6 New Writers to Watch

Wiley Cash’s debut, A Land More Kind Than Home, about the bond between two brothers landed on the New York Times Best Sellers List and received the Crime Writers’ Association Debut of the Year.

- By Oline H. Cogdill

Wiley Cash

When Ghosts Come Home

William Morrow

The Plot: Wiley Cash is known for multilayered plots that start as straightforward stories but soon evolve into thoughtful looks at how the past affects the present, adding in issues of race, class, justice, and greed. In When Ghosts Come Home, Sheriff Winston Barnes’ investigation into a plane crash on the coast of North Carolina and the death of a local Black man morphs into a look at the community and corrupt politics as well as a tender story about the relationship between a father and daughter. As he tries to fight crime, Barnes also battles for his job in a bitter re-election campaign against a crooked, and well-financed opponent who is an unabashed racist. Even some of the man’s own deputies are siding against him. Set in 1984, When Ghosts Come Home shows how far we have come—and how far we haven’t.

The Character: Sheriff Winston Barnes joins Cash’s other strong, complicated characters—good people up against those who often hide their dishonesty and shady side. And like Cash’s other characters, Barnes is flawed, haunted by past mistakes. His love for his family drives him as much as his quest for justice as he tries to help both his wife, who has cancer, and his daughter, who is grief-stricken over her stillborn baby.