After Visiting Friends

After Visiting Friends (2013) by Michael Hainey. When Hainey's father died in 1970 at the age of 35, Hainey was only 6. Years later, he became curious about his father's death and began doing some digging, going back and visiting people who had known his father, talking to people who had worked with him, etc. The reader travels along with him on this arduous journey, and is rewarded at the end by 1. finding out the answer to the mystery and 2. seeing Hainey forge a new bond with his mother, one he has never had before. This is really a great book, compulsively readable and with an emotional punch at the end. Grade: A