A coroner becomes a sleuth when an innocent friend is accused of murder in this hardboiled mystery by the USA Today–bestselling author of Dead Even.

When Deputy Coroner Mattie Winston and her boss/best friend, Izzy, are called to the home of waitress and part-time model Shannon Tolliver, they find the ghoulish Halloween decorations a bit too authentic. Among the fake blood and skeletons is the corpse of Shannon

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When a paraplegic who recently won a huge casino jackpot dies in a house fire, all bets are off as deputy coroner Mattie Winston and detective Scott Hurley, convinced that he was murdered for his money, take a gamble on the wrong suspect.

"Deputy coroner Mattie Winston knows a thing or two about dead bodies. That's why she's on the case of Derrick Ames, a high school math teacher stabbed to death with a barbecue fork straight to the heart. Sure, she's turned up some motives and a few suspects, but nothing adds up. Especially when the evidence points to Ames's teenage son. Newly pregnant Mattie can't believe it, even as her own long-estranged father may be following her. But one thing's...

Overwhelmed by murder, a coroner-turned-sleuth fights to stay afloat in this hard-boiled mystery by the bestselling author of Dead Ringer.

As a single mom and deputy coroner of Sorenson, Wisconsin, Mattie Winston is used to her life being a juggling act. But now that she's moved in with Detective Steve Hurley and his teenaged daughter, and has started planning their wedding, her home life is looking more like a three-ring circus.

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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...

In Sorenson, Wisconsin, a local bigshot is found with a pool cue through the heart-and Mattie Winston must untangle a web of lies to sink a killer… 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...