by Gwendolyn Southin

Vancouver, 1959. Margaret Spencer has finally left her stultifying marriage with dull and pompous lawyer husband Harry. She lives alone now in a basement apartment in trendy Kitsilano, happy in her job as assistant to detective Nat Southby—whom she has also taken as her lover. But Maggie is still harassed by Harry and their daughter Elizabeth who urge her to abandon the 'shame' of an independent life and return to the fold, ie as parlor maid and cook. In dire need of respite, Maggie decides to head north to the Cariboo District for a week of peace on a dude ranch. Little does she know that rest is definitely not on the menu.

As the whistle-stop train takes our heroine from Vancouver through the picturesque towns of Squamish, Whistler and Lillooet en route to Williams Lake, ever further from civilisation, she is drawn ever closer to a new mystery—a husband gone missing and a series of murders whose roots go back a decade. The conflict between Vancouver's hustle and bustle and the bucolic but frightening splendor of the wilds is a canvas onto which Southin has painted a page-turner of a cozy. Taught relations between the generations, marital tension, betrayal, arrogance and violence run through this book on a current lifted by sharp dialogue and a well-paced plot. Ultimately, a kind of existential resolution leaves the reader of In the Shadow of Death satisfied, but with a twist.

A broad cast of characters add depth to the story: Henny, a crackpot office helper hired in desperation by Maggie before she leaves on vacation; Vivienne, the Jezebel sharpshooter wife of a wealthy but wheelchair-bound neighbor of the missing man; even odious businessman Lenny Smith — whose story which begins the book lends credence to all that will follow — is somehow made attractive. Not so the closed-minded local RCMP officer in Williams Lake, so full of himself he practically leaks bile off the pages.

While looking for clues Maggie finds more than she bargained for, and in a startling climax she once more shows her mettle. Southin is at her best in chase and action scenes, and this one is unforgettable.