Book Review: In the Bones by Tessa Wegert
Title: In the Bones (North Country #1)
Author: Tessa Wegert
Release date: November 4th, 2025
*Huge thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for a digital ARC!*
Now, you may be asking yourself – Wait? Steve’s reading what? That? Well, I didn’t know Steve read mystery/thrillers!
And you wouldn’t be crazy in your thinking. Though I have enjoyed more mainstream books in the past, I’ve definitely veered sharply over my life more towards the horror realm and it does take a lot to get me out of my chosen genre.
But, I’ll also push back about the lack of mainstream books in my reading history and remind you of who my favorite author is, who coincidentally might be one of the biggest mainstream horror writers we’ve ever seen.
And it was through that author that I connected with Tessa, and when I asked Andrew about how the book he blurbed for her was, he told me it was fantastic and highly recommended I check out her books.
So, here we are. Now, I wasn’t too sure what to expect outside of the set up – a former NHL player buys a house in a remote North East town. Folks are excited to have him as a member of the community. But that all changes when an intruder surprises a woman cleaning the house and the body of a young woman is found in the basement.
I was intrigued. Who wouldn’t be? And with that, I dove in and found myself smack in the middle of a wild who-dunnit.
What I liked: If you’ve read any of my prior reviews, you’ll know that one of my biggest pet peeves is multiple POVs. Well, guess what? That’s this book. But where I normally roll my eyes and huff out in frustration, I just went with it, understanding the need for the switches.
The book loosely focuses on Nicole, the wife of Woody, who owns a seasonal mini-golf location. They have two daughters, the oldest about to graduate and head to college, and – as with many people these days – money is tight. They’re also struggling personally, as behind Nicole’s back, Woody signed on to be a partner with Mikko Helle, former NHLer, in an upstart business in town. Woody’s given Mikko their entire life savings and after a party at Mikko’s, Nicole isn’t sure if she can trust him like she used to.
From this point on, we jump between a bunch of characters, getting the present happenings of the investigation, while also seeing tidbits from the past. It works well to keep us informed, while Wegert also plants little seeds of ‘potentials.’ Those moments where we’re certain we know who did it, only to discover they couldn’t be the one… only to have that seed replanted when new information comes to light.
The pacing picks up throughout, which works perfectly to ramp up alongside the investigation and it leads us to the big reveal where we discover who did it.
Wegert guides us well, keeping us on our toes from start to finish.
What I didn’t like: Hey, look at that – I actually liked the multiple POVs! As for what didn’t work for me, there were two aspects. The first – and I think this is a case of me not reading much in this current landscape of mystery/thrillers – is there was a lot of exposition in a lot of the opening chapters. And it happened later on. I get that the characters are kind of rambling through thoughts and trying to figure out what was going on, but there were times when it just seemed like a lot considering where we were in the story.
The second thing itself was the ‘big reveal’ and events at the end. It always grinds my gears when we have all of this build up only for the ‘ta-dah!’ to be a few paragraphs long and this fell closely into that world. Again, I think this is a case of ‘standard plotting’ for this type of novel and what the readers like to eat up who read largely in this genre, but I wanted more of a ‘final confrontation.’
Why you should buy this: Tessa is known for her critically acclaimed Shana Merchant series, and Shana is a secondary character within the book as this branches off from that world, so fans of that series and of Shana’s will definitely be flocking over to this one.
For those who’ve not read Tessa’s work yet, this is a smart, sharp, edge-of-your-seat novel that felt a lot like how CSI and NCIS used to feel back when it started and was fresh. There’s a lot of moving pieces, Tessa delicately and expertly works them around each other and together and we’re all the richer for how well she handles this thriller.
This was a lot of fun, and even though it was far outside my standard reading preference, I was hooked and I’ll definitely be keeping my eye open for when we see a North Country #2 down the road.
