Dead Ringer

December 15, 2019
The death of a young drug user looks all too much like the work of a serial killer who's already locked up. Lacy O'Connor's corpse shows a shocking amount of abuse for her 27 years on the planet. Not only are there track marks from heroin abuse and dental destruction from meth abuse, but there are five deep stab marks left by the coldhearted killer who dumped her body in the road. One of the wounds, however, holds a surprise: Medical examiner Izthak Rybarceski finds five yellow carnation petals tucked neatly inside. Even more uncanny is the recollection of Mattie Winston (Dead of Winter, 2019, etc.), the medicolegal death investigator who works with Izzy, of the forensic conference she attended a year ago where a colleague from Eau Claire told her about a serial killer who left carnation petals in his victim's wounds. Eau Claire DA Pete Hamilton is none too happy to hear that a fifth victim may have turned up in time to exonerate Mason Ulrich, the man he sent to the Columbia Correctional Institution, convicted of four earlier deaths. Mattie and her husband, Detective Steve Hurley, find Ulrich's account of his wrongful conviction credible, but their pursuit of justice for Ulrich is complicated by storms on the marriage front. Since Mattie's first marriage to surgeon David Winston was fine until it suddenly wasn't, she and Steve have never learned how to argue. And it's a skill they're really going to need, since, already mother to 2-year-old Matthew and stepmom to teenage Emily, Mattie suddenly finds herself expecting another child she's not entirely sure she wants. Marital woes bog down an otherwise ingenious whodunit.

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January 13, 2020
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. Agent: Adam Chromy, Movable Type Management.