In a Distant Valley
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
Both a love letter and a window into the rural places that have shaped many, In a Distant Valley sets the stage for a final act to play out across a deep winter in snowy Maine.
For a while, Rose Douglas believed life had given her a break. She was enjoying a steady job at the local clinic in Dalton; her two young boys, Adam and Brandon, were doing well in school; and their little family had found an easy friendship with widower Nate Theroux and his daughter, Sophie. The possibility of something deeper even hung between her and Nate—until the day Tommy Merchant, her ex and the father of her sons, showed up without warning on her doorstep. While Rose knows all too well his erratic and abusive nature, he swears he’s clean, and ready to turn over a new leaf.
Tommy isn’t the only one who’s found his way back to the town that defined him. Lost after a disastrous stint living down south with her father, Angela Muse has returned home to Dalton. There she runs into Greg Fortin, the friend who once saved her life when they were children and finally starts to believe there may be someone who understands her in a world that offers more questions than answers.
But secrets are the lifeblood of a small town, and everyone in Dalton soon finds themselves part of a chain of events hurtling towards outcomes beyond their control, where more than one future will be decided. Brimming with compassion and heart, In a Distant Valley is the remarkable conclusion to the story readers have been following since Shannon Bowring’s debut novel, The Road to Dalton.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The disarming close to Bowring's Road to Dalton trilogy (after Where the Forest Meets the River) largely centers on the budding romantic relationship between a single mother and a widower in small-town Maine. Rose Douglas's relationship with police officer Nate Theroux, whose wife died by suicide several years earlier after giving birth to their daughter, is threatened when her abusive ex-fiancé, Tommy Merchant, returns to Dalton, claiming he has changed for the better because he wants to be a good father to their two young sons. Rose is skeptical and imposes conditions upon him if he wants to see her and the children, namely that he must stop drinking. Tommy struggles with being the third wheel to Rose and Nate, and loses the job he'd just landed at the local lumber mill, after which he hints that he may turn back to his old tricks. Meanwhile, a taut subplot follows 19-year-old college student Greg Fortin, who comes to terms with his bisexuality and falls for a young local woman he once rescued from drowning. Bowring excels at humanizing her characters via nuanced backstories—especially Tommy, who was a one-dimensional lout in The Road to Dalton—and she teases out the joy that can come from fresh starts without flinching from the challenge of second chances. It's a satisfying conclusion.
