Welcome to STYLE Canada‘s Boreal Book Club: a monthly meeting narrated by Girl Well Read, for bookworms who’re looking to scour new pages. Since we aim to shine a spotlight on all things Canadian in life and style, beauty, and health and wellness, it goes without saying that every instalment of the Boreal Book Club will feature a Canadian author and their latest title. Be sure to use the hashtag #BorealBookClub to share with us on social!
Photo credit: @tessawegert and @severnhouseimprint via Instagram
It’s almost summer in Cape Vincent, and as the heat rises, ex-professional ice hockey superstar Mikko Helle arrives, ready to move into his extravagantly renovated waterfront home. Mikko is 30, handsome, and wealthy. He’s a stranger in town. There’s no reason to suspect Mikko is anything other than he seems.
Local married mother-of-two Nicole Durham works her connections hard to get hired as his cleaner. She needs this job—and not just because of the money. Nicole is desperate to expose a secret, and she’s running out of time.
But when Nicole disturbs an intruder while cleaning, New York State Police Investigator Tim Wellington discovers that the luxury mansion is hiding its own unthinkable truth. Deep in the basement lie the bones of a young woman, identity unknown.
The celebrity athlete. The local. The thief. Everyone is hiding something—but someone in the North Country’s a ruthless killer, and one of the three knows exactly who it is.
Photo: Tessa Wegert (Hildi Todrin/Crane Song Photography)
The arrival of a celebrity athlete on a remote peninsula in New York’s Thousand Islands unearths dark and deadly buried secrets in this heart-pounding blend of suspense and mystery, the first in the new North Country series—Agatha Christie meets Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley. Although this book can be read as a standalone, reading the Shana Merchant series not only provides the atmospheric escape of a thriller, but it offers insight into many of the characters. This background information fully fleshes out the cast only for Wegert to yank the table cloth right out from under the reader without disturbing the masterfully crafted plot. Highly recommend!
TESSA WEGERT is the critically acclaimed author of the Shana Merchant mysteries, as well as the North Country series. Her books have received numerous starred reviews and have been featured on PBS and NPR Radio. A former journalist and copywriter, Tessa grew up in Quebec and now lives with her husband and children in Connecticut, where she co-founded Sisters in Crime CT and serves on the board of International Thriller Writers (ITW).
Photo credit: @tessawegert via Instagram
GWR: How did you start writing/become a writer?
TW: I grew up in a house packed to the gills with books, so I fell in love with reading and creative writing early on. For a long time I focused on short stories, and got so into it that I won some awards, but I didn’t attempt to write a novel until I had two little kids (perfect timing, right? Ha!). The first book I wrote, which was a speculative thriller, got me my first agent, but it took several more years and practice books for me to land a contract. The timing was very lucky…I’d written an homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, and it went on submission just as the contemporary locked-room mystery craze was starting to gain steam. That mystery—called Death in the Family—was picked up in a two-book deal, and it ended up kicking off the Shana Merchant series, of which there are now six instalments.
GWR: What does your writing process look like? How many hours a day do you write? Are you a pantser/gardner or a plotter/architect?
TW: Honestly, it’s a mixed bag. I write almost every day, but the timing and location vary, so while I try to get a few hours in every morning, I’ll also type up scenes while sitting in the rink during my son’s hockey practice, while I’m waiting for dinner to finish cooking, or at midnight when the house quiets down. I always have an initial outline, but have found over the years that my stories benefit from a more flexible approach. With several books, I’ve changed the identity of the killer within days of my deadline, and I think that made the mystery more unexpected (if I don’t know whodunit until I’m in deep, the reader isn’t likely to know either).
GWR: How do you decide what point to start the story at and how much detail you’re going to provide?
TW: I aim to start the story when the action’s about to ramp up—like with The Coldest Case, which starts with a woman arriving by snowmobile at the police station to report a man missing from an isolated island, or In the Bones, which begins with a woman stalking a celebrity hockey player who’s about to move into his summer home. When it comes to decisions about details, I like to withhold quite a few of those to keep readers in suspense. There’s enough action that they’re engaged and curious, but they don’t have all the puzzle pieces quite yet.
Photo credit: @tessawegert via Instagram
GWR: What draws you to darker themes? Why thrillers?
TW: I’ve grappled with this question a lot, and I think it comes down to fear. Writing mysteries and thrillers lets me channel my darkest fears and anxieties into a medium I can control, which is pretty cathartic. I’m also really curious about people and what makes them tick. Thrillers are risk-free escapism, and they pull back the curtain on the facets of human nature that we don’t always get to see.
GWR: In the Bones is told from multiple points of view and feature familiar characters from the Shana Merchant series. Were you consciously allowing readers to see Shana through a different lens? And what was it like to get inside those supporting characters’ heads?
TW: This was such a fun book to write, because it’s the first in what’s essentially a spinoff series. It was definitely a conscious decision to diverge from Shana’s point of view, which is what you get with books in the Shana Merchant series, and provide a fresh perspective on her life and world. In the Bones allowed me to dig into secondary and new characters in a way that I couldn’t when I was in Shana’s head. I loved telling this story through disparate voices, and making decisions about who would reveal key aspects of the plot.
GWR: Your books are set in the Thousand Islands and have a small-town vibe that is as claustrophobic as it is atmospheric. What role does setting play when constructing a mystery?
TW: Setting is hugely important to me, to the extent that I always start a book with atmosphere and mood rather than plot and let the setting drive the story. I’m so jealous of those writers who can visualize a twist before writing the first word! Typically, I see the crime—which is closely linked to setting—long before I know the killer, and the solution reveals itself as I get to know the characters and their motives. The Thousand Islands region is the gift that keeps on giving, because there are so many places where an interesting story stepped in local culture and socioeconomic dynamics can play out. So far, I’ve centered mysteries around priceless private island, controversial wind farms, street festivals that attract hordes of tourists, a tiny icebound community, and a waterfront home with a deadly secret, and there are so many more places I have yet to go.
Photo credit: @tessawegert via Instagram
GWR: What’s the one element of a thriller that is a must?
TW: High stakes, whether physical, emotional, or moral. Readers need to feel that turn of the screw and sense the danger mounting. The action and pressure has to be earned, though, so if I could add a second must-have, it would be a believable motivation.
GWR: How do you write an effective red herring when you are so close to the material?
TW: The most effective red herrings are the ones that aren’t just surprising to readers but also throw the protagonist off kilter as they experience suspicion, betrayal, and doubt. I look for candidates among the cast of credible suspects I’ve written, and count on beta readers to confirm that the strategy worked. It’s all about misdirection and withholding just enough. Mystery and thriller readers can be pretty brilliant, so I have my work cut out for me.
Photo credit: @tessawegert via Instagram
GWR: If your book was a beverage, what would it be?
TW: Ooh, I love this question (and researched the heck out of it, haha). In the Bones would be a Death in the Afternoon, which was apparently created by Hemingway. It’s made with absinthe and champagne: cryptic and bold, with an intense finish.
GWR: What are you working on now?
TW: I’m currently drafting Book Two in the North Country series! It involves cross-border drug smuggling and a high-profile missing persons case, and it’s due to release in late 2026.
