Dead Calm (Mattie Winston Series #9)

by Annelise Ryan

Overview

As deputy medical examiner and homicide detective respectively, newlyweds Mattie Winston and Steve Hurley are dispatched to a grisly crime scene at the Grizzly Motel, a seedy joint for illicit liaisons on the outskirts of Sorenson, Wisconsin. A man and woman are found dead next to each other in bed in what initially appears to be a grim but straightforward murder-suicide. An affair gone sour?
 
But as the forensic evidence is gathered and autopsies are performed, Mattie and Hurley realize the scene has been staged. They have a double murder on their hands. The spurned spouses of both victims top the list of suspects, but as more is revealed, the case becomes increasingly complex. Dividing their time and resources between the crime and an ongoing investigation involving Mattie's father, plus caring for their kids, the two are stretched to their limits. After another victim turns up dead, there's no room for error as they stage a scene of their own to back the killer into a corner . . .
 
Praise for Annelise Ryan and her Mattie Winston series
 
“The forensic details will interest Patricia Cornwell readers . . . while the often slapstick humor and the blossoming romance between Mattie and Hurley will draw Evanovich fans.” —Booklist
 
“The funniest deputy coroner to cut up a corpse since, well, ever!”
—Laura Levine, author of Killer Cruise
 
“A puzzler of a mystery. Annelise Ryan has created a smart and saucy heroine in Mattie Winston . . . What a thrill ride!” —New York Times bestselling author Jenn McKinlay
 
“Ryan smoothly blends humor, distinctive characters, and authentic forensic detail.”
—Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496706690
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	01/29/2019
Series:	Mattie Winston Series , #9
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	452,996
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Annelise Ryan is the pseudonym for the author of the Mattie Winston Mysteries and another mystery series. She has written more than 200 published articles, worked as a book reviewer for Barnes & Noble, and is an active member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. She currently works as a registered nurse in an ER. She can be reached at www.mattiewinston.com.

Editorial Reviews

01/08/2018
At the start of Ryan’s enjoyable ninth Mattie Winston mystery (after 2017’s Dead in the Water), Mattie, a death investigator for the medical examiner’s office in Sorenson, Wis., and Steve Hurley, her homicide detective husband, rush to a crime scene at the Grizzly Motel outside town. What looks at first like the cut-and-dried murder-suicide of a couple of adulterous lovers is quickly revealed to be more complicated—but not so complicated that astute readers won’t be able to guess the perp. And that might be why a back-burner case involving Mattie’s father suddenly comes to the fore. Add a mysterious long-buried body unearthed on the property where newlyweds Mattie and Steve are building their new home, and there’s enough meat to sustain interest. That and, of course, the savvy, wry, and eminently relatable protagonists. This may be one of Ryan’s lighter series entries, with a bit less witty banter than usual, but fans will still be satisfied. Agent: Adam Chromy, Artists and Artisans. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

2017-11-28
A murder-suicide isn't what it seems.At long last married to Detective Steve Hurley, who's the father of her toddler son, Matthew, Wisconsin forensic investigator Mattie Winston (Dead in the Water, 2017, etc.) gets a call about another couple that isn't so lucky. The bodies of Craig Knowlton and Meredith Lansing turn up at the Grizzly Motel with gunshot wounds suggesting that Craig shot his lover and then himself. The Sorenson coroner's office has been short-staffed since the murder of Mattie's co-worker Hal Dawson, and Mattie's kind of distracted not only by energetic Matthew and teenage stepdaughter Emily, but by the return of her father, Cedric Novak, with a shocking explanation of why he abandoned her when she was only 4. So her growing suspicion that Craig couldn't have killed Meredith is as unwelcome as it is urgent. But Mattie presses forward, rattling the cages of Craig's wife, Pamela, and Meredith's husband, John. She even looks into their family insurance policies, sold to them by her ex-husband David's new wife. Just when she thinks she can't handle any more news, the contractor clearing the land for a joint Winston-Hurley home calls and tells her he's discovered a human skeleton right where she'd planned her new kitchen.Overfilling her heroine's plate does little to improve the meal. Less is more might be a better recipe for fans of Ryan's forensic franchise.

Kirkus Reviews