Tessa Wegert is a gifted writer.
The Dead Seasonnis book 2 in the Shana Merchant series. This story is close to home for Shana.
She has to return to her hometown to figure out why the killer wants her there.

Will she figure out why the killer has sent her home to her family? Will being back home help her find the little boy the killer took?

A great read with lots of questions.

The Dead Season follows the events of Death in the Family as Shana is on leave from work yet finds herself following two cases, both of which connect with her past.

I really liked the intense mystery that took place in Death in the Family, and I enjoyed The Dead Season just as much! Although it took me a little bit longer to get into, once I did, I was hooked in following Shana and her chase against the man who kidnapped her years ago. The plot was so interesting, and I loved getting to sit down with this book any chance I got. Seeing Shana develop as a character in two books now makes me excited to see her in the third book of the series. I don’t pick up mysteries super often, but this was a very captivating read that more people should be reading!

TW for violence, kidnapping, animal cruelty, drug addiction, missing people, overdose, murder.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the ARC of The Dead Season by Tessa Wegert!

Another entertaining and gripping read by Tessa Wegert. I love Shana Merchant’s character and eagerly await the next book in this series.

I like this series so much and cannot wait for the next book in the series. I enjoy the mysteries and the unique characters.

I was excited to dive into the second Shana Merchant book after thoroughly enjoying the first. Wegert didn't disappoint with the sophomore entry in this series. A thoroughly solid mystery and continuing/expanding of the mythology of this world and some startling revelations about the serial killer that is stalking our heroine. Love the ending.

A Family Drama and the Kidnapping of a Child. Talk about Tense Times.

Picking up where Death in the Family left off, The Dead Season follows Shauna Merchant after she has been suspended from duty and is in therapy for PTSD. Though she is suspended, she can't help but miss her job. When her Uncle goes missing, Shauna works to find him. Then a little boy named Trey is kidnapped and Shauna thinks Bram is responsible. Though her old partner Tim is assigned to that case, Shauna begins to think the two crimes are linked.

Can she solve them before it's too late?

Haunted by her past, Shauna has to go back to to her hometown to try solve this one.

While I enjoyed this novel I thought it started out quite slow and took a while to get going. Once it did about half way through I enjoyed it more. I found the storyline itself to be intriguing and can't wait to see what happens to Shauna and her partner next.

Thank you to Berkley for the arc.

This is book two of the Shana Merchant series. I absolutely loved Death in the Family and was excited to see where the author would take us next.

Unfortunately this follow up lacked all the tension and chills that book one gave us. Shana came off flat and I had a hard time remembering her as the same strong willed character.

I lacked a connection to Shana and the storyline, as a result I skimmed my way to the end. Just not a good fit for me this time around.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing.

I will admit that I don't really remember the first book in the series, DEATH IN THE FAMILY. Possibly because I read many similar locked room mysteries right after another. Soooo... while Shana stood out, I couldn't remember the other characters.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

It was complex and intriguing. Shana is definitely a favorite now-the way Wegert writes about her PTSD is great and really makes you feel for her.

The plot twists were in suspenseful and not at all expected. All in all a successful second Shana story.

The Dead Season by Tessa Wegert is book 2 of the Shana Merchant series and what a book it was. Shana really has to face a big part of her past in this novel, and I don't think I will ever really understand why she does the things she does. It is my opinion that this series should be read in order, and you will understand more about Shana if you start with Death in the Family. You get to know Shana a bit better in this book as well as her relationship with various family members, and I loved the dive into her life. The mystery surrounding the murder of her uncle and the rush to find the missing boy made this a very suspenseful read and I was glued to the pages. The stakes keep getting higher in the game between Shana and Bram, and the end of the book made me need book 3 RIGHT NOW.

The audiobook for The Dead Season is again narrated by Callie Beaulieu and I love that they are keeping her as the narrator and staying consistent. She makes the perfect Shana and I always enjoy listening to her. The audio is very short at just over 9 hours and if you are as big a fan of audio as I am, I definitely suggest going that route but maybe having a physical copy on hand as well. There are a lot of characters and a lot going on, so it's really nice to have something to look back at. Wegert's writing is very immersive and engaging, and that was just as evident in this novel. I love crime fiction and The Dead Season has all the crime you could want while also feeling like a police procedural which I also love. This was another fantastic installment to the series, and I clearly can't wait until the next book comes out!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I really enjoyed The Dead Season. While it is the second book in the series, it can easily be read as a standalone.

Wow, this second installment of Tessa Wegert’s series was intense! Shana Merchant, a police detective out on leave, is trying to piece her life back together and work though PTSD after being held hostage by a serial killer. When a child goes missing in her district and a long buried body turns up in her hometown, the events feel too familiar and connected. This was a slow burn at the start but once it got going, I could not put this dark, twisty, police procedural down. The character development is excellent, as is the process of peeling back layers of the crimes, both past and present. Book three cannot come soon enough!

