It’s Winter in the 90’s in Dalton, Maine. Rose has made a steady life for herself and her two sons, and is even contemplating a romance with Nate, the local policeman, when her abusive ex Tommy returns to town, with a lot of promises to stop drinking and also secretly toting a gun… Meanwhile, college-aged Angela returns to town after a stay with her estranged father down south went badly wrong, landing her in rehab. She’s been keeping her head down and her nose clean, when she bumps into Greg, a boy who was a friend in high school and who is now grown up, filled out and gorgeous.

In A Distant Valley is the third book in the series set in Dalton, Maine, about the intertwining lives, loves and personal secrets of the people who live in the small, rural town. I think the characters will be more meaningful for you if you’ve read the previous books in the trilogy, but you can read this as a standalone as well, without feeling like you’re missing anything too much. While Rose and Angela are our main plot threads here, other side characters lives are also explored. The town is a mill town, there’s a aspects of the have and have-nots, hard scrabble lives and and those who make it work in a trailer home, and others who have comfortable houses but not necessarily comfortable lives. It’s about ordinary people, which I really enjoyed about this book. And while it’s set in the 90’s, it’s not a nostalgia-fest. It has some appropriate references to the times, but it’s not heavy handed about it.

I liked the romances of Rose and Nate, and Angela with Greg. They’re both at different stages and phases of life, but both are in need of being seen, held and loved after the kinds of trauma that a lot of women readers will relate to (or readers of any gender for that matter). They’re both recovering from some traumatic events in their past relationships, and cautiously hoping for better futures.

There are parts of the book told from Tommy’s perspective, Rose’s abusive ex husband, with his past being explored, what made him the way he is, and his sad, self absorbed, defeated thoughts. These were dark and hard to read, because they’re so well written. The author really gets how people like Tommy think, the victim mentality and inability to see their own role in their lives, which adds a lot to the story as a whole, a depth and realism.

I also liked the lives of the side characters, the inhabitants of the small town, and how they gossip, interact, and care for each other, as well as the secrets they keep. I found them quite interesting too.

The end of the book wraps all the plots up neatly, which will probably feel the most satisfying to readers of the whole trilogy, but I felt like it ended well with the authors choice of how to end the different stories and which ones to end happily or leave more open, etc. On the whole, the book has some darkness, with plot points about alcoholism, assault and domestic violence included, but some sweetness and heart too.

My only real criticism was that while the characters made sense and their world was well realised, there wasn’t a theme or main thrust of the story for me. I got what I was reading, but for literary fiction, I felt like I needed to know why I was reading it. What did the author want me to know or say about small towns, relationships or about life? What was I meant to feel? I wonder if I needed to read all three books to get the theme, perhaps.

Read It If: you liked Go As A River or literary fiction about small town America, this may be an author to look out for. Also, those who love Maine or who grew up in rural, small town America.

With thanks to PGC Books for the ARC of this book for review.