"Devils at the Door"

Tessa Wegert is the author of the popular Shana Merchant mysteries, which include Death in the Family (a Book Riot Best Locked Room Mystery), The Dead Season (“Deliciously twisty”—Bookreporter), Dead Wind (Publishers Weekly starred review), and The Kind to Kill (a Strand Magazine Top Mystery Novel).

Wegert applied the Page 69 Test to the new Shana Merchant mystery, Devils at the Door, and reported the following:

From page 69:

Were it not for those flags and the mesh duffles dotting the shore, plus the cars parked nose to bumper along the curb, I would never have known there was anyone underwater. As I watched though, I started to see bubbles breach and ripple the surface. Like a raft of seals coming up for air, one masked head emerged, then another. Over the next few minutes, six bodies popped up in all, and I made my way over to where they were shedding their gear. At the sight of my State Police jacket, several of the divers shrank back. This time of year, when the weather was iffy, I kept it in my car; there was power in the blocky letters on the back, and I liked having the option of using it. Now, it occurred to me that I hadn’t thought the jacket through. Every parent in town was still having nightmares about Leif. It would be hard for them not to imagine the same thing happening to their own kids.

Wait until they hear this death wasn’t an accident.

It isn’t easy being a State Police investigator in a tiny riverside village just south of the Canadian border. In this passage, we find Shana Merchant seeking out the father of a teen who drowned near Devil’s Oven Island to inform him that she suspects foul play. Ford Colebrook is no stranger to tragedy, but his wife drowned just five years prior. And now, the task of telling Ford the only remaining member of his family is gone has fallen to her.

The imagery readers will find on page 69 of Devils at the Door could be seen as a metaphor for the impending homicide investigation, and in some ways also for the story as a whole. Working cases that involve violent crime is all about seeing what isn’t immediately apparent, and evaluating both environments and individuals with a critical eye. At the same time, the divers’ reaction to Shana and her police jacket reflects the locals’ continued unease, a key theme in this novel. Since Shana’s arrival in Alexandria Bay, NY, crime has been on the upswing, and many in the community see her as a plague on their town. Not only are they aware of this most recent death, but they’re afraid for their own children’s safety. The fact that it’s Shana who’s working the case ratchets up their anxiety. Though it’s her job to protect them, she’s a woman that many don’t want around.

But readers are about to find out that Ford Colebrook feels very differently about Shana and the deaths that follow her like a curse.

Visit Tessa Wegert's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Dead Season.

The Page 69 Test: The Dead Season.

Q&A with Tessa Wegert.

The Page 69 Test: Dead Wind.

--Marshal Zeringue