DEATH IN THE FAMILY

SYNOPSIS

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. But time is ticking down, because if Shana's right, a killer is in their midst and as the pressure mounts, so do the odds that they'll strike again.

Title: Death in the family

Author: Tessa Wegert

Series: Shana Merchant #1

Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: August 18, 2020

REVIEW

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Aren’t buddy reads the perfect excuse to finally read books that have been forever on your TBR? When my friend Kim told me she was on the blog tour for the second book in the series but she still needed to read the first one, I immediately told her I would read it with her cause…hello? Isolated island, murders, locked room vibes, a storm coming? That’s our favorite kind of read! (only snow was missing!).

Death in the family was a pretty clever whodunnit (I for sure did not predict the ending at all). 

Recently relocated after an encounter with a serial killer, Detective Shana Merchant is called to investigate the murder of a young guy in a private island. When she and her partner arrive they find a bloody bed but no body. What they encounter is a highly dysfunctional family full of suspects and a storm that will leave them stranded on the island with a killer in their midst.

As you know, I love everything that resembles (even remotely) Agatha Christie, and Death In The Family had huge AC vibes!  I loved how the fact they got isolated there without the possibility of forensics, made it necessary for the investigation to be based only on the suspect’s interrogations and deductive reasoning, with a final scene reminiscent of Poirot’s typical unveiling of the murderer.

The suspects were all so f*cked up and had so many weird relationships between them that it was a pretty fun read, although it made it quite difficult for me to bet on one of them to be the killer. The atmosphere on the island was really well done, with a clear tension building up throughout the pages and quite the claustrophobic feeling some times.

Shana’s backstory, although interesting and key to understand some of the character’s actions, managed to get me out of the murder plotline at times and left me with some questions but I’ve already read the synopsis of The Dead Season and I guess most of them will be answered there.

A great start to the series with a pretty intriguing main character that will definitely leave you looking forward to book 2.