cover image The Good Widow

The Good Widow

Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke. Lake Union, $14.95 trade paper (332p) ISBN 978-1-5039-4344-5

California school teacher Jacqueline “Jacks” Morales, the narrator of this solid psychological thriller from Fenton and Steinke (The Year We Turned Forty), is stunned to learn that her husband, James, who was supposed to be in Kansas on a business trip, has died in a car accident on the island of Maui, along with Dylan Matthews, a woman he apparently met on the flight from LAX. Traumatized by the accident and her husband’s betrayal, Jacks stumbles through her days trying to make sense of what happened to James and their marriage. She gives up driving and becomes a near recluse. Then Dylan’s fiancé, Nick, appears on her doorstep looking for answers. Jacks and Nick wind up traveling to Hawaii to find some resolution to their mutual anger and grief. By the end, Jacks will discover that love can turn into a deadly obsession. Fans of Joy Fielding will appreciate the story’s fast pacing and sympathetic main character, despite a predictable ending. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, Book Group. (June)