When Ghosts Come Home

When a low-flying aircraft wakes Sheriff Winston Barnes in the middle of the night, he rushes to the tiny Oak Island, NC, airport, imagining a plane in distress. Instead, he finds an abandoned plane, wiped clean of fingerprints, and a murdered Black man on the runway. While he has served for decades as sheriff, Barnes isn’t sure he can manage this murder investigation given what is already on his plate—he believes he is on the brink of losing his re-election bid to a wealthy racist land developer, his wife is battling cancer, and his married daughter has just arrived back home after a stillbirth. It is the mid-1980s, and the racial tensions that were already simmering below the surface come to a boil when white residents decide the plane crash is connected to Black members of the community smuggling drugs into town. Cash’s (A Land More Kind Than Home) prose is the highlight of the novel, and veteran narrator J. D. Jackson’s rich voice and steady pacing allow listeners to savor the lyrical writing. Jackson also smoothly manages the narrative shifts between Barnes, his daughter, and the teenage nephew of the murdered man, helping to bring their separate stories into a cohesive, powerful exploration of the devastating effects of racism.