WILDWOOD, second in the Northwoods police-procedural series

WILDWOOD (Northwoods #2)
AMY PEASE
Atria/Emily Bestler Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: From the acclaimed author of the “riveting debut” (People) Northwoods, a mother-son law enforcement team confront buried secrets in their small town as they work to expose a conspiracy that goes far beyond the tight-knit community.

Deputy Sheriff Eli North has spent the last year getting his life back together. He hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol, he’s working through his PTSD from his military deployment, and he’s repairing his most important relationships. When an undercover informant disappears and all signs point to murder, Eli must expose the dark underbelly of his idyllic Wisconsin small town while safeguarding his newfound stability.

Then, with the unexpected arrival of FBI Agent Alyssa Mason, Eli and his mother, the sheriff, are pulled deeper into a violent criminal network built on the backs of the lost and forgotten.

As the case deepens, loyalties fracture and the line between justice and survival begins to blur. In a town where everyone has something to hide, exposing the truth may cost them everything.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Marge and Eli are back! (Follow the link at the top to find out who they are.) They're making rural northern Wisconsin as safe from wrongdoing as they're able to. It's been simple up to now.

That's a joke. The truth is nothing in law enforcement is simple, nor has it ever been. It's always a balancing act, it's an exercise in how deep the shadows are that you can leave alone and still accomplish the goal of reinforcing Ma'at's web of right action and good behavior. Ancient Egypt's goddess of the social fabric ought to replace the yucky moralizing minatory system in place now...though of course that's always how humans will develop any system of control given enough time.

Back to Author Pease: Alyssa and Marge are developed in ways I would not have predicted they would be. In common with the rest of the series, Author Pease uses this story to give her characters personhood, real dimensionality; even contradictory and inconsistent pasts and goals that change. It makes them all feel like people I would be pleased to meet in real life. They are believably still dealing with the same kind of crisis as in Northwoods because these issues were not, could not be, resolved to an end point in one case (no matter how complex and wide-ranging it turned out to be).

That's really the secret of a solid, lasting series mystery. The scoobygroup needs to feel like a posse you'd want to join by reading about them. Their interactions and interdependence are the source of a social web that will either trap you or make you desperate to escape. I'm in the trapped camp.

Social disintegration, personal reconstruction, Life's endless stream of entropy...all in this very well-crafted and solidly written story of a family doing its dead-level best to battle for Right, Good, and Justice for All. Well worth your time and treasure, like the first one was.