Fate Moreland’s Widow by John Lane

The protagonist of this novel, Ben Crocker, witnesses on Labor Day in 1935 a boat on a lake owned by a cotton mill owner capsize and its three occupants drown. The mill scion was charged with murder. In 1988, Crocker, still haunted by this tragedy, began to seriously look into the calamity and attempt to deal with the ramifications of it. "In this engaging first novel by acclaimed nature writer John Lane, self-proclaimed company man Ben Crocker tells his story, as the overworked, underpaid flunky of a 1930's textile mogul in the Carolina Blue Ridge foothills. The unlovable boss man and his big cruiser have swamped a small boat on the company lake and drowned three people. Among the dead are the husband and child of gorgeous Novie Moreland, dream girl of half the countryside. The young Widow Moreland is nobody's fool, but nobody's paragon either, as smitten Ben must learn. Lane's cautionary tale of land, labor, love, and loyalty is as pertinent today as it was in its Depression era of m