A Death in Door County

by Annalise Ryan

In a new series by Annalise Ryan, a mystery author whose works I enjoy, Morgan Carter is the protagonist. With degrees in biology and zoology, Morgan is a cryptozoologist, a passion she inherited along with a lot of money from her parents who taught her to be anonymously generous. She owns the Odds and Ends store in Door County, Wisconsin, and as cases arise she hunts cryptids, creatures like the Loch Ness Monster, whose existence is possible but never proven. She says she is a “professional sceptic,” but that she searches for “plausible existability.”

Morgan is hired by Jon Flanders, chief of a police force of three on Washington Island, to help investigate a drowning where the victim has surprising injuries. The author has created an unusual situation that takes Morgan and Jon on a number of adventures. Another important character is Newt, Morgan’s mixed breed dog whose lineage appears to be a combination of three large breeds, but he is a sweetheart and is devoted to Morgan, accompanying her everywhere.

A Death in Door County ends with several major plot twists that I guarantee you will not see coming. Morgan is a strong woman, both physically and intellectually, who makes an interesting protagonist. She knows a lot about the Great Lakes, history, and animals. What she doesn’t know, like her parents before her, she is determined to find out either through research or excursions. In this novel, treasure in the form of gold on wrecked ships plays a huge role. I highly recommend this mystery.

Rating: 5/5

Category: Mystery

Notes: #1 in the Monster Hunter Mystery Series

Publication:   2022—Berkley

Memorable Lines:

Rich kids are just as mean and cliquey as public school kids—maybe more so—and even though my folks were members of the wealthy elite like most of the other parents at the private school, their unusual hobbies and interests were determined too “out there” for them to be included in any of the social outings or other gatherings attended by the rest of the “in” crowd.

I would repay her kindness to me and Newt with an anonymous scholarship for her son and a payoff of her husband’s medical bills. My father raised me with the belief that people who have a lot of money should try to do good with it, and it was a credo he lived by. I try to honor his memory by doing the same.

I’d never admit it, but I was impressed with this guy’s ingenuity. Too bad it was being wasted on something twisted, illegal, and deadly.