Well and Truly

Mayerson's ( No Enemy but Time ) latest novel offers a realistic and appealing heroine in Maggie Hatch, newly widowed and unprepared to cope with life in the small Vermont town that was her husband's birthplace and their home. Never involved in any major decision during their marriage, Maggie is devastated by her husband's legacy of a pending mortgage, little savings and a large debt owed to her granitelike mother-in-law. Her family and neighbors bombard her with instructions about selling her house, the virtues of a career demonstrating Tupperware, and which of the available men is an acceptable companion. In the midst of her grief and confusion Maggie is summoned for jury duty in the trial of a teenage girl accused of murdering her mother. The court proceedings become a stabilizing anchor for Maggie as she considers both the case and her own relationships with her contentious, college-dropout daughter and flamboyant, much-divorced mother, who arrives to give comfort but only upsets Maggie mightily. As Maggie struggles to escape a lifetime of passivity and the rigid strictures of the insular New England community, she slowly works through issues lingering from her marriage and the complications of new involvements. Her search for redefinition and direction is believable and engrossing. (July)