Pen Pal by Stephen Marlowe

Thirty-three-year-old Matilda Penshaws has spent years chasing the ideal husband, surviving broken engagements and her mother's sensible advice to simply date. A devoted romantic, she ignores ordinary courtship and instead hunts for love in pen pal columns, convinced that the right correspondence will reveal her perfect mate. When a striking ad in a literary magazine introduces the worldly, confident Haron Gorka, Matilda is certain she has found the sophisticated, egotistical man she has always imagined. Convinced his unusual name and promise of "universal experience" mark him as a rare catch, Matilda rushes to Cedar Falls before the letters can begin, hoping to beat rival correspondents to the prize. But her hopeful journey quickly turns baffling: no one in town seems to know Haron Gorka, and her searches at the post office, police station, and local shops lead nowhere. Refusing to give up, she heads to the library, still determined to uncover the mystery and discover whether this impossible romance is real. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.