Death in a Family (Margaret Spencer Mysteries) - Softcover

Southin, Gwendolyn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1552070298 ISBN 13: 9781552070291

Publisher: Robert Davies Pub, 2000

Synopsis

At age fifty, with two grown children, Margaret Spencer lives the placid and vaguely dissatisfied life of a corporate attorney's wife until one more vapid birthday card from her inattentive husband sparks a search for new meaning in her existence. She answers a newspaper ad calling for part-time office help, and finds herself hired on the spot by Nat Southby, former cop and now private eye.

An innocuous request to locate a missing cat brings Margaret (who Southby immediately calls Maggie, much to her prim dismay) and her boss smack into the middle of a vicious murder and a series of unnerving disappearances of Vancouver teenage girls. Beneath the placid exterior of this provincial city, a soon-to-be metropolis, lurks a great deal of evil.

In this taut story that starts languidly and slowly gains momentum, finishing with a wild kidnapping and chase on British Columbia's Gulf Islands, first-time British-born author Gwendolyn Southin (who at age 69 just LOOKS the part of a great English crime fiction writer, all sweetness and malice rolled into one) has woven a spell-binding tale that brings us back to a simpler time on Canada's lush west coast, when women's lib was defined as more labor-saving devices in the kitchen and when wives were supposed to know their place. In this novel Southin has created a heroine whose appeal transcends time and place. Maggie Spencer is a woman with a keen sense of humor, an innate understanding of psychology, a terrific memory for detail and a sharp temper. Southin's characters all lend credibility and depth to her tale: Harry, the stuffed shirt of a husband, well-meaning but a total milquetoast where mother is concerned; Southby, a dumpy, divorced private dick with an eye for a well-turned heel but a battered sense of his own self-worth; Violet Larkfield, maniacal cat-lover and human-hater, Phillip Collins, wealthy industrialist married to a young, wandering wife, and Cubby Cuthbertson, man on the make with a taste for the good life and no moral compass. Death in a Family Way firmly establishes Gwendolyn Southin as a fascinating new voice in mystery fiction.

About this title

About the Author:

After emigrating to Montreal from England in the 1950s, Gwen Southin was a home-maker, raised three children, then worked as secretary to the CEO of an international telephone company until she and her husband abruptly decided to abandon Quebec winters in favor of the temperate Sunshine Coast north of Vancouver. Long involved in writers' circles and writing workshops, she also helps organize various book festivals in her community

Review:

"At last, a heroine I can relate to: Margaret Spencer brings droll wit and good old-fashioned common sense back to sleuthing." -- Margie Taylor, CBC Calgary

"Gwen Southin has created a winner with character of Maggie Spencer...Sure to appeal to crime fiction fans." -- Alma Lee, Vancouver Int's Writers Festival

The flow of the book is smooth, the action well-paced, and the plot well thought out. -- Quill & Quire magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Robert Davies Pub
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1552070298
• ISBN 13: 9781552070291
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 216