"When Ghosts Come Home" was an enjoyable if slightly laborious read. Wiley Cash paints a vivid picture of the North Carolina coast many years ago, which is the first thing you need to know about the novel.
It is a historical novel, set in 1984; however, many details of the time period are withheld, and you could easily mistake the novel for being set today if it wasn't for the dates used and the social issues of the time. The conflict between the white and African-American communities in its setting of Oak Island felt very timely, a point which the author no doubt intended to make.
I understood many of the references from the period, as I like a lot of the things associated with 1980s culture. The main character is running for re-election as sheriff on the same Election Day that Ronald Reagan scored the most electoral votes of all time against Walter Mondale, a fact stated in the novel (except for the outcome, the novel ends four days before the election). I also liked the cultural references "When Ghosts Come Home" made, such as music (a character is mentioned as listening to Bruce Springsteen's album "Nebraska") and film (a character's Halloween costume is Jason Voorhees from "Friday the 13th") of the time.
One thing you could possibly criticize Cash for is his extensive use of (I would almost say reliance on) flashbacks and side commentary. He discusses aspects of a place, or most commonly, a character, that are not immediately relevant to the main story. However, I do not criticize him for doing so, as he does so for a reason.
He does so to give examples in practice of a character's traits, or to explain why the character has those traits. For example, the flashbacks to the daughter of the main character's upbringing were especially moving and interesting as they impact the main story heavily. Other flashbacks explain the same kinds of things about other characters.
An area Cash excels in are his depictions of ordinary life. There are many things in this story that are not often written about (especially in mystery novels) because readers would consider them mundane and thus boring.
However, Cash writes about them in such vivid detail that the scenes are not boring at all. Furthermore, at 304 pages, much has to be devoted to the story - the idea that every page has to have meaning is true of a novel of any length, but especially to a relatively short one. The main story does rely on ordinary life, but Cash makes that enjoyable for the reader.
He does so with his use of sensory writing. He does not only describe what the characters see in vivid detail, but also what they hear, what they smell, and what they feel on the inside with just as much attention to detail. As a writer myself, I need to do this more. It gives another layer of depth to the story.
One issue I had with the novel is that it took me a while to understand the main plot and conflict. "When Ghosts Come Home" is more of a series of events than a coherent story, especially for the first half. Even so, I sort of understood it by the end.
Furthermore, "When Ghosts Come Home" is written in third person limited from three perspectives. Each perspective tells a different story at the same time, and while the main events are experienced by all the characters, I felt like that made the story choppier and less coherent.
The stories do converge, and maybe I am being too harsh on Cash for that. However, I do feel like his work has some flaws, and that is why I docked a star. I thought about docking two, but I have read worse books and given them four stars.
One of these flaws is the ending. Cash tries to stick the landing with a stunner, but I found that difficult to understand as well. As always, no spoilers. However, I will say that an ending like that should not be wrapped up in three pages.
In sum, I did enjoy "When Ghosts Come Home," but there were some issues that seemed easy to fix.
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