📖 Book Description
A North Country Novel
Up in the far corner of New York State, past the last of the cities, lies the North Country. Summer people come for the boats and the sunsets. Then the season turns, the water goes dark, and the river towns close in on themselves. It’s an impossible place to police.
But New York State Police Investigator Tim Wellington, born and raised here, will do whatever it takes to keep his community safe.
Three days before Halloween, a young woman staggers down a quiet street in Clayton. No shoes. No coat. Nothing but a bikini and a fist closed tight around something she won’t show anyone. She won’t say where she came from. She won’t say what was done to her. Then she runs.
The North Country is already reeling. A high-school senior is dead of an overdose. But the record haul seized from a speedboat doesn’t match the cocaine that killed him.
Someone else is still selling. And they are very close.
The clock is ticking for Tim to track down the drug dealers.
Then another local girl disappears . . .
📚 Publication Details
AUTHOR: Tessa Wegert
BOOK TITLE: The River Runs Black
SERIES: North Country Novels – book 2
PUBLICATION DATE: 8 September 2026
EDITION REVIEWED: Digital Edition
ISBN: 9781448315093
PAGES: 329
PUBLISHER: Severn House (imprint of Joffe Books)
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🌟 Book Tour
I’m delighted to be taking part in the book tour for The River Runs Black, hosted by Zooloo’s Book Tours.
My sincere thanks to Zooloo’s Book Tours for the opportunity to take part in this tour and read this book.
Zooloo’s Book Tours 🔗 Website • Facebook • Instagram • TikTok
✍️ About the Author
Tessa Wegert
Tessa Wegert is the critically acclaimed author of the Shana Merchant mysteries, as well as the North Country series, beginning with In the Bones. 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 in Connecticut, where she co-founded Sisters in Crime CT and serves on the board of International Thriller Writers (ITW).
🔗 Connect with the Author
👩🏻💻 My Review
A Complicated Journey Through the North Country
The River Runs Black certainly kept me on my toes. There is a lot going on in this story, with a large cast of characters, numerous locations, several different points of view and multiple strands to the investigation. The prologue immediately caught my attention when a distressed young woman appeared on a street in Clayton wearing only a bikini despite the cold October weather. I wanted to know who she was, where she had come from and why she ran the moment she discovered that the woman offering to help her was a police officer.
After such an intriguing opening, I did find the early part of the book difficult to settle into. There is a great deal of geographical detail and, as someone completely unfamiliar with New York’s North Country, I struggled at times to picture where everyone was and how the different towns, waterways and locations related to each other. There were also a lot of names and different threads to keep track of. The story is told from several points of view, with each chapter clearly identifying whose perspective we are following, and I really appreciated this. It gave me something to anchor myself to as the story moved between the different characters and investigations.
The River Runs Black is the second standalone book in the North Country series. I haven’t read the first book, but this didn’t cause me any real problems with understanding the relationships between the characters or following the investigation.
This wasn’t always an easy story to navigate. There were times when I thought I had worked out where one part of the investigation was heading, only for another piece of information to complicate things again. Even my feelings towards some of the characters changed as more was revealed.
There is a lot to take in and this is definitely a book that needed my full attention, but I enjoyed watching the different threads gradually come together. Most importantly, after everything the story had put me through, I reached the end feeling satisfied with how it had all played out.
DISCLOSURE: I received a review copy of this book via Zooloo’s Book Tours and NetGalley.
#TheRiverRunsBlack #TessaWegert #NorthCountryNovel
#SevernHouse #JoffeBooks #NetGalley #ZooloosBookTours
MoMoBookDiary Index
- Author
- Tessa Wegert
- Title
- The River Runs Black
- Series
- North Country Novel – book 2
- Publisher
- Severn House (Imprint of Joffe Books)
- Genre
- Police Procedural
- Setting
- North Country, New York, USA
- Source
- Zooloo’s Book Tours
- NetGalley
- Date Read
- September 2026
- Review Shared
- Amazon
- Goodreads
- NetGalley
- The StoryGraph
- Archive Checked
- X
MoMoBookDiary 
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