This book was OK. It was your typical mystery, who done it. For me it kind of dragged out a bit nothing really stood out all that much. The ending was excited but overall I don’t really think the book is for me.

Thank you to the publisher for a free copy of this book.
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I absolutely loved this follow up to A Death in the Family. I loved how Shana's past played a much bigger role in this book. Loved how we finally found out more about Bram. And I sure did love how this book ended.

The writing was well done, as in book 1. The other characters were not as annoying and pretentious as in book 1. The pace for me felt better than book 1 too.

Overall this book was fantastic and I will be looking forward to the future installments of this series.

I'm a sucker for anything that says serial killer, so I knew I had to check this book out. I went into this book not knowing it was the second in a series. It didn't stop me from enjoying all the twists and turns though. I do think it would have been better if I had read the first book, but it gives you enough background so that it can be read alone and enjoyed if you haven't read it. I'll definitely go back to read the first one, thought it will be more like a flashback instead of not knowing who the abductor/killer is.

This book had a lot going on, but in a good way. There were a handful of characters in the MC's family and small town that were all caught up in the mess of what might have/happened to Shana's uncle. I loved watching the story unfold. I don't really think that there needed to be the abduction of the boy to have this story, but I know that is how Bram wanted to pull Shana back into his game.

I really enjoyed getting information from all the different characters and how each of them were currently doing, what grudges were being held, who was protecting who and who didn't know shit. All in all, it was a really well put together story with characters that were relevent, interesting and made you care about what had happened.

I can't wait to see what Tessa comes out with next. She is wonderful at pulling a story together while not giving away too much and making you care about the people involved.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for a copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I thought that this was was just as great as the first book in the series. We dive even further into Shana's past as her Uncle who everyone assumed skipped town is found dead and has been dead all this time. We learn more about the trauma Shana went through before the events of the first book while also building more of a relationship between her partner tim and her. I always say, and I mean always go on about how character development for me is the most essential part to a police procedural series. You have to want to see these characters come back to solve more crime and I definitely can't wait to see what comes next!

The book also had a more pressing case of a missing boy taking place and it all linked together to the cold case of the murder of her uncle. It formed into one cohesive story that Shana and her team were able to solve both cases but left the infamous Bram still out in the world to cook up other ways to get to Shana.

The Shana Merchant mystery series is one my new favorites! I read the first book Death in the Family earlier this year and The Dead Season is book two and was released this week! If you like a good mystery, then you will want to pick these both up! Here are some mini reviews below.

You learn in the first book that Shana barely escaped being kidnapped by a serial killer… what! When her estranged uncle’s remains are discovered, she unfortunately must go home to solve the cold case and maybe solve her own kidnapping case. Her past comes flooding back as she interviews family members and realizes there was so much that she never knew. In a small town people are so interwoven that she knows the answers are all there along with her psychopath… because there is another kidnapping! And the ending is jaw dropping…

This is the second book in the Shana Merchant series and it starts just a couple of weeks after the first book ended. Right as she’s getting ready for her psych evaluation to decide whether she’s capable of going back to active duty or not, the discovery of her uncle’s body (who disappeared when she was a teen) brings her back to her hometown. When a little boy is kidnapped and she receives a few misterious notes, she realizes that her former kidnapper has plans for her. If she wants to find this kid, she needs to play along.

As always, Tessa Wegert’s writing is great, and it turns out to be a very fast paced read, with many twists and turns. While I’m not sure I care much about Shana, I love we’re getting to know Tim a little bit more. He seems to be such a great person and investigator. Always patient, insightful and resourceful, he truly steals the scene as soon as he enters it.

There were only 2 things I didn’t like and I can’t go into them here because of spoilers, but suffice it to say, it makes absolutely no sense that the police would ever agree NOT to share the identity of a perpetrator among the other investigators, when people keep turning up dead or injured. That just doesn’t add up and it made the book lose one star for me.

But other than that, I loved the pace, the setting, I love how we keep learning more about the characters, and I will absolutely continue with the series! 4 stars!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book will make a lot more sense if you read the series in order (this is book 2). I didn't know this and spent a good chunk of my time flailing around, trying to figure out exactly what happened in the first book and how it influenced the current mystery.
I enjoyed the setting, having spent some time just across the border from "A Bay". It felt authentic. And cold.
There were two things that bothered me about the story. One. There was so much deception and so many incomplete stories and witness accounts I often found myself saying, "Would you just spit it out already?". And not just by suspects (I'm looking at you, Shana's parents). Two. Shana, the main character, a police detective, was apparently more concerned with protecting her family's reputation than finding an abducted child.
But despite all of my frustration, I think I now have a decent grasp on the backstory and will keep an eye out for the next book in the series. Especially since this one ended on a....

Following last year’s release of DEATH IN THE FAMILY, Tessa Wegert returns with THE DEAD SEASON, her second book featuring protagonist Shana Merchant, a bright and creative detective with a brutal past.

