Subtitled 'Love and Life on the Lam', this offhand feminist tale presents Mazie Maguire from inside a Wisconsin prison, where she is sent poisoned cookies from her mother-in-law; jailed for shooting her husband because he was about to leave her for another woman. She's a hero to the other inmates, staring thirty in the face, using margarine for moisturiser. She dreams of escape.

A tornado strikes the area while Mazie is in the garden on tomato-picking detail. She takes advantage of the ensuing chaos to leave. Peppered with amusing escape tips, such as be prepared (she wasn't) and have your back story ready (she made one up as she went along), THE ESCAPE DIARIES follows the resourceful farm girl as she gets a lift in just her underclothes, hears her mother yell support on a TV, and steals a car among other activities. Homage is paid to films 'The Fugitive', 'North by Northwest' and others. Mazie is befriended by a TV cameraman who believes her when she says she didn't kill her husband. Could she possibly use her time of freedom, however brief, to discover who really did?

A deranged mother in law and an incriminating video later, Mazie has acquired a small dog and learnt that her late husband had been spending money he didn't have just prior to his death. She's also made some very iffy friends of tough kids and cross-dressers, and found out the hard way that someone would far rather she didn't learn the truth.

This lively tale of thinking on your feet and scrambling for any escape route, even a slurry pit, will amuse and entertain, but contains several hard truths. I especially enjoyed seeing the pampered pet Muffin adapt to being a street dog once he has found someone deserving of his loyalty. Read THE ESCAPE DIARIES and let Juliet Rosetti encourage you to wonder what you would do if your entire world turned upside down and you looked like spending your life behind bars. I particularly liked escape tip No. 31; look like a lady, fight like a fiend.