Description

In Debra Walker’s debut novel Welcome Home, the adage ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ is put to the test by Cecilia Williams as she uncovers long-buried family secrets.
Hoping to learn more about her deceased father’s relatives—the Hunter family—she connects with two elderly cousins who welcome her with open arms to rural Cape Breton and the Hunter family homestead. Surrounded by a mountain of family albums, faded letters and memorabilia in the old house, she delves deeper and deeper into her ancestors’ stories, turning up unsettling events and a mysterious document. It reveals a secret that involves another Hunter cousin, Kate, and a man named Fletcher Garrison, whose family was once a neighbour of the Hunters.
Cecilia’s troublesome discovery of Kate and Fletcher’s long-ago relationship opens up old Hunter family wounds, but she is able to reconcile the past when she tracks down a family member unknown to the Hunters until now and adds a new, very welcome branch to the Hunter family tree. Welcome Home successfully balances a tightrope of family pride, suspense and deep emotion.