This novel opens with preparations for a wedding. The mother of the bride is having her hair done, the mother of the groom laying out the button holes. The owner of the garden centre waves his young apprentice off early as he heads out to celebrate.
Then the town's doctoris called to a fatal crash. The car in which six young people, including the bride and groom to be and his own son, has crashed.
The story follows Connor as he lives with the shame of being the driver of that ill fated car. He never felt that he fit in, was surprised to be invited along on the wedding party's jaunt to the beach and has to cope with the death of three of his contemporaries, the devastating consequences for the families, and his own crushing guilt.
Connor is shipped off to work in England, bouncing from job to job, getting into terrible situations as he naively navigates his new-found freedom. He contemplates calling home, but apart from a postcard, never gets in contact.
Meanwhile, the community he left picks up the pieces and some things move on. Connor's sister, Ellen, marries Martin Coulter, now the town's doctor but previously an occupant of the doomed car. Does he know more about the crash than he's letting on?
The narrative moves between Connor's life in England and eventually New York and back to his home town, slowly unravelling what happened on the trip to the beach.
Connor is a complex character, the unreliable narrator of his own life, keeping his secrets and holding on to his truth. The ways in which human beings manipulate one another is explored, and how our perspectives are skewed and change over time.
"Home Stretch" is another page turner from a natural storyteller with many tales to tell.
