The Widow Nash

Starred review from April 24, 2017
Debut novelist Harrison paints a lovely and memorable portrait of a desperate woman’s flight to a new life. In late 1904, Leda Cordelia Dulcinea Remfrey has been summoned to Seattle to attend to her dying syphilitic father, Walton. Dulcy must go, even though the summons comes from her father’s business partner and her ex-fiancé, Victor Maslingen, a man of violent rages who raped her. She is Victor’s only hope to find out what the increasingly deranged Walton has done with the profits of the sale of some African mines, money that Victor needs. After Walton’s death, as Dulcy and her sister, Carrie, travel back East to bury their father, Dulcy makes her way from the train to begin a new life in Livingston, Mont., as the Widow Maria Nash. Livingston is not without its own violence and drama, but it promises the safety of anonymity and possibly even real love. Harrison’s lead is a strong and clever woman who is easy to admire, while the rest of the heroes, villains, and ambiguous sorts are as vividly drawn as the raw and terrible scenery of Montana. Readers will treasure Harrison’s rich characterization and sharp turns of phrase.

April 1, 2017
A literary turn from an author known for mysteries (Blue Deer Thaw, 2000, etc.).Dulcy Remfrey is returning from a party when she gets a phone call. Phone calls aren't exactly common in 1904, so she assumes the worst: her father's dead. As it happens, he's not, but neither is he well, and it seems that he has misplaced a very large sum of money. His business partner, Victor--also, once upon a time, Dulcy's fiance--wants her to leave New York immediately and head for Seattle, hopeful that she might tease the truth of the missing fortune from her father's syphilis-addled brain. Victor, a man with violent tendencies, is dismayed both by the prospect of being ruined--Walton was supposed to be returning from Africa with the proceeds from selling several mines--and the presence of the woman who jilted him. When Walton dies before anyone can figure out what's happened to Victor's money, Dulcy decides that her only option is to disappear. Thus, Dulcy Remfrey turns herself into the young widow Mrs. Nash. This baroque setup is nicely balanced by Harrison's prose; the narrative voice here is restrained, with just a hint of quiet irony. And there's the fact that, as fantastical as the scenario might seem, Walton Remfrey is an entirely believable Gilded Age figure: a mining magnate who got his start digging copper as an orphan in Cornwall, a lowborn man who built an empire with hard labor, constant hustle, and a lack of regard for ethics. He's a raconteur and a libertine as much as he is an engineer and entrepreneur. Indeed, how readers react to this novel depends in large part on how beguiling they find Walton. While this is ostensibly Dulcy's tale, she is trapped in a Seattle apartment with her dying father--not to mention the volatile Victor--for almost a third of the book, and, even after he dies, the story of her reinvention is, again and again, interrupted by vignettes from her travels with her father. Some readers will enjoy these picaresque episodes, while those who require narrative momentum will likely find them distracting. Thoughtful, richly written historical fiction.

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May 1, 2017

For years, Dulcy Remfrey accompanied her father, Walton, on worldwide trips as he invested in mines and sought treatments for his syphilis. But in 1904, when Walton returns from an African expedition, his mind gone, Victor Maslingen, his business partner and Dulcy's ex-fiance, summons her to Seattle. He's convinced that Dulcy can decipher Walton's cryptic notebooks to learn what happened to profits from a gold mine, but pages with dates and victim statistics from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, odd scientific theories, and bawdy poetry yield no answers. After her father's death, Dulcy disappears during a train journey taking his body back East. Leaving behind clues suggesting she committed suicide in order to escape Victor's marriage plans, Dulcy reinvents herself as a wealthy widow in a remote Montana town But she discovers that the residents of Livingston have their own dark secrets and that her past may catch up with her. Is the train passenger who arrives in town Victor's spy or Dulcy's chance for happiness? Multiple characters swirl through the novel, rushing from crisis to crisis. VERDICT Readers prizing action above all may appreciate this Western saga by the daughter of author Jim Harrison (who also pens the "Blue Deer" mysteries), but those bothered by loose ends and minimal character development will be disappointed--Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Mankato

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2017
Dulcy Remfrey has spent most of her life as a companion to her father, Walton, a syphilitic globe-trotter prone to indulging in women and financial speculation. When his illness hits its final downward spiral, Walton has just returned from a trip without Dulcy during which a million-dollar profit has vanished along with his mind. After his death, Dulcy cannot trace the money, despite threats from her ex-fiance, her father's partner. On impulse, she stages her suicide and disappears into a new life in small-town Montana, where she reinvents herself as the widow Nash. Harrison, author of the Jules Clement Montana-set mystery series, writes atmospheric historical fiction featuring both drama and bizarrely entertaining humor. There are Whartonesque touches in the demarcations of society, though the humor is of a decidedly more oddball and at times raunchy nature that pulls no punches. This amalgam of varied parts works, providing both the overarching story of a woman divorcing herself from her past and a subtler comedy of errors among a quirky cast of characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)