Working Stiff

Mattie Winston Mysteries, Book 1

By: Annelise Ryan

Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

In this hard-boiled mystery series opener, a former nurse becomes a coroner who winds up investigating her cheating ex-husband for murder.

When Mattie Winston catches her husband, Dr. David Winston, receiving some very special loving care from RN Karen Owenby, she quits her job and moves out. Mattie's best friend, Izzy, offers her a place to stay and suggests she'd be a natural as deputy coroner. Now, instead of taking patients' pulses, Mattie's weighing their hearts and livers.

But Mattie's first homicide call turns out to be for none other than Nurse Karen, and even though she saw her ex in a heated argument with the newly deceased the night before, she refuses to believe David could be a killer. Keeping mum about what she saw, Mattie is also left speechless by the sight of hunky Detective Steve Hurley....

From learning the ropes on her new job to sorting out her feelings about her ex and dealing with her growing attraction to Detective Hurley, Mattie's in deep water and in danger of sinking quickly, especially when she places herself dead center in the path of a desperate - yet determined - killer....

©2009 Beth Amos (P)2021 Tantor

Great Writing... Fsbulous Narration...!!!

A bona fide mystery. The dialogue and storyline are well done. Just when the narrative seems to slide a bit towards the Cozy side you get slammed up the side of the head... I was very impressed by the narrators acting and vocal skill. I'm in for the next volume in the series. 👍👍👍👍

good for Janet evanovich fans

this is a mystery with quirky characters and "hot" guys but the main female character isn't drop dead gorgeous...this should sound very familiar to Janet evanovich fans.
I'm not into these type of stories any more so I didn't last past a few hours.

wanna be

Entertaining as a free listen, but reminds me of Janet Evonovich's Stephanie Plum books. Just quite a few notches below though.

Reader

Really liked the story, it’s the only reason I continued listening! The carotid artery isn’t “carroted” - the WI accent - isn’t like the Fargo movie - other then the reader it was great

entertaining and keeps you guessing

I particularly enjoy Maddie the protagonist and the awkward believability of her life. I also enjoyed the fact that I did not figure out the murderer halfway through the book!

Fantastically Done

This book is a must read! One minute I'm rolling in laughter and the next I'm intrigued by what might happen next. Both the story and the telling of the story are fabulous. The author's sense of humor and satire go beyond anything I've had the pleasure of listening to in a long time. The narrator does an amazing job with voices, inflection and mood.

Fun and entertaining

Working Stiff is a well written cozy mystery that grabs your attention from the beginning. Maddie Winston is intelligent, engaging and relatable. I read the Kindle version years ago but was delighted to listen to it again. I look forward to listening to the rest of the series.

Entertaining - needs some narration Checking

Good story and engag engaging enough for me to finish. Narrator Houston helped with pronunciation of things like carotid and cache Pronouncing them like ‘kero-tid and cache’’
Just slightly distracting.

Enjoyed it!

Good plot and a like-able female lead with attitude. I had to laugh at some of the things she said. The story had great surprises and twists along the way.

Not a cozy mystery

I made the mistake of "judging a book by its cover" and assumed this was a cozy mystery. While it's not as dark as many murder mysteries, it's definitely not a cozy mystery. I found the story itself to be interesting and the book is well written, but it's a little too crude for my taste. Perhaps if I had not expected a light-hearted, clean book it would not have left such a bad taste. If crude doesn't bother you, I recommend it.