DEVILS AT THE DOOR

Shana Merchant’s unsettled upstate New York household is invaded by an unexpectedly troublesome presence: Shana’s teenage niece.

What could be more awkward for Shana, a senior investigator for the New York State Police, and her teammate Tim Wellington as they busily plan their Christmas wedding than to take in Henrietta Della Merchant, the wayward daughter of Doug Merchant, her brother in Vermont? But Hen’s become so uncommunicative and unmanageable at home that Shana and Tim open their doors and hearts to her. The gesture’s not returned: Hen continues obstinately silent even after Shana’s called one night to Devil’s Oven Island, where she finds Hen and three of her few school friends, one of them dead. A preliminary exam indicates that Leif Colebrook has drowned, but the medical examiner rules otherwise, and Shana, still burdened by her neighbors’ identification of her with Blake Bram, the cousin whose many murder victims include her ex-husband, finds her position compromised even further by Hen’s involvement in Leif’s death. The most ironic twist of all, Shana thinks, is that the very reason Mia Klinger, the leader of the three teens discovered with Hen at Devil’s Oven, befriended the outsider was because she was fascinated by her link to Bram. But Shana, who feels guilty because she didn’t stop Ford Colebrook, Leif’s grieving father, from kissing her, is wrong. That’s not nearly the most ironic twist in a tale whose secrets keep getting more and more devastating.

Missing your relatives and your summer vacation? Wegert has the perfect antidote.