I’ve always been fascinated by mysteries and thrillers set in small towns. I’m sure that has a lot to do with the fact that I grew up in a small university town in rural Quebec. My town seemed quite enough – but that was only because my parents did a good job of keeping its rumors and scandals under wraps. Like every other small town, it harbored its share of secrets, and by the time I was a teenager, I’d come to understand that you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.   In DEAD WIND, the third mystery in my Shana Merchant series, Senior Investigator Shana Merchant pulls back the veil on the Thousand Islands of upstate New York and Ontario, and discovers that her new community is concealing secrets and grudges that some people think are worth killing for. If you love a small-town mystery, here are four crime fiction series to watch, all of which have a similar vibe to DEAD WIND. Shetland   Based on the excellent crime fiction series by British mystery writer Ann Cleeves, Shetland isn’t just set in a small town, but on small islands. The series follows Detective Inspector Jimmy…

Hi, Tessa! Welcome to Fresh Fiction. Please tell us about yourself and a little bit about your book, THE DEAD SEASON.   Hi everyone! I grew up in Canada and now live with my family in Connecticut. I was a freelance journalist for many years, and while I enjoyed the work, I also craved a creative outlet. That’s what led me to start writing novels. THE DEAD SEASON is the second book in the Shana Merchant series of mysteries, the first of which, DEATH IN THE FAMILY, was released in early 2020. For readers who may not be familiar, can you give a little background on the setup for the Shana Merchant series?   Shana Merchant is a former NYPD detective who narrowly escaped abduction when the serial killer she was hunting turned his focus to her. All the police know about Blake Bram is that he, like Shana, is from Swanton, Vermont. Traumatized by her kidnapping and haunted by the knowledge that she has a personal connection to the killer, she moves with her fiancé to the Thousand Islands of Upstate New York, where she takes a job with the detective branch of the New York State Police and…