[The No-Return Trail] is told from the viewpoint of Nancy Kelsey…. Unfortunately, what should be rattling good historical fiction comes off as only modestly interesting due to a few improbabilities (jelly made of crabapples and choke-cherries in May; poor travelers having rubberized sheets and matches) and a lot of talk taking the place of suspense. (pp. 94-5)

[The travelers in The No-Return Trail face] quicksand, illness, hunger, dissension; but none of this is dramatized, and in fact there's a disappointing tameness to the whole narrative. Similarly Nancy, despite being "strong as an ox" (her husband's boast) and "spunky" too, and despite ending the trip with an almost ecstatic love for life and for her husband, comes across as oddly bland.