In the Absence of Mrs. Petersen is a 1966 thriller novel by the British writer Nigel Balchin.James p.143 After the death of his wife, a writer is persuaded by a woman who resembles his wife to pose as her husband and travel with her to her home country of Yugoslavia to retrieve some of her family's wealth.
References
Bibliography Clive James. At the Pillars of Hercules. Pan Macmillan, 2013.