When readers last saw Shana, she had taken a detective job in Clayton, a sleepy upstate New York town, joined by her fiancé, a heralded psychologist. Along with fellow investigator Tim Wellington, Shana solved a locked-room case involving a highly dysfunctional wealthy family, a deserted island and, of course, murder. But Shana, who not long before barely survived an abduction by Blake Bram, a twisted serial killer, made several errors in her last case, all caused by her own PTSD and unexplored trauma. Since solving her first case in New York, she has taken leave from the force to dump her controlling fiancé and focus on her own healing. Unfortunately, her former abductor has other plans.

The Shana we meet at the start of THE DEAD SEASON is like a new woman in many ways: she no longer looks over her shoulder in fear, has stopped letting her ex control her, and is ready to approach the police force with a new esteem. She understands now that any failure on her part to be her best self can harm not only herself, but also her partner and, most importantly, any victims she sets out to help. Armed with therapy and a new round of self-defense courses, Shana is bracing herself for a return to the work she loves when she learns that a skeleton has been found in her hometown of Swanton, Vermont: her long-missing uncle.

Swanton is a complicated place. A small town fueled by gossip and rumors, it is where Shana’s face was scarred for life and where Bram was born and raised, right alongside a young Shana. Bram was never found after he killed the police officer looking for Shana and fled, but the fact that he left her alive means that he is not done toying with her. And despite her refusal to admit it, she knows exactly who he is.

As Shana returns to Swanton to help her family deal with the fallout of her uncle’s murder, a young boy named Trey goes missing from Clayton, dividing Shana’s focus between her hometown and her new home. When she finds a taped-up sign with her uncle’s photo juxtaposed against an image of the missing boy and the words “wanna play?” written on the back, she knows that Bram is back for her. Tim is leading the investigation into Trey’s whereabouts, and Shana must now convince him that the boy's disappearance is tied to her and her connection with Bram.

Wegert employs a Sherlock Holmes-like cat-and-mouse narrative, with Bram teasing Shana out of emotional retirement and setting her ability to solve the case of her uncle’s murder against his potential releasing of Trey. She knows there will be blood on her hands if she cannot solve both cases, but Swanton holds more secrets than just the identity of her uncle’s killer. With more of Shana’s past coming to light and her connection to Bram finally revealed, she embarks on a breakneck journey for the truth.

Once again, Wegert pens a deliciously twisty plot reminiscent of an Agatha Christie mystery. But where DEATH IN THE FAMILY was a perfect locked-room whodunit, THE DEAD SEASON delves much deeper into not only Shana’s background but also her overarching search for Bram. Unlike before, though, she is no longer focused only on hunting for him...she is now letting him hunt her. Wegert reveals Bram’s identity earlier than I had anticipated, but it is no less shocking or explosive, as it adds a whole new layer to Shana’s abduction. But with Bram’s kidnapping of Trey adding the potential for fresh blood to their cat-and-mouse game, the stakes are upped and the question of who is really after who becomes hazy. It is never quite clear who has the upper hand.

While THE DEAD SEASON was certainly compelling, and I feel that Shana’s character development will be essential to future installments, Wegert spreads herself a bit thin by stacking one mystery against another. A missing child is horrific in any situation, yet I found myself caring much more about Tessa’s murdered uncle, with the plot heavily weighted with details of his case rather than Trey’s. I loved learning more about Shana’s past and motivations, and Wegert’s handling of her PTSD was exemplary in its compassion. But as an author, Wegert is much stronger when her mystery is more focused and contained, as it was in DEATH IN THE FAMILY.

Though the cases were tied together by Bram, this chapter in Shana’s story felt more like a stepping stone to what promises to be an even more thrilling third installment, which I will be first in line to buy. Much like Bram, the world is nowhere near done with Shana Merchant, and I look forward to seeing where Wegert takes her next.

I think Tessa Wegert may be another auto buy author for me! I requested this book before realizing it was the second in a series so i read that one before this one so they’re both pretty fresh! I’m glad i read the first, first!

I think it’d be fine to read as a stand alone but i think the backstory is important and frankly they’re both great reads so just read both!

I loved the mystery in this. It was two cases she was trying to solve and figure out how they related and whether they did or not. I loved getting to know Shana more and diving more into her traumas and how it’s effected her life. You also learn more about bram and boy is he fascinating. In a twisted & scary way... but still haha! She just can’t escape him! And the details that come out about their connection, holy smokes! I did not see that coming!!

I did think this one started a bit slower than Death In The Family but once it picks up, it’s fast! I love all the twists and turns and there was some graphic scenes but not too bad!

All the pieces came together in the end for one case, and really had me a tad emotional at the conclusion as it was solved. Don’t want to give any spoilers but i definitely had some emotions at the end! And then...
A freakin cliff hanger!!! Omg. I usually don’t love cliff hangers because I’m impatient haha! But i am just dying to read the next book! I need to know where it goes!!