A Late Legend's New Novel

When author and film director Michael Crichton died of cancer in 2008 at age 66, his pregnant widow, Sherri, just wanted to sit in his writing room, surrounded by the work that was so central to his life.

- LIZZ SCHUMER

She thought about his legacy, which included movies like Westworld and Coma, novels like Congo and Jurassic Park, and ER, the hit medical TV series he created. That legacy would be reflected in their unborn son, whom she'd have to raise without his father.

"I knew the playful side of Michael. I knew the adventure. I knew the most amazing companion and the devoted husband," she tells People. "But he was so private [about his writing]; I didn't know the working world of Michael."

She did know he had been working on a new novel when he died. And like so much of his writing, it would be informed, in part, by their travels—from their 2005 wedding in Hawaii and honeymoon stop in Pompeii to their many trips around the world spent researching the volcanoes that fascinated him. It took her more than 15 years of digging through old hard drives and gathering material to begin to finish what he’d started. The result: Eruption, which will hit shelves on June 3.