A DEATH IN DOOR COUNTY is the first installment in the new Monster Hunter Mysteries featuring oddity bookstore owner and cryptozoologist, Morgan Carter. There have been two deaths in the turbulent waters connecting Green Bay to Lake Michigan, but these are no ordinary drownings. The bodies are found with unusual marks and discarded in questionable places. Is there an unknown lake monster stalking the straits?
Morgan Carter had an unconventional childhood and tragic past. She now resides in Door County, Wisconsin, and runs a bookstore once owned by her deceased parents. Her store is filled with oddities she’s acquired or gained from traveling the world with her cryptid-hunting parents. When the Chief of Police, Jon Flanders, shows up at her store and asks for her assistance in two recent drownings, Morgan is intrigued. The two men were tourists and strong swimmers, but their deaths look suspicious. Morgan agrees and the investigation begins, but it isn’t long before she receives an ominous note and a store employee is attacked. Someone doesn’t want Morgan poking around. Morgan enlists the aid of a local geologist that has worked in the area waters for years, but when something happens to Marty, Morgan realizes she has either angered a large lake monster or she has disrupted a manmade con. Can Morgan and her loyal rescue dog Newt stay alive? Or will they end up in a watery grave?
This new mystery series from Annelise Ryan is seriously fun. Morgan is an interesting character with a tragic past and an unusual occupation. She’s a cryptozoologist who searches for creatures that others don’t believe exist; Loch Ness Monster, Sasquatch, Chupacabra etc. After being conned in the past, Morgan has a hard time trusting men, but Chief of Police, Jon Flanders, is a nice way for her to move forward as a potential romantic interest. A DEATH IN DOOR COUNTY is well-plotted with great high-stakes drama and a nice twist at the end. The action on the water is palpable and the historical information on shipwrecks and lost treasures is fascinating. Overall, this is a great start to a new series. Readers who are looking for something a little different in a cozy-esque mystery, will thoroughly enjoy A DEATH IN DOOR COUNTY.
Morgan Carter, owner of the Odds and Ends bookstore in
Door County, Wisconsin, has a hobby. When she’s not
tending the store, she’s hunting
cryptids—creatures whose existence is rumored, but
never proven to be real. It’s a hobby that cost her
parents their lives, but one she’ll never give up
on.
So when a number of bodies turn
up on the shores of Lake Michigan with injuries that look
like bites from a giant unknown animal, police chief Jon
Flanders turns to Morgan for help. A skeptic at heart,
Morgan can’t turn down the opportunity to find proof
of an entity whose existence she can’t definitively
rule out. She and her beloved rescue dog, Newt, journey to
the Death's Door strait to hunt for a homicidal monster in
the lake—but if they’re not careful, they just
might be its next victims.
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