National Bestseller

If the man you love went missing, how far would you go to find him?

Someone is watching Piper, and she thinks she knows who it is: the bushman. But there’s more than one danger lurking in this temperate rainforest. Poachers are taking down old growth trees and jeopardizing plans for a park, a project Piper is passionate about. When she pressures her husband, Ben, a natural resources officer, to identify the culprits, he takes his drone into the wilderness to track them down. And then, just as a snowstorm hits, he goes missing.

Refusing to believe her husband is gone, Piper begins a desperate search for him, one that continues long after the rescue team has given up. But as she begins to uncover what really happened to Ben, Piper is pursued by a stalker who may have taken her husband’s life and now threatens to take hers.

Gail Anderson-Dargatz, whose fictional style has been coined as "Pacific Northwest Gothic" by the Boston Globe, has been published worldwide in English and in many other languages. A Recipe for Bees and The Cure For Death By Lightning were international bestsellers, and were both finalists for the prestigious Giller Prize in Canada. The Cure For Death By Lightning won the UK’s Betty Trask Prize among other awards. A Rhinestone Button was a national bestseller in Canada and her first book, The Miss Hereford Stories, was short-listed for the Leacock Award for humour. Her most recent novel, The Spawning Grounds, released in fall 2016, was again a bestseller. After nearly a decade of teaching within the Optional-Residency MFA program in creative writing at the University of British Columbia, Gail now mentors writers around the world through her own on-line forums. She lives in the Shuswap, the landscape found in so much of her writing.

Gail Anderson-Dargatz's profile page

“The Almost Widow is a fast-paced adventure thriller that takes readers deep into the wilderness with all its dangers: environmental, animal, and human. With unique characters, shocking twists, and an emotional core, Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s latest is impossible to put down.”
— Robyn Harding, international bestselling author of The Party

“Gail Anderson-Dargatz has created an exceptional story of love and resilience; trauma and pain, set against the captivating backdrop of a small wilderness community at odds over its development. Both haunting and hopeful, this gorgeously written, brilliantly paced thriller will stun you with its exquisite prose and terrify you with its chilling undercurrent of fear and desperation. I was mesmerized and petrified until I turned the last glorious page.” — Samantha M. Bailey, USA Today and #1 national bestselling author of Watch Out for Her

“A taut, fast-paced and breathtaking story that had me furiously flipping the pages until the very end. The snowy small-town setting provides an incredible backdrop, and you’ll find yourself on tenterhooks to find out what happened there – and why. The Almost Widow is a masterclass in suspense and the perfect binge-read.”
— Hannah Mary McKinnon, internationally bestselling author of Never Coming Home

“Remarkably authentic and absolutely chilling. This propulsive and relentless wilderness thriller will have you tuning the pages as fast as you can and will make you grateful to be safe at home. The Almost Widow is an adventure that will haunt you long after the last page.”
— Hank Phillippi Ryan, bestselling author of Her Perfect Life

“Anderson-Dargatz perfectly captures the wilderness—from its timeless beauty to its contemporary concerns. The Almost Widow is as twisty as a forest path while crackling with the warmth of a neighborhood bonfire."
— Kelley Armstrong, bestselling author of A Rip Through Time

"[The Almost Widow] is, most assuredly, a novel of suspense, but it also defies convenient classification as a mere wilderness thriller. It can also qualify as a work of serious literary fiction.” — –Edmonton Journal