Dead Ringer
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4.6 • 25 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A new murder victim with an old M.O. puts Mattie Winston on the trail of a killer who gives a grim new meaning to flower power . . .
Spring is beginning to brighten Sorenson, Wisconsin, for Mattie and Steve Hurley and their family. While their son Matthew may be in his terrible twos and Steve's daughter Emily a moody teenager, the kids bring light to their lives when their work is dark by its nature—Steve is a homicide detective and Mattie is a medicolegal death investigator, aka medical examiner. They deal in corpses.
The latest corpse, a Jane Doe, was clearly an addict, but drugs didn't kill her, at least not directly. She's been stabbed multiple times in a pattern that is disturbingly familiar to Mattie. When she discovers flower petals from yellow carnations stuffed into the stab wounds, she recognizes a very specific M.O.—belonging to a convicted serial killer who's currently serving a life sentence.
The details of the flower petals were never made public in the last case, so it can't be a copycat crime. It looks like the wrong man is in prison, and the murderer is still at large. Now it's up to Mattie and Steve to get the case reopened—and catch the real carnation killer . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The discovery of an unidentified young woman's body outside Sorenson, Wis., kick-starts Ryan's gripping 11th Mattie Winston mystery (after 2019's Dead of Winter). The m.o. is similar to that of several murders from a year ago in nearby Eau Claire, but a man is already in prison for those crimes. Mattie, who's feeling guilty because her testimony as a medical death examiner put an innocent man in prison in an earlier case, despite his subsequent release, is determined not to make the same mistake. She becomes obsessed with discovering whether a copycat killer is at work or the real murderer is still at large. The intentions of Todd Oliver, the Eau Claire coroner trainee who inserts himself into Mattie's investigation, make her uncomfortable. Against the advice of her husband, homicide detective Steve Hurley, she wades alone into the dark world of a serial killer in search of the truth. Ryan's flawed characters have enough personal baggage and quirks to make them distinctive. The killer's identity is truly unexpected. This regional series deserves a long run.
