IN A DISTANT VALLEY

A rural town in northern Maine finds its way forward after a young woman’s sudden death.

For her third and final novel about the “picturesque, neighborly, silent town” of Dalton, Bowring picks up her story in 1995, shortly after the conclusion of Where the Forest Meets the River (2024). Single dad Nate Theroux, back to work as a police officer, still feels “every part of him vibrant with grief” since his wife, Bridget, took her own life more than five years ago. Yet he’s finally feeling open to “the potential of what his life could open up to become.” He’s slowly falling for Rose Douglas, a single mother of two, but her alcoholic ex, Tommy Merchant, is ever-present, insisting he can be a good dad to their sons. This budding romance, threatened by violence from Tommy, yields some of the novel’s most gorgeous moments, as Rose and Nate navigate each other’s emotional defenses. College kid Greg Fortin, who is bisexual, finds himself suddenly drawn to a high school friend, Angela Muse. Bowring gives Angela, previously a minor character, a full backstory, including trauma she’s hidden from her family. To her ever-lively, assured prose, Bowring adds small moments of the otherworldly, to show Bridget’s lingering presence, and some jarring crassness at times, but there’s still plenty of humor, wisdom, and ethical complexity. At one point, Nate recalls Bridget saying, “the damage doesn’t end once the last bruise has faded.” Which could be a coda for all we’ve learned about Dalton. These linked, layered relationships have yielded deep pain and grief, along with many forms of complex love. It’s greatly fulfilling to see in these characters’ lives that if you keep going, you might actually find not just one, but many loves in a lifetime.

A fine, satisfying end to the Dalton cycle of novels.