Devils at the Door
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4.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A suspicious drowning throws New York State senior investigator Shana Merchant’s life into turmoil in this taut, thrilling small-town mystery – perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Ruth Ware.
Sixteen-year-old Henrietta used to be happy. But that was before her family hit the national news. Before she – and the whole world – knew she was related to one of New York’s most prolific serial killers.
Senior Investigator Shana Merchant readily agrees when her brother asks her to take in his troubled, rebellious daughter for the fall semester. Doug’s convinced that spending a few months in Alexandria Bay with Shana will straighten Hen out.
But when Hen arrives, Shana’s not so sure. She can’t help but distrust the strange and manipulative teen, who binge-watches bloody movies and roams the house at night, taking things that aren’t hers.
Soon, though, Shana has more to worry about than missing heirlooms when she’s called to investigate the suspicious drowning of a local teenager, only to discover her niece at the scene of the crime.
What happened that night on the dark, uninhabited island of Devil’s Oven? With Hen and her new friends not talking, and a community determined to keep their secrets dead and buried, Shana knows it’s a race against time to uncover the truth before her niece is upgraded from key witness to prime suspect.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
