her as a woman struggling with PTSD felt like the most authentic approach. Anxiety is a theme throughout the series, to some extent because I think anxiety is often downplayed and dismissed rather than treated like the potentially serious mental disorder that it is. In fiction writing, conditions like this can be convenient subplots, but as a person who’s struggled with anxiety myself, it was important to me to portray Shana’s journey as realistically as possible — progression, relapses, and all.
A former award-winning journalist with national exposure, Marissa now oversees the day-to-day operation of the Books Forward author branding and book marketing firm, along with our indie publishing support sister company Books Fluent.
Born and bred in Louisiana, currently living in New Orleans, she has lived and developed a strong base for our company and authors in Chicago and Nashville. Her journalism work has appeared in USA Today, National Geographic and other major publications. She is now interviewed by media on best practices for book marketing.
