Enjoy!
A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan
#1 Monster Hunter Mystery
Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 9.13.22
Pages: 304
Rating: 4.5 stars
Format: ebook
Source: purchased
Sellers: Amazon
ADD TO: GoodReads
GoodReads Blurb:
A Wisconsin bookstore owner and
cryptozoologist is asked to investigate a series of deaths that just might be
proof of a fabled lake monster in this first installment of a new mystery
series by USA Today bestselling author Annelise Ryan.
Morgan Carter, owner of the Odds and Ends bookstore in
Door County, Wisconsin, has a hobby. When she’s not tending the store, she’s
hunting cryptids—creatures whose existence is rumored, but never proven to be
real. It’s a hobby that cost her parents their lives, but one she’ll never give
up on.
So when a number of bodies turn up on the shores of Lake
Michigan with injuries that look like bites from a giant unknown animal, police
chief Jon Flanders turns to Morgan for help. A skeptic at heart, Morgan can’t
turn down the opportunity to find proof of an entity whose existence she can’t
definitively rule out. She and her beloved rescue dog, Newt, journey to the
Death's Door strait to hunt for a homicidal monster in the lake—but if they’re
not careful, they just might be its next victims.
Sophia Rose's Review:
Two mysterious deaths in Lake Michigan lead an island
sheriff to the door of local cryptozoologist and mystery bookshop owner to
discover if a monster is really attacking living in their local waters. I read a fun cozy mystery under the author’s
different pseudonym and was tickled to see this fun set up for her latest
series. Annelise Ryan’s multi-layered
characterizations, quippy humor, well-painted local Wisconsin backdrop, and
cunning mystery plot drew me in deeply.
A Death in Door County introduced a new series. I enjoyed meeting Morgan, a Door County
native with an eccentric, colorful and dark past. She was introduced as much of a mystery as
the case that is brought to her by equally reticent new Washington Island
sheriff, Jon Flanders. Morgan is a
cryptozoologist and sells rare and odd items along with a good selection of
mystery books in her small town right where ‘Death’s Door’ a waterway empties
into the great lake, Michigan. But, she
doesn’t believe in all the woo-woo out there- she’s a skeptic who is open to
possibilities. Her parents were
life-long hunters of every legend and mystery out there and she got a taste for
it through their adventuring. Now, she
inherited the store and their knowledge and will use it to determine if there
really is a Loch Ness type of monster out there killing wildlife and
people.
First, she plans to rule out murder by less legendary means
and her investigations get someone nervous.
She is warned off, but doesn’t give up.
She also colors outside the lines and enjoys making Sheriff Flannery
scowl and bluster at her antics. Morgan
has serious trust issues since what happened in her past and all the men who’ve
only showed interest to get their hands on her inherited fortune. Intuition tells her that Jon only wants her
to help him solve these deaths in the waters off his island and he seems
interested in her as a woman, but… no, she is too afraid of letting anyone
close to her heart.
This also leads to her taking a lone approach to
investigating and, yes, hiding some of her finds and working that part of the
case alone. I was none too happy about
that, but it does make sense once her background slowly gets fleshed out. Poor Morgan, she had some tragic things
happen in her life and she struggles with them still. She doesn’t ever call him one, but she does
have a therapy dog in Newt, who is her constant companion and settles her when
needed.
It was fun having a cryptoid mystery possibility and in this
beautiful locale on the coast of Wisconsin.
I loved all the historical and cultural background that came up as
Morgan did her investigation. The ending
was exciting when the reveal came about mostly because Morgan was tenacious and
was open to some of the least-likely little facts that led her to the
truth. I can’t wait to keep going with
the series and recommend it to cozy mystery lovers who like a little legend
pizzazz to their stories.
Author Bio:
Annelise Ryan is the USA Today bestselling author of the
Monster Hunter Mysteries featuring cryptozoologist and bookstore owner, Morgan
Carter, and the Mattie Winston mystery series, featuring a wryly cynical
nurse-turned-coroner. She has always believed laughter really is the best
medicine, and with the Mattie Winston series she hoped to "medicate"
the masses. She also believes in a good scare every once in a while, hence the
Monster Hunter mysteries, the first of which, A Death in Door County, came out
in September of 2022. The second in that series, Death in the Dark Woods, comes
out in December 2023.
Annelise Ryan is a pseudonym for author Beth Amos.
There were several reasons why she decided to use a pseudonym, not the least of
which was that her ER patients might not have been comfortable knowing she
spent her spare time thinking up clever ways to kill people. She is also the
author of the Mack's Bar Mystery series written as Allyson K. Abbott. Ryan is a
retired emergency room RN living in Wisconsin.
Website: https://www.anneliseryan.com/
Sophia’s Bio:
Sophia
is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing,
piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments,
restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible
man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes
Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and
Chocolate.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that
Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. Sophia is a
prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many
wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading
tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and
romance. Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophia.rose.7587
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiarose1816
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13418187.Sophia_Rose
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