The Widows Husband

Peg had dimly suspected that her quarter-century old marriage was not boiler-plate perfect, but she had no idea of the quicksand she built it on-until her husband Emmett's sudden fatal heart attack. Then, in shock, almost before the funeral supper dishes are cleared away, she discovers that he'd ransacked their savings to support a mistress. Peg is devastated, emotionally and financially. She'd been a shy woman, a loner, a "Let-Emmett-do-it" passive sort of wife. She'd abdicated the keeping of their finances to him and now at his death, has to break open his desk to retrieve their checkbook. It's the cliche: "she didn't see it coming, because she'd been blind. Now, abruptly, at the age of forty-five, she is on her own in a newly unpredictable world. Of necessity she has to reenter the job market. And despite her reluctance to do so, she also pushed into the singles' scene, where she discovers a burgeoning sexuality. With the help of neighbors and newfound friends, she adjusts and is surprised and amazed at the pleasure and pain, this adjustment affords her. "The Widow's Husband, Evans' third novel, explores the dynamic of a family under pressure. This "family" has been reduced to Peg Malone, the widow and her daughter, Amy, now a grown woman living on her own, It's a fragile twosome, but between them a new bond is established, one that is both supportive and yet constrictive as well, for they do not always approve of each other. Both women learn that "family" can include people unrelated by blood, but connected on a deeper level than mere blood, which holds only the body together and not necessarily the soul.