Board Stiff by Annelise Ryan

In Board Stiff, the body of Bernie Chase, CEO and owner of the Twilight Nursing Home, is discovered in the bathroom of the facility. Back at work as the deputy coroner, Mattie Winston soon discovers that the suspects are plentiful, including the elderly residents, who have their own reason for wanting Chase dead. Working with Hurley again isn't going to be easy for Mattie, but she must use her skills to uncover the clues and figure out who killed Chase.

I really enjoyed this book. I especially loved learning about Mattie's job as a deputy coroner. It's so fascinating. Ryan, the author, provides just enough detail to make it interesting, but not so much so that it's over my head, dry, dull or gory. I loved how the book picks up the story a few months after the last one ended. Luckily, Ryan summaries the events of the last book in a way that it immediately jogged my memory.

Mattie Winston is an excellent main character. She's a funny, woman-of-size, who has a knack for solving puzzles. I just wish she'd have a little self control when it came to her love interest, Hurley. She keeps saying that she shouldn't be with him, yet that resolve doesn't last long when he's around. I wish that she'd make up her mind with regards to him and stick to it. She's too smart and self-confident to lose control so easily. I believe I had similar thoughts with regards to her gambling addiction in the last book.

This is the fifth book in the series. While I did read and enjoy #4, Lucky Stiff, I haven't read the first three. Because Ryan does an excellent job of introducing characters and relating earlier events, I believe the book can be read as a standalone book. It's so good, though, that you'll want to read the others as well. So, if you can you might as well start at the beginning.

Highly recommended. This is such a fun series, I'm definitely looking forward to the next one. At some point in the future, I hope to read the first three books in the series.

Annelise Ryan is the pseudonym of Beth Amos.

For more information about this book, please visit the Kensington Books website.

For more information about the author and her other books, please visit Beth Amos's (Annelise Ryan's) website.

Thanks to those nice people from Kensington Books for this review copy.

Board Stiff by Annelise Ryan, Kensington Books, ©2014. ISBN 9780758272768(Mass Market), 360p.