Once upon a time, Permelia’s fiancé abandoned her at the altar. It’s been 50 years. She’s moved on, made friends, stopped bad guys, and swore to never need a man in her life again. Now he’s back… and bleeding… and bad guys are after him.

This book pretty much hooked me right from the start. Permelia was a side character in Undercover Saint (as well as Undercover Target and Undercover Terrorist), and I’ve always wondered about how she ended up living in a single’s apartment building at 75. This book goes back and forth between present time and the 60s when Permelia met Greg in California. It was crazy to see Premelia as a young, shy librarian, when her older self is the complete opposite—loud, outgoing, and always up for an adventure.

There were a few things in the last 20% of the book that I didn’t love though. And despite really liking the rest of the book, I think it almost ruined it for me. There’s a moment back in time where Permelia basically makes the decision to change herself to be what Greg wants. An ice cream shop messes up her order and she hears Greg’s voice in her head, “No wife of mine would leave this situation without showing some backbone.” Wow. I really want to imagine that I read that wrong, because if not, it pretty much undermines every other moment where I loved Permelia for her crazy personality and sense of humor. That quote says that’s not who she is.

The other thing that really made me mad was a matter of having the right to defend yourself. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: these characters are way too accepting of the possibility of their death. There’s a conversation at the end of the book that takes this another step further, and I don’t agree with it. That’s all I’m gonna say.

Despite my few major issues with this book, if Frank Holdaway wrote another book, I would read it. I like revisiting his characters (where’s Ron?), and I loved his first two books so much that I’ll take a chance for another one.