Wiley Cash

I think I am done with this author. He can write well enough but his stories seem to be more like a small idea that he then tries to craft into a full length book, and the original idea gets mostly lost in the process.
This book takes place in 1984 and a plane lands at a closed airport in the middle of the night. By the time the sheriff gets there the plane is empty and a local man is is found dead on the runway.
Then the book wanders all over the place with nothing relevant to the plane crash, for the next 200+ pages.
Oh because this is the 21st century the author resurrects the poor race relations of 1984, then there is his daughter who lives in Dallas and has a health problem and winds up coming home, and then there is the fact that the sheriff is up for a tough reelection, and then there is his wife who is also I’ll. But what there isn’t is a story with characters that you care about and so you don’t really care what happens to them.
The ending comes out of nowhere and is just one more poorly thought out piece of this very weak story.… (més)

3.5 ⭐️

Set in 1984 Oak Island, North Carolina, When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash revolves around honest and hardworking Sheriff Winston Barnes who lives with his wife , Marie, a cancer patient . When the noise from a low flying plane crash landing at an airfield near his home wakes him up in the middle of the night , he goes to investigate only to discover the plane abandoned and the dead body of Rodney Bellamy an African American young man who went to school with his daughter and who was the son of a teacher and civil rights activist. When some citizens of the community deliberately malign Rodney’s reputation by suggesting that his murder was a result of him being involved in drug related criminal activities his family becomes the target of threats and racially motivated suspicion and hate.

Up for reelection and pitted against a younger but shady opponent , Winston understands how crucial it is to solve the crime that has shocked his small town and inflamed racial tensions. However, his efforts are largely hampered by limited manpower and resources, FBI involvement, racially motivated groups within his own workplace and in his town as well as family issues. His only daughter Colleen , still dealing with trauma from stillborn childbirth , returns home from her husband in Dallas . While Winston deals with his wife's illness and daughter's grief he sees an escalation of racially motivated violence and a general feeling of mistrust in his immediate environment. In Winston Barnes the author creates admirable protagonist who never compromises on his integrity and sense of justice even in the face of utmost danger .

When Ghosts Come Home is an sensitive picture of family, community , crime and racial relations in a small town . This was my first Wiley Cash novel and while I liked the story and the combination of family drama and suspense with a diverse cast of characters, the pacing was a little too slow for my liking. The dialogue and emotional aspects of grief and family were beautifully portrayed but somehow the mystery angle fell short. The beginning of the story was engaging but the ending felt a little abrupt and hurried. I felt a little let down with not the ending per se but the way the ending of the story was framed .… (més)