What Happened to the McCrays?

August 1, 2024

Two years after leaving his wife and family, Kyle McCray returns to his hometown to help his father recuperate from a stroke. He doesn't receive a warm welcome, but he finds an opportunity for a second chance when he's asked to coach the struggling middle school hockey team. Bestselling Lange's (The Connellys of County Down) latest receives a 75K-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

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November 1, 2024
Kyle McCray, a onetime high school hockey star, left his hometown of Potsdam, New York, two and a half years ago without saying goodbye. When Kyle's father has a stroke and needs help to recover, Kyle returns to Potsdam to face his ex-wife Casey--whom he still loves--and the community he thought hated him. Casey still lives with her brother Wyatt in the house she grew up in, down the street from Kyle's father. She teaches middle school and is the team manager for the youth hockey team, which has cycled through coaches amidst a losing streak. When the current coach quits, Kyle steps in to lead the team and steps back into Casey's life. Kyle and Casey confront the tragedy that tore them apart and the secrets they have kept from each other. A story about grief, love, and community, Lange's (The Connellys of County Down, 2023) third novel brings readers into a small town with deep roots. Lange's characters are memorable, and their struggles feel epic yet real.

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September 2, 2024
In Lange’s touching latest (after The Connellys of County Down), auto mechanic Kyle McCray flies back to Potsdam, N.Y., from Spokane, Wash., after his father has a stroke. His ex-wife, Casey, whom he’s still in love with, lives across the street from his father’s house, and he feels sad and angry to learn another mechanic has been working on her ’84 Bronco. The discovery forces him to come to terms with another man in her life, even though her relationship with the mechanic isn’t romantic. Casey, a teacher who’s been emotionally withdrawn from others since the events leading to Kyle’s departure, appears to be wrestling with unresolved feelings as well. A former ice hockey star, Kyle agrees to coach the embattled junior hockey team at Casey’s school, a setting that offers a path toward redemption and also brings up painful memories. The novel’s emotional range is impressive, particularly the slow-burn rekindling between its two leads, and snowy, close-knit Potsdam comes to life. Readers in search of a perceptive and rewarding family drama need look no further. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Susanna Lea Assoc.

December 15, 2024
Two divorced people with tragic secrets try to find their way back to each other, with an assist from hockey. Casey and Kyle McCray's marriage seemed like storybook material. They began as childhood friends in Potsdam, New York, moved on to a teenage romance, and married young. For 21 years, they saw themselves as a solid team. But as this novel opens, they're on opposite ends of the country--Kyle has fled all the way to Spokane, where he's working as a mechanic--and scarred by a bitter divorce two years earlier. When Kyle learns that his father, Danny, a retired firefighter, has suffered a stroke, he reluctantly goes home to help care for him. Kyle knows he can't avoid seeing Casey--she's Danny's neighbor and main caretaker. At first the two keep their distance, but soon, Casey, a middle school teacher who helps run the hockey team, turns to Kyle for help coaching the kids. He was a high school hockey star, and the game was always a bond in their relationship. Even more than the present tension between them, the plot is driven by the slow, skillful revelation of what shattered their marriage in the first place. Unfortunately, the story gets bogged down in snowbanks of extraneous description--everything from the outfits and hairstyles of minor characters to the color of a dog's license tag, not to mention an avalanche of middle school hockey minutiae. The novel delves into the limitations of small-town lives set on their tracks early, such as that of Casey's brother, Wyatt. Seriously injured as a child in the car crash that killed their father, he uses a wheelchair and has forged a career doing custom woodwork. Even though he longs to move to a city, he still lives with his sister, an arrangement that's held him back more than protected him. The unfolding of Casey and Kyle's secrets keeps the story interesting, although an anti-feminist subtext that emerges may disturb some readers. Deft plotting is undermined by overdone description in this hockey-heavy domestic drama.

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