Wayne M Hoy

The Long Way Home Wayne M Hoy

The First World War is coming to a close, and American army captain Ernest Mathews awakens in a London hospital with a face he doesn't know, a name he cannot remember and a past wiped clean as a slate. His sole possession is a photograph of a dark-haired beauty whose unknown face is the only thing capable of bringing a sense of comfort and peace to the black void that now inhabits his mind. When given direction to his father's ranch in Arizona, Mathews has little choice but to travel back to America to find a man he doesn't know with the hope of discovering his memory and identity at journey's end. In New York, as soldiers begin to return from the war, the Holden family receives the devastating news that their son, Jack, has been killed in action. Cathy and her best friend, Judy, mourn the loss of Jack and the girls quickly become disillusioned with their privileged life. In an attempt to find purpose and restore normalcy to her world, Cathy attracts the attention of a dangerous gangster and quickly becomes the object of his twisted obsession. When Cathy and Judy are discovered eavesdropping on the gang and overhear their malicious scheme, they realize their lives are now in danger and impulsively decide to travel west to find Jack's best friend, Ernest Mathews, whom Cathy has not heard from since his return from the war. Despite her risk of exposure, Judy carries a secret of her own on their perilous journey: a photograph of Jack, a man now dead, whose unspoken gaze both haunts and consoles her while he sits next to her bed each night in her dreams. As the girls embark on their cross-country adventure, narrowly managing to evade one danger after another, they find themselves in a race to reach Mathews and safety before the vicious gangster catches up with them.