Frozen Stiff

This is book 3 in the Mattie Winston series, but the first that I've read. I'll be adding books 1 & 2 to my list of books to watch for when I'm book shopping.

As a fellow Wisconsinite (both the author and Mattie live in Wisconsin), I would have liked more place-specific references that just tossing out the names of a few cities (Madison, Tomah) and comments about the cold winters. I realize that Sorenson is a fictional place, but the book gave me no idea of how large it is or where in the state it's located (although the southern half is a good bet). A more complete sense of place would have added to my enjoyment.

The mystery itself has plenty of twists and turns, and the author move the story right along. The writing style fits the show more story.

On a scale of 1-10, this would be a 7. I'm happy I won this in a First Read giveaway! show less

Mattie Winston, nurse turned deputy coroner, is called to a murder scene on a snowy morning. Down an embankment, they find a lovely woman, dead from a stab wound with a rather rare ivory handled knife. When Steve Hurley, the local detective, shows up, he looks at the corpse, turns white, and claims he is sick and they need to call in someone else. Unfortunately, this dead lady has ties to the hot cop. While the evidence is piling up against one, Steve Hurley, Mattie tries to find the truth of the murder and her feelings, all while trying to keep her job.

Mattie Winston is a smart, dedicated, loyal, confused protagonist. She is cleverly written and her epiphanies are well plotted and believable. She goes with her feelings and gut show more reactions and they are usually correct. Mattie is a tall, large boned woman who often laments about her size. In this book she begins going to the gym, much to the disbelief of most of the other characters. Her boss, Izzy, is also a great friend, who realizes what he has in Mattie and wants to promote her, but she would have to give up on any relationship with Hurley. His partner Dom likes to take care of people, including Mattie. Richmond, the overweight retired detective has to help out with this crime and as more and more incidents pile up, he is afraid that Hurley is going to be arrested based on the evidence. The more he and Mattie work together, the more likable he becomes. Mattie shames him into joining the gym and it looks like he might begin to take care of himself. These characters, plus Hurley, all work well together in this story to solve the crimes and take care of one another. I liked the mystery and the way the evidence unfolded. I was prepared for the culprit, but the reasons behind it were a bit of a surprise. A good story for any cozy mystery reader. show less

This series had started ok, second book was pretty good and then, in this third one it fell completely flat for me. The plot was much too predictable, some superfluous scenes seemed overstretched and the whole interaction between characters seemed, well, bleh. I lost interest in the story about halfway through and actually had to force myself to finish it. I really don't think I'll pick up this series if there are more novels after this one.

I won this book on Goodreads and I am glad I did. This was a very good mystery novel with a strong female character. I enjoyed all of the characters, even the overweight, slovenly detective. Very solid storytelling with character development and great mystery. I have not read the previous books in this series, but I was able to jump into this one with no problem. I look forward to the next books in this series.

Matte is putting her job as Asst. Coroner in jeopardy by helping Detective Steve Hurley (now gone missing) discover who is working to frame him for the murders of Steve's ex-girlfriend, his back fence neighbor, & her soon-to-be ex-husband (attempted).

Her philandering husband refuses to accept the fact that their marriage is over and is doing his best to convince Mattie to come back to him, her hypochondriac mother is making her crazy, and the detective assigned to the investigation has connived Mattie into joining the gym with him....

This wasn't such a good book, in fact, I'm wondering why Mattie would sacrifice her job & her friendship w/ Dom (the Coroner) by hiding evidence of an on-going investigation.... I figured out most of it.... show more Meh! show less

I love this series!

Really great story. A great follow up to the first two very solid stories in this series. The characters are just so likeable, and the plot in this one had me guessing until about 1 paragraph before the author revealed whodunit. I was completely on the wrong track until that point. That doesn't happen very often and it's so much fun when to have that "ah hah!" moment. I look forward to further books in this series.