The Invisible Husband on Frick Island by Colleen Oakley
Summary
Piper Parrish's life on Frick Island—a tiny, remote town smack in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay—is nearly perfect. Well, aside from one pesky detail: Her darling husband, Tom, is dead. When Tom's crab boat capsized and his body wasn't recovered, Piper, rocked to the core, did a most peculiar thing: carried on as if her husband was not only still alive, but right there beside her, cooking him breakfast, walking him to the docks each morning, meeting him for their standard Friday night dinner date at the One-Eyed Crab. And what were the townspeople to do but go along with their beloved widowed Piper?
Anders Caldwell’s career is not going well. A young ambitious journalist, he’d rather hoped he’d be a national award-winning podcaster by now, rather than writing fluff pieces for a small town newspaper. But when he gets an assignment to travel to the remote Frick Island and cover their boring annual Cake Walk fundraiser, he stumbles upon a much more fascinating tale: an entire town pretending to see and interact with a man who does not actually exist. Determined it’s the career-making story he’s been needing for his podcast, Anders returns to the island to begin covert research and spend more time with the enigmatic Piper—but he has no idea out of all the lives he’s about to upend, it’s his that will change the most.
Book Setting: Smith Island, MD
Smith Island (Frick Island)
Susan'on Smith Island Bed & Breakfast (Pearl’s B&B)
Smith Island Marina
Bayside Inn Restaurant
Harbour Side Grocery
Union United Methodist Church
Reviews
"Sweet, quirky, surprising, and altogether lovely, The Invisible Husband of Frick Island is everything I long for in a book. I fell in love with Oakley's sparkling prose, charming characters, and quaint island setting. This is a story I can't wait to revisit, again and again. A must read."
—Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read
“An utterly charming story brimming with heart and humanity. This is the hopeful book we all need right now. I loved it!”
—Emily Giffin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lies That Bind
“Frick Island is the kind of place where you’d happily be stranded forever like Gilligan. This luminous quirky beauty deserves permanent space on your heart’s bookshelf.”
—Kristy Barrett, founder of A Novel Bee