The Coldest Case by Tessa Wegert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
The Shana Merchant series just keeps getting better. Wegert delivering the twists, the turns, the chilling atmosphere, and the jaw-dropping revelations. I loved this one!
The Coldest Case is the 6th-installment of this character-driven, Police Procedural Mystery series, set in the Thousand Lakes region of Upstate New York.
I’ve enjoyed all the books in this series, but this could be my favorite one yet. If you’re unfamiliar with this series, it follows Senior Investigator, Shana Merchant, and her partner/husband, Tim Wellington.
Each book focuses on a different case, or mystery, but there is a compelling over-arching storyline for Shana herself, that you won’t want to miss. I would recommend starting this series at the beginning for maximum enjoyment.
In this installment, Tim and Shana are alerted to a missing person on the vastly remote island of Running Pine. It’s February and only a handful of adults, and one child, actually remain on the island over-Winter.
This missing man, Cary, is one of the island’s newest residents, never having done a Winter there. Cary, and his girlfriend, Sylvie, who has family connections to the island, are social-media influencers, who moved to the island to promote their quasi-off-grid lifestyle brand.
Cary goes fishing with a couple of other Running Pine men one morning, but when the two men are ready to leave, Cary tells them he wants to stay out on the ice a while longer. After that, Cary never returns home. The remaining island citizens fear the worse, and immediately call for help and a vigorous search ensues.
With the clock ticking, and temps dropping, a police team makes the perilous journey, only possible by airboat over the ice this time of year, out to Running Pine.
The victim’s girlfriend, Sylvie, is acting bizarrely and it doesn’t seem she is disclosing everything she knows to the investigators. The other island residents are equally odd. What exactly are these people hiding?
This story was told so well. I love how it all unfolded. Learning about the residents of Running Pine and getting to travel out to the island and feel its remoteness. Wegert nailed the creation of that stark and desolate atmosphere.
Running Pine felt like a world of its own, following its own set of rules. Everything there seemed a little off, and I wanted Shana far, far away from it.
I also loved that the story was set in February. The cold got under my skin. There’s inclement weather that presents a huge obstacle to the police investigation, but in spite of that, Shana, Tim and the team, aren’t giving up.
There’s so much going on in Shana’s personal life as well. She’s about to start a new chapter, (view spoiler), and it has caused her to reflect a bit on her past, including the last case she had before leaving the NYPD.
I did enjoy this secondary mystery and felt it was important for Shana to reexamine that old case. She needs closure from that time period, 4-years ago, that ended with her in the clutches of a serial killer, after which she left the city, and the department, to move upstate.
As a trauma survivor, Shana’s journey of recovery and healing has happened in many stages. It’s still very much a part of her and I can definitely understand why she would be wanting to put more of it to bed, as she continues building her life in A-Bay.
The mix of the present case with Shana’s past was really well balanced by Wegert, IMO. Neither one overshadowed the other, and I feel like they were both important and impactful for Shana’s continued character growth.
I’m not sure what the plans are for this series, but I’m definitely anticipating more and would be shattered if this were actually the last one.
There were moments whilst reading this, that I actually questioned that, because Wegert was being so reflective with Shana’s character, it almost felt like a good-bye.
It can’t possibly be though, so I shall stalk Wegert’s author page remain patient whilst I wait for news on Book #7. Wegert’s at the top of her freaking game, this absolutely can’t be it for this gripping Mystery series.
When I tell you there were twists in this that left me gagged, I’m not exaggerating. This was such a fun read. I can’t wait to see what case Shana will face next!!
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