Review of "When Ghosts Come Home: A Novel" by Wiley Cash

It's 1984 and 63-year-old Winston Barnes is the sheriff of Oak Island, North Carolina, a narrow isle just off the mainland.

The region experienced violence and riots during school desegregation, and racial tensions still run high. Thus, when an unscheduled plane lands at Oak Island's tiny airport at 3:00 AM.....



....and Sheriff Barnes finds an empty aircraft with a dead black man nearby, it's a recipe for trouble.



Oak Island residents speculate that the aircraft was laden with drugs and the dead man was helping to bring them in. Sheriff Barnes isn't so sure. He knows the deceased man, a 26-year-old husband and father named Rodney Bellamy. Rodney is the son of Ed Bellamy, the only black high school teacher in the area, who - along with Winston - tried to keep peace during school integration.



When the sheriff interviews Rodney's wife Janelle, she says her husband went out the night before to buy diapers for their infant, and never returned.



The airplane incident adds an additional worry to Sheriff Barnes' already full load. Winston's wife Marie has cancer; his daughter Colleen is mourning the birth of a stillborn baby; and Barnes is in a contest for sheriff against Brad Frye - an arrogant racist with a rich daddy. Barnes' fears he'll lose the election, and with it the health benefits so vital to Marie.

When entitled candidate Frye hears about the mystery plane he rushes right over to offer his 'help.'



To further Winston's irritation, the chair of the county commission calls in the FBI - which insures Winston won't get credit for discoveries about the aircraft. And all this when the election is just a week away!



Sheriff Barnes' job is made even harder by a group of white supremacists......



.....who terrorize Janelle and her 14-year-old brother Jay. Jay's parents sent him to Oak Island because he got into trouble in his home town of Atlanta.



The white supremacist incident opens a rift in the sheriff's department, where a deputy and an office manager side with the racists.



For his part, the victim's father Ed is furious. He wants to help his daughter-in-law, and isn't about to take flak from white supremacists any more.



Ed tells the sheriff - in no uncertain terms - that he won't put up with harassment, and a showdown seems inevitable.

Two tangential story lines add interest to the story. In one, Janelle's brother Jay becomes friendly with a white teenager who's a bad influence.



In another, Winston's daughter Colleen - who lives in Texas with her husband - can't cope with her baby grief, drinks too much, and returns to Oak Island.



This is a character driven novel, with a wide array of protagonists. Unfortunately, some of the characters don't always use good judgement, and the story's ending is not totally satisfying (to me).

Nevertheless, this is a good book that would appeal to many readers.

Thanks to Netgalley, Wiley Cash, and William Morrow Publishers for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars