Northwoods by Amy Pease

 Northwoods, releasing January 9, is a debut novel by Amy Pease. Northwoods of Wisconsin is a vacation area near the small town of Shaky Lake with its sheriff’s department working within a too small budget. When a teenage boy is found dead in a boat, Eli North begins the investigation as he is a deputy there working under the supervision of his mother the sheriff.

Eli was once a strong, thriving young man with a job he loved and a wife and son. After deployment to Afghanistan, his powers of investigation are still sharp but his emotional wounds run deep and cloud his judgment. He copes by drinking, which is to say he is not coping well.

When it is determined the deceased was injected with opioids and suffered two head injuries, the entire sheriff’s department—all three deputies and the sheriff herself—has its hands full. Worse, during the investigation, they find that a teenage girl is missing.

Before the cases are solved, a pharmaceutical company trying to push its new drug that promises to save opioid addicts becomes entangled in the case. Eli determines that there is more going on than a dead boy and a missing girl. This case is his chance to redeem himself as the man he once was, but if he fails, he could lose everything.

Amy Pease, a nurse practitioner, is a nationally recognized HIV specialist. She lives in Wisconsin with her family. 

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting November 21, 2023.

I would like to thank Atria Books/Emily Bestler Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.