Evvie Drake Starts Over

Evvie Drake lives in a big house in a small Maine town, and almost a year after her husband died in a car crash she hardly goes outside. Everyone around her, her best friend Andy included, assumes grief keeps her indoors. Evvie lets them believe it and says nothing to set them straight.

In New York City, Dean Tenney is a former Major League pitcher whose career has gone wrong. He can no longer throw straight, and he cannot work out the reason. The press follows his decline closely, and the attention only makes it harder to bear.

Andy, who has been Dean's friend since childhood, offers a way out: a stay in Maine, in the apartment at the back of Evvie's house. The two strike a bargain. He will not ask about her husband, and she will not ask about baseball.

This is a contemporary novel that alternates between its two leads, a widow and an athlete in trouble, and it is set mostly in a small town away from the spotlight. The setup points toward a romance between tenant and landlady, and the rules are unlikely to hold. Expect a warm, character-driven read in which the tension comes from what each of them keeps hidden.