Stiff Competition (A Mattie Winston Mystery, #7)

by Annelise Ryan

[MurderByDeath]

I've almost always liked this series, even when it was sometimes painful in the beginning watching Mattie get herself into humiliating situations, but as the series progressed, so has Mattie (I'm pretending Lucky Stiff didn't happen).   Far and away, I think, this is the best book in terms of character development: short of one horribly silly moment of insecurity when she makes a decision that even high school me would have thought was stupid, Mattie is calm, rational, confident and incredibly capable. This is a woman who has (mostly) found her stride.  Hurley's much more centered too, although we don't see a lot of him in the middle of the book, he's in the centre of one of the plots.  There's some drama with Hurley's daughter, but I'm pretty sure it's the final drama.   The main mystery plot was...ok.  I definitely didn't guess it, and some of the crimes were inspired, but the denouement felt sort of forced.  Counterbalancing this though is the fact that at no time does Mattie do anything TSTL and we have a great ending that doesn't involve Mattie in mortal peril.     The sub-plot concerning Hurley's daughter was the winner here; this was a great plot and it was well-paced with a terrific climax.  This one easily made up for any perceived short-comings I might have found in the murder mystery itself.   Thoroughly enjoyed this one and I hope there's another one.