In the Shadow of Death Audiobook By Gwendolyn Southin cover art

In the Shadow of Death

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In the Shadow of Death

By: Gwendolyn Southin
Narrated by: Cynthia Barrett
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TouchWood Editions is proud to introduce the first female sleuth in our selection of mystery novels. Author Gwendolyn Southin uniquely blends the charm of gumshoe techniques with the fresh perspective of a developing female detective. The Margaret Spencer Mysteries offer action and suspense, with a human subtext.

Just one year later, Margaret is coming into her own as an investigator, after leaving the comforts of her Kerrisdale home and her inattentive husband, a corporate lawyer. Living in trendy and bustling Kitsilano with Nat Southby, her newfound happiness is undercut by her family's pleadings to return home. In need of a vacation, she and Nat head for a ranch in the Cariboo. Instead of solace, they find violence, betrayal and an unsolved missing person's case that introduces them to host of new and questionable characters.

©2008 Gwendolyn Southin (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Women Sleuths Mystery Detective Fiction Women's Fiction

Editorial reviews

Brimming with colorful characters, luscious landscapes, and striking storytelling, In the Shadow of Death is all the more remarkable for its clever, tasteful rejection of male-driven mystery and patriarchal private eyes. Listeners meet gumshoe Margaret Spencer, recently estranged from her self-righteous lawyer husband and living with a new lover, fellow detective Nat Southby. Set in 1959, Spencer’s story reflects a decided rejection of domestic docility, and rightfully so: as Spencer dismisses the demands of her pompous husband, she learns her friend Kate’s spouse has mysteriously disappeared, and sets about rescuing him. Actress Cynthia Barrett brims with impish intrigue, her tone at once sly, suggestive, and playfully smug as she follows the hardnosed heroine across British Colombia in search of her missing man.
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The story was very exciting all throughout. Maggie is so brave. Bat is valiant in his efforts. The bad guys are really bad but totally one sided. I never knew there was a Cariboo Canada as well as Caribou. I was confused for a while until I googled the word.

Very exciting.

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What can I say but very enjoyable: Set in the 50's when virginity before marriage ( for women of course) was the ideal, the main character who has cast off her conventional life with a rigid husband and rude battle-axe of a mother in law and now has a boyfriend; a portly detective she works for. One never expects to be shocked now since everything goes. But in the context of a time when a woman could not get a divorce except for adultery, Maggie is fearless & determined to no longer be bound by a life...of other people's making.

Compelling Pleasure & good characters.

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Wonderful depiction of the 1950’s. The lead character rebels against the constraints on women working with intelligence and wry humor. I love this series. And the narrator is superb.

Marvelous lead character and plot.

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unusual plot and the people are easily caught in problems they are interesting and human

the time of the setting

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The story line wasn’t bad, but I struggled to get through it because of the narrator’s grating voice. The cadence was off when she was speaking the male parts

Needs a new narrator.

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