Shadow of Ashland
{4.5/5} “He was ashamed. He saw what takin’ a man’s job could lead to, saw what he’d done. He’d ended up pitted against other fellows just like himself — guys tryin’ to get by, feed themselves and families. But he was just like them — needed the money.”
Shadow of Ashland by Terence M. Green, published in 1996
Leo asks his mother who she wants to see before she dies. She says Jack, her brother. But Jack disappeared 50 years ago. Nevertheless, Leo mounts a search, sending letters to various people with the same last name. Then his father ask him to come over, and shows him a letter that just arrived. It’s from Jack — but it’s postmarked 1934.
It’s a family mystery, like a Kate Morton novel, except with more of a fantastic element to it.
It’s about how sometimes when you write letters to your family you don’t tell them how bad things are. It’s about how bad things were during a time none of today can imagine, the Great Depression. It’s about a desperate attempt to make something better.
This is the 1st book I’ve read by Green.