Dead Even

Perfect for fans of Patricia Cornwell, USA Today bestselling author Annelise Ryan’s twelfth mystery featuring Mattie Ryan finds the Wisconsin nurse-turned-medicolegal investigator balancing a high-profile investigation with her hectic home life after a local realtor is found with a pool cue through the heart…

In her previous career as a nurse, Mattie Winston’s job was to keep death at bay. Now, as a medicolegal investigator, she’s required to study death intimately—to figure out causes and timing, and help deduce whether it was natural or suspicious.

In the case of Montgomery “Monty” Dixon, a well-to-do realtor, there can be little doubt: broken pool cues do not embed themselves. Monty’s body is found in the game room of his lavish house, the walls adorned with photos of Monty and various celebrities. But as Mattie and her husband, homicide detective Steve Hurley, both know, money and connections can’t protect anyone from a killer.

The first suspect is Monty’s wife, Summer, who claims to have been at a cooking class at the time. When that alibi is served up as a fake, Summer moves to the top of the suspects list, but is soon joined by Monty’s ne’er-do-well son, Sawyer, who has racked up gambling debts he hoped his dad would pay off. Monty’s twin brother is engaging in shady financial deals. An affair, a Ponzi scheme, a disputed inheritance…there are as many motives as suspects, and soon Mattie and Hurley have turned up other, possibly related deaths.

Balancing a high-profile case with the demands of their increasingly stressful household isn’t easy. It’ll take all of Mattie’s skill—along with a lucky break or two—to stop a killer from racking up another victim…

About the Author

Annelise Ryan is the author of the Mattie Winston Mysteries, the Helping Hands Mysteries, and the Mac's Bar Mysteries (written as Allyson K. Abbott). Honored by the Wisconsin Library Association as a Notable Wisconsin Author, 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 worked for many years as a registered nurse in an ER.