Dead Wind

Tessa Wegert is quickly becoming one of my go-to suspense authors. In this third book of her popular Shana Merchant series, the Senior Investigator in Alexandria Bay, New York learns that her previous cases and complicated past continue to impact her life.

This is a series you have to read in order for the full effect because Shana's past is brought up quite a bit. In her latest case, a local politician's body is found on a wind farm in Canada, leading Shana on a hunt for a killer while she wades through small-town secrets, environmental protesters and her own personal life getting in the way.

This is a short and eerie read at only 240 pages and I found it to be more slower paced than the previous books in the series. This book centres around small-town politics and the environment with the big oomph of suspense and tension not hitting until the end for a powerful and nail-biting conclusion. Shana is a good main character who has her demons to deal with and I enjoyed getting some closure in previous story arcs related to her past.

This is an atmospheric police procedural with a small-town vibe, murder, secrets, a strong female main character in Shana and an elusive serial killer, what's not to love?

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Author: Tessa Wegert

Genre: Suspense, Canadian

Series: Shana Merchant 3

Type and Source: Trade paperback, public library

Publisher: Severn House

First Published: March 1, 2022

Read: Nov 11-14, 2025

Book Description from GoodReads: 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 neighbours' 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?

The Shana Merchant novels are a brilliant blend of chilling psychological thriller and gripping police procedural, set in an atmospheric island community with a small-town vibe.