Book 2 in the Margaret Spencer series was a serious letdown. Gone were the sparkling, assertive Margaret and the gruff, down to earth Nat. Instead we’re given a wishy-washy Maggie who whines about needing to get away from her bossy, overbearing husband and obnoxious elder daughter. Running away for two weeks from these insufferable people was hardly going to address the issues Margaret/Maggie needed to face up to for gaining an independent life.

Disappointingly, Southin rendered the ebullient Maggie as a woman who is heavily motivated by emotional angst, making the most asinine choices. Without a shred of logical thinking for approaching the problems, she takes on the difficulties which beset the tediously weepy Kate. Nat was portrayed as a clingy character in love to a degree that clouded his relationship as Maggie’s employer. The author threw in too much, too soon in this budding relationship.

Going forward in the narrative, the reader winds up in the Cariboo region of the interior of British Columbia. I have to wonder if Gwendolyn Southin has ever been in the bush around the dry Cariboo interior. Her descriptions were a poor offering of bushwacking through the back country, full of irritating inaccuracies. How a dude ranch would be managed for a guest's hospitality, including safety measures, seemed largely a figment of her imagination.

Nat’s eventual arrival in the area wasn’t much better. His equally unrealistic behaviour was characterised by a gunshot wound in the leg but managed heroic feats to get out of difficulties. Never mind an overly complicated plot, the ending was no surprise at all.

After having enjoyed the first book, it was thoroughly disappointing to find that Book 2 was a waste of good paper. I was especially anticipating a series of, at least, decent reading material.

Gwendolyn Southin missed a great opportunity to develop the main character's personality. After escaping a domineering, selfish husband and finding her feet as an individual, the author would have had a really worthwhile novel series which championed a strong female protagonist. With a backdrop of the adventures in a detective agency, this theme could have been so much more engaging. ( )

well, this is a local author so thought I would give it a try. There is a plane and a aerial navigation map on the front cover which would lead you to believe there was a focus on aviation in this book. There was not.

In my opinion, the book would appeal to the >80 female population of the senior's home. The book is set in the 60s and is a little to light on action for my taste. ( )