Summary of Working Stiff, by Annelise Ryan

Uncover the humor and mystery in 'Working Stiff' by Annelise Ryan, where a coroner's assistant juggles love and death with hilarity!

Welcome to the quirky world of Working Stiff, where the only thing more dead than the bodies is the humor-except when, of course, our protagonist is involved! Our heroine, Mattie Winston, is not your average coroner's assistant. No, she has a talent for stumbling into murder mysteries while juggling her various (and quite amusing) life crises.

The plot kicks off when Mattie, fresh off a recent career change (let's be honest, it was less of a change and more of a "I got fired" situation), finds herself back at work, and not just any work-she's surrounded by cadavers. Lucky her! In the middle of all this death, she gets tangled up in a murder mystery when a body shows up with a little too much drama, and you can bet it's not just the after-life kind.

Ah, love triangles! As if corpse handling wasn't enough, Mattie also grapples with her feelings for two very different men: the charming (read: flirtatious) and utterly dreamy detective, and her not-so-predictable ex-husband. Who says the living can't be as complicated as the dead? (Spoiler: they can!). As Mattie juggles her burgeoning love life with her morbid job-because who wouldn't want to flirt over a mortuary table?-things start getting a bit... intense.

We also get a delightful array of side characters, from quirky coworkers who seem to have a morbid sense of humor (what else would you expect in a place full of stiffs?) to family members who are convinced that working with corpses is a little bit too on the nose. Their interactions often lead to laugh-out-loud moments that break the tension brought on by the mystery of the dead guy on the table.

As the story unfolds, readers are treated to an escalating series of events that blend humor with genuine suspense. Can Mattie crack the case before she winds up on the slab herself? With a little bit of luck and a lot of questionable decision-making, she just might!

So, what have we learned from Working Stiff? Well, being a coroner is not the world's most conventional job, and being the one who solves the murder mysteries is even crazier. But hey, at least you never run out of material for your stand-up routine, right? If you're shy about the idea of figuring out who did it, don't fret; Mattie's antics and the plethora of side-splitting moments make this a read that promises to amuse and entertain at every turn.

Just remember, the next time you get a job that requires dealing with the dead, make sure you're prepared for the living's drama too-and maybe a little light-hearted sarcasm to get you through!

Maddie Page

Classics, bestsellers, and guilty pleasures-none are safe from my sarcastic recaps. I turn heavy reads into lighthearted summaries you can actually enjoy. Warning: may cause random outbursts of laughter while pretending to study literature.