Frozen stiff

Annelise Ryan

Book - 2011

Death is never pretty, and deputy coroner Mattie Winston's latest case is no exception. But this victim certainly was strikingly beautiful--before someone stuck that knife into her chest. Mattie knows everyone in the charmingly small town of Sorenson, Wisconsin, so the deceased is definitely a stranger from out of town. If a woman this attractive had moved into town, the news would have surely hit the gossip mill in record time. So what was the victim doing here, laid out in this desolate field? Things only get murkier with the arrival at the scene of the usually stoic and dependable detective Steven Hurley; one look at the body and he turns as white as the newly fallen snow, and excuses himself from the case. It turns out the victim w...as a top investigative reporter from Chicago, and Hurley not only knew her, they dated a year and a half ago, until she broke it off. While Mattie grapples with her jealousy of a dead woman, Hurley swears her to secrecy and tells her that knife in his ex's chest is his! It's a case with more twists than Maddie's own crazy love life, and it'll take all of her forensic skills to unravel the increasingly bizarre clues and find the killer, before she herself becomes just another cold case!

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MYSTERY/Ryan, Annelise
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Subjects
Published
New York : Kensington Books c2011.
Language
English
Main Author
Annelise Ryan (-)
Physical Description
323 p. ; 22 cm
ISBN
9780758234568
Contents unavailable.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The discovery of a beautiful young woman's body in the snow by a cornfield propels Ryan's absorbing third mystery featuring Sorenson, Wis., deputy coroner Mattie Winston (after 2010's Scared Stiff). Mattie's life, already complicated by a soon to be ex-husband and a new boyfriend, Steve Hurley, the Sorenson PD's main homicide detective, becomes even more complicated after Steve arrives at the crime scene, blanches at the sight of the stabbed corpse, and beats a hasty retreat. It turns out Steve once dated the victim, a Chicago investigative reporter. When another body turns up and the police detain Steve as a possible suspect in both murders, Mattie must draw on all her forensic skills to clear his name. At her peril, the intrepid Mattie sets out in her midnight blue, slightly used hearse in search of answers. The pseudonymous Ryan, herself an R.N., smoothly blends humor, distinctive characters, and authentic forensic detail. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Deputy coroner Mattie Winston's (Working Stiff) heart cracks just a little when she learns the beautiful corpse in the snow was once the girlfriend of handsome local detective Steve Hurley. The victim was a Chicago news reporter, and the killer dumped her in small-town Sorenson, WI, to frame Steve. Or is Steve really a killer intent upon wreaking havoc on all his neighbors and friends? A series of wild events over the Thanksgiving holiday truly challenges Sorenson's law-enforcement team. Mattie continues her clumsy but fearless forays into finding the answers to puzzling questions. Her self-deprecating, slightly raunchy humor can detract, but her competence as a former ER nurse, plus a quirky supporting cast, makes the series intriguing. VERDICT Ryan has a good eye for forensic and medical detail, and Mattie gets past her Big Girl complex to be the woman of the hour in her third outing. Sue Ann Jaffarian fans might like. Ryan is a pseudonym for suspense writer Beth Amos. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.