Strickland’s first novel opens outside of New Orleans with a horrible car crash that kills four people–a newly married couple in one car and two young children in the other. The children’s parents, Don and Gail Ebbets, survive but their marriage does not. Don is convicted of manslaughter and sent to prison. Gail takes their surviving son Cliff to North Carolina, but neither Cliff nor Gail manages to find happiness. Twenty-five years later a nearly-broke Cliff has a daughter and a rocky marriage. When he receives word that his father is dying and that a return to visit in Louisiana will lead to inheritance money, he heads to New Orleans to make peace with both his father and the memories that literally haunted his childhood.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.