Dead Wind

In Wegert’s standout third crime thriller starring Shana Merchant (after 2020’s The Dead Season), the former NYPD detective continues to pursue Blake Bram, who abducted her after killing three women he’d met through a dating website. After she escaped, the traumatized Merchant joined the New York State Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Alexandria Bay, near the Canadian border, where she got more information on her quarry from another survivor of Bram, nine-year-old Trey Hayes. The case grows cold, though, by the time Hope Oberon is found strangled just across the border at the base of a wind turbine. Oberon was president of the development council of a neighboring city, Watertown, until she and three others were charged in a corruption scheme involving a wind farm. Merchant believes Bram is responsible, but she has other suspects as well, including opponents of the wind farm, foes of Oberon’s father (Watertown’s longtime mayor), and citizens angered by her graft. Wegert nicely balances plot and characterization. Fans of Denise Mina’s Alex Morrow will be pleased. Agent: Marlene Stringer, Stringer Literary Agency. (Apr.)