Journey into the fashionable art world of 1960s Vancouver as Margaret Spencer and Nat Southby return in Death as a Fine Art, the fifth book in the Margaret Spencer mystery series. The owner of the Silver Unicorn Art Gallery is dead, and Southby and Spencer, Private Investigators are back at work in search of the killer. With plenty of suspects and twists and turns along the way, Maggie and Nat have their work cut out for them.The cast of memorable characters are no match for the investigators. Maggie trusts her instincts as they take her from the streets of Vancouver to Victoria, Galiano Island, and Mission. Meanwhile, her estranged husband continues his efforts to win her back, but even with plans for her daughter's wedding taking up all her spare time, Maggie knows there is no returning to her old life. Author Gwendolyn Southin uniquely blends the charm of gumshoe techniques with the fresh perspective of a developing female detective.

Product DescriptionIt is January 1961 and Margaret Spencer and Nat Southby are relaxing on a ski holiday when their vacation takes a bone-chilling turn. While cross-country skiing the couple comes across the frozen body of Maurice Dubois, a man who went missing from a fishing resort the month before. When Maurice’s wife is also found murdered, the two Vancouver detectives are hired by the victims’ children to investigate. An energetic hunt begins, as Maggie and Nat find themselves involved in clandestine visits to a clothing factory on East Hastings Street, encounters at horse-breeding stables in Langley, a car chase to Lulu Island and eventually a pilgrimage to the fishing resort at St. Clare’s Cove in Pender Harbour. In Death As a Last Resort, the fourth book in the popular Margaret Spencer Mystery series, our favourite Vancouver female sleuth Maggie Spencer and her partner Nat Southby continue their escapades as they track down the unlawful and dangerous. About the AuthorGwendolyn Southin is the author of the three previous Margaret Spencer Mysteries (Death in a Family Way, In the Shadow of Death, Death on a Short Leash). Long involved in writers circles and writing workshops, she also helped organize various book festivals in her community. Born in England, and having lived in Montreal, Gwen now enjoys the temperate Sunshine Coast and has made her home in Sechelt, BC.

Product DescriptionTouchWood 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. Back in Vancouver, Maggie and Nat begin their next adventure at a cranberry bog where a veterinarian's assistant has been found dead. A long trail with a faint scent to follow, their victim's double-life leads them to a strip club, a bogus religious sect, and a nursing home with a dark underlying secret. About the AuthorGwendolyn Southin was born in Essex, England and launched her writing career in Canada, co-founding The SunCoast Writers Forge, The Festival of the Written Arts, and The Sunshine Coast Writers-in-Residence Program. She co-edited The Great Canadian Cookbook with Betty Keller and her short stories and articles have appeared in Maturity, Pioneer News and Sparks from the Forge. Gwendolyn lives in Sechelt, B.C.

Vancouver, 1959. Margaret Spencer has moved out of her upscale Kerrisdale manor, left her stultifying marriage with Harry, her pompous lawyer husband, and is living alone in a basement apartment in the trendy Vancouver suburb of Kitsilano. Happy in her job as assistant to detective Nat Southby - whom she has also taken as her lover -, she is also harassed by Harry who wants her to give up and return to the upper middle-class life they once shared. Yearning to escape the pressure she decides to head north to the Cariboo District for a week on a dude ranch.This novel is replete with lush descriptions of the countryside between Vancouver and far-off Williams Lake, and as the whistle-stop train takes Maggie through the picturesque towns of Squamish, Whistler and Lillooet, further and further from civilisation, she is drawn ever deeper into 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 in the end, frightening splendor of the wilds is a canvas onto which Southin has painted a cozy with elements that appeal to a broad readership. Relations between the generations, marital tension, betrayal, arrogance and violence run through the story on a current lifted by sharp dialogue and a well-paced plot. Ultimately, a kind of existential resolution leaves the reader satisfied, but with a twist. A broad cast of characters add depth to In the Shadow of Death: Henny, the 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 and lends credence to all that will follow - is somehow made attractive, while the closed-minded and petty local RCMP man in Williams Lake practically leaks bile off the pages. Maggie is almost shot while looking for clues, the bodies pile up, and in a startling climax that takes place is the lightless shaft of an abandoned mine, Southby is the target and this time, Maggie does the saving. Southin is at her best in chase scenes, and this one is a real page-turner. 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

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.At age fifty, Margaret Spencer's empty nest and empty marriage prompt her to answer an ad for part-time office work at the office of private investigator Nat Southby. Suddenly, she is deep in the most unlikely of adventures for a woman in 1950s Vancouver, helping him with a case of missing young women involved in a shady business ring. Maggie finds unexpected freedom as a developing detective and along the way she uncovers evil in the quaintly urban setting.