Annelise Ryan — Death in the Dark Woods

Whilst standing in one of my favorite indie bookshops, A Good Book, Death in the Dark Woods‘s cover ping my radar, thanks to the similarities its art shares with Agatha Christie’s book covers. Picking up the tome, I was intrigued by a mystery about a “monster hunter” that had nothing to do with Van Helsing, Dracula, or Frankenstein. Unsurprisingly, to anyone who knows me, I purchased it, as well as a stack of other books.

Upon cracking the cover of Death in the Dark Woods, I discovered myself becoming fast friends with the main character, Morgan Carter. Morgan not only owns a store I really, really wish I could visit, but her approach to cryptid investigation is one I can thoroughly get behind. Morgan explores each possible cryptid sighting with the mentality of plausible existability. Meaning she believes there’s a chance that a cryptid could exist but needs solid scientific evidence she can see, touch, and test before definitively adding said creature to science’s hierarchy of kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species. 

And it’s this kernel of skepticism keeping Death in the Dark Woods from becoming a caricature. Morgan is willing to believe in Bigfoot’s existence, but that’s not the space from where she starts. 

In this installment of Annelise Ryan’s Monster Hunter Mystery series, Morgan’s asked to look into two brutal and bloody murders in Wisconsin’s backcountry. A Warden for the Department of Natural Resources named Charlie believes both deaths are the work of Bigfoot, despite the local sheriff attributing the attacks to bears. Morgan, unable to resist the lure of a cryptid based murder mystery, agrees to aid in an investigation whilst keeping both eyes open.

Okay, so here’s the thing…Originally, I was going to write that I found the ending, whilst satisfying, a bit slow due to the minor info dump in the summing up of the case by Morgan and her cohort of friends who helped close the case.

However, I now realize this opinion needs revising. 

You see, growing up in the Evergreen State, I was practically spoon-fed legends of Bigfoot as a child. Between stories told beneath the stars around a roaring campfire by my elders and older Girl Scouts trying to creep us out, shows like Ripley’s Believe It or Not! (the version hosted by Jack Palance), and the fun our family had watching Harry and the Hendersons; I’ve always known the broad strokes about Sasquatches and figured everyone did as well. 

(Yeah, yeah, assuming something makes an ass out of u and me.)

Then, during a recent game night, my husband & I, and some friends, cracked open a board game called Horrified: American Monsters.

Here’s the game board, some game pieces, and artwork!

Horrified: American Monsters pits a group of players against a Chupacabra, Banshee of the Badlands, Bigfoot, Mothman, Ozark Howler, Jersey Devil, or some combination thereof of these legendary beings.

And let me tell you, it is extremely fun to play. 

One of my favorite things about this board game is that it’s cooperative; everyone works together to save the townsfolk and each other to stop the selection of cryptids from winning. (Though there are still ways of teeing off your fellow players if that’s a dynamic your game group enjoys.)  

The game’s creators bill Horrified: American Monster as a game that takes about an hour to play for 1 -5 players. It took us about an hour and a half per game, mainly due to the debates over the best strategy to employ when attempting to thwart the cryptids on the board. (Alcohol may or may not played a contributing factor in the extra time as well….)

In any case, upon opening the rules book, Horrified: American Monster seems complicated. However, once you start playing, the rules are really easy to pick up. I highly recommend this board game to anyone looking for a quick, fun game to play either on your own or with friends!

Interestingly, above and beyond the laughs supplied by Horrified: American Monster, the games also forced me to reevaluate my initial assessment of the end of Death in the Darkwoods. Because while I’d a passing familiarity with Bigfoot, the Chupacabra, and Mothman (though, for some reason, I thought it was a comic book character), the Banshee of the Badlands, Ozark Howler, or the Jersey Devil were a complete unknown to me. Which I’m sure will lead one or two people to say something like: “How could you not know about them? They’re so famous!” 

Hence, my change in position on the ending of Death in the Dark Woods. I would no longer categorize it as a tad slow but informative and interesting.

The only real flaw in the mystery I found pesky was Annelise Ryan’s continual and overt foreshadowing — not only within the case at hand but probable future plots. Admittedly, this is a minor gripe in a solidly constructed story, but this plot device repeatedly popped me out of the narrative I enjoyed reading.

All that being said, I would still recommend Death in the Dark Woods to anyone looking for a different and intriguing take on a murder mystery. Moreover, you can read these books out of order, as Ryan didn’t spoil the ending of her first book in the second installment. (Ask me how I know.) And I’m definitely going back and reading A Death in Door County, the first in series, and then the latest installment, Beast of the North Woods! 

And believe it or not the fabric (the background of the very first picture in this post), the book, and game were all bought months apart! BTW I found the cryptid fabric at Gee-Gees Quilting.