In a Distant Valley

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. (Oct.)