NYPD detective Shana Merchant and her partner Tim Wellington are called out to Tern Island with a report of a missing person. The only way to get to this island is by boat and making things harder is the nor'easter n their area. Once they get to the island, they are met by Norton, who is the caretaker along with many other duties. 

The Sinclair family owns this island and they are all there this weekend. Camilla is the matriarch of the family, and she is with her son Flynn and his partner Ned, her daughter Bebe and her husband Miles and his daughter Jade, and her son Jasper and his girlfriend Abella. When everyone wakes up one morning, there's blood in Jasper is gone, there's blood in his bed, and Abella has blood on her. Yet the family feels that he is only missing and not dead. Shana and Tim arrive and start their investigation. After talking to the entire family, they find everyone has a very different story about what took place. Several have mentioned a fight between Jasper and Abella, along with Flynn and Jasper having a fight.   

While Shana feels that this is a murder, Tim thinks it is just a missing person case. It seems that everyone in this family has a secret. Ned, even though he is with Flynn, is having an affair with Bebe. Ned’s goal is to work his way up as high as he can in the family business, but the business is having money problems. While Carmilla has given everyone extra money, Jasper is the only one who has not spent his. Now they find out that in Carmilla change her will so that Jasper will get everything. . . Can Shana and Tim really get to the bottom of this?  

DEATH IN THE FAMILY by Tessa Wegert, part of her Shana Merchant series, is a great novel. I really enjoyed the fact that I didn’t figure this out until the end. To me, this makes a great mystery novel. Wegert shows how, when it comes to money, even family will do anything to get ahead. This family is really a piece of work. 

I can’t even imagine having enough money to own my own island. I really enjoyed this book and will be looking for more Shana Merchant novels.