I saw the cover for this book and was completely intrigued and also certain it was a first novel. Nope. It’s number ten in, if this installment is anything to go by, a rich and multilayered series about Mattie Winston, a woman employed as a death investigator, a medical examiner charged with investigating any suspicious, unexplained, or violent deaths. Mattie is the wife of a cop, stepmother of a teenager, and mother of a toddler. As Dead of Winter opens, said toddler is busy coloring the walls of his bedroom with a magic marker.

This sounds slightly cozy, and earlier books in the series were marketed more in this vein, but the Dead of Winter is far from it. Mattie is called in to investigate the case of a young woman who had been assaulted and was perhaps heavily using drugs before being dropped off in the ER to die. As the heartbreaking story of the woman is uncovered by Mattie and the police, it becomes clear she was the victim of a sex trafficking ring—and that she has a younger sister who is still missing.

That gives Mattie impetus to find the remaining girl and crack the case, and her usually mellow husband, Hurley, reason to get upset as he worries for her safety. As it turns out, with good reason, as Mattie is inclined to take impetuous risks in the service of solving a crime.

In addition to the main thread involving the dead girl and the human trafficking ring, there are several subplots, including a traditional murder mystery setup at a local theater company. There is also the portrayal of Mattie’s busy life and happy marriage, front and center, and the Wisconsin setting, complete with constant snowfall, all well done. As I said, it’s multilayered. There is a lot going on.

Mattie’s central case is a gripping one, and its resolution brought well-earned tears from this reader, at least. Annelise Ryan, the pseudonym of ER nurse Beth Amos, has a real gift for creating memorable characters and storylines, and not letting the several satellite stories overwhelm her central one. I also found following a death investigator, a job I’d never heard of, to be interesting. There’s plenty to enjoy in this novel, and I imagine, plenty to enjoy in this long series. I’m already on the hunt for book one, Working Stiff.