Book Review - A Land More Kind Than Home

Wednesday night, before heading back up to the in laws' house for the holiday weekend, I finished Wiley Cash's first novel, A Land More Kind Than Home (William Morrow, 2012, 306 pages). I read this on the strength of having read his second book earlier this year and having really liked it (This Dark Road to Mercy).

This is described as a literary thriller, and is the story of two brothers living in the North Carolina mountains. One brother is handicapped, and ends up dead following mysterious events at a secretive fundamentalist church, some of which are seen by Jess, the other brother. Events take their course as the sheriff tries to determine what happened, the pastor tries to hide it, and the family of the dead boy tries to understand and come to grips with the loss of their son.

Saying more than that little blurb would give away more than I would want to, and this is a book well worth reading. If anything, I found it to be perhaps slightly less polished than his second book, but it was still very good. And while the events unfold in a somewhat predictable manner, there was an inevitability to the way things built to their conclusion that made a lot of sense.

A solid 4 stars out of 5. I will definitely be on the lookout for whatever else Cash comes out with in the future.