A Helping Hands Mystery

Series · 2 books · 2019-2020

By Annelise Ryan

Books in series

Needled to Death

2019

As a colleague of deputy coroner Mattie Winston, social worker Clothilde "Hildy" Schneider is no stranger to unsolved murders at Sorenson General Hospital. Except this time, it's up to her to crack the case . . . Motivated by her own difficult past, Hildy has an unparalleled commitment to supporting troubled clients through grief and addiction in Sorenson, Wisconsin. But when a distraught group therapy member reveals disturbing details about her late son's potential murder, Hildy goes from dedicated mental health professional to in-over-her-head amateur sleuth . . . Alongside her loyal therapy Golden Retriever, Hildy stumbles through incriminating clues—and an unlikely partnership with Detective Bob Richmond, the irresistibly headstrong cop who shares her passion for helping others. With signs of foul play surfacing all over town, can Hildy and Detective Richmond pinpoint the deadly traits of a sharp-witted killer before another seat gets filled at grief therapy?

Night Shift

2020

When social worker Hildy Schneider commits to an after-hours side job, she finds herself drawn into the darker side of small-town Sorenson, Wisconsin—and the twisted mind of an unnamed killer . . . Strange things have been happening since Hildy started moonlighting with local police, but a desperate late-night call involving a former patient from Sorenson General Hospital tops the list. Although Danny Hildebrand has been tormented by hallucinations for years, he swears he’s being haunted for real by the victim of a grisly murder . . . The rambling ghost story seems like another delusion. But after a body turns up in a neglected farmhouse crawling with secrets, Hildy and the magnetic Detective Bob Richmond rush to explain Danny’s knowledge of the incident. As the crime-solving partners unwittingly grow closer while examining a series of eerie leads, they realize that surviving past sunrise means shedding light on a criminal willing to do whatever it takes to stay in the shadows . . .

Author

Annelise Ryan

Author · 18 books

Annelise Ryan is the USA Today bestselling author of the Monster Hunter Mysteries featuring cryptozoologist and bookstore owner, Morgan Carter, and the Mattie Winston mystery series, featuring a wryly cynical nurse-turned-coroner. She has always believed laughter really is the best medicine, and with the Mattie Winston series she hoped to "medicate" the masses. She also believes in a good scare every once in a while, hence the Monster Hunter mysteries, the first of which, A Death in Door County, came out in September of 2022. The second in that series, Death in the Dark Woods, comes out in December 2023. Annelise Ryan is a pseudonym for author Beth Amos. There were several reasons why she decided to use a pseudonym, not the least of which was that her ER patients might not have been comfortable knowing she spent her spare time thinking up clever ways to kill people. She is also the author of the Mack's Bar Mystery series written as Allyson K. Abbott. Ryan is a retired emergency room RN living in Wisconsin.