Review: Dead Of Winter

Title: Dead of Winter

Series: Mattie Winston Mystery #10

Author: Annelise Ryan

Release Date: February 26th, 2019

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Synopsis from Goodreads: A new home, a new marriage, a new family. It’s a lot to sort out. But before medicolegal death investigator Mattie can smooth out the unexpected chaos of her new life, duty calls. At the local ER, a battered and bruised teenage girl has been brought in by a mysterious man who claimed she’d fallen out of a car. The staff is suspicious, but while they attend to the teenager, the unidentified man slips out. Then the girl dies, but not before informing social worker Hildy Schneider that the man had her little sister as well. Mattie’s exam reveals forensic evidence of long-term IV drug use and physical abuse, findings consistent with Hildy’s suspicion that the girl was a victim of human trafficking. They are able to confirm her identity as a teen who went missing six months ago, along with her sister—facts that are deeply unsettling to Mattie who now shares a home with her husband’s teenaged daughter. Working closely with Hildy and Sorenson homicide detectives, including her husband Steve Hurley, Mattie must delve into a dark underworld to stop the ruthless trafficking of human lives—before it's too late for another young girl . . .

My Review: It was really great to slip back into Mattie’s life and follow along with this mystery. One of the things I enjoy about this series is that it straddles the line between a cozy mystery and a thriller really well. There are thrilling parts but its also not overly scary. The mystery is this one was about a sex trafficking ring, which was an intense story line but I felt like it was handled really well. The writing as usual was great. There were some pretty hilarious moments sprinkled throughout to keep it light and I loved the added bits about Mattie’s son and step daughter. The only thing about the book that I didn’t love was the secondary murder case. It just felt unnecessary to me and took a little bit away from the main storyline. All in all though it is another great edition to the series and I am already looking forward to the next one!

*I received this book from Kensington and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

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