Cash's writing has been praised for his ear for Southern dialect, Southern Gothic qualities, and blending of family drama with suspense.[4] He often uses a multi-character perspective in his works, shifting chapters between a number of characters to tell the story. The Last Ballad uses eight.[3][12][13]
Vanity Fair jokingly dubbed him "the Justin Timberlake of American literature" after Cash was mistaken for the singer at Timberlake's New York restaurant.[13]
All of Cash's books are set in his home state of North Carolina.[2] He told an interviewer for National Public Radio that North Carolina plays a central role in his writing: "Every time I put pen to paper, it's an act of trying to reclaim a place I love."[14]
Cash's 2012 debut novel, A Land More Kind Than Home, a thriller with Southern Gothic elements which follows the destructive wake of a deceptive snake-handling faith healer, was positively reviewed by The Washington Post and other national publications.[15] It was named one of the 100 most notable books of 2012 by the New York Times, which called it "mesmerizing".[16]
His second novel, This Dark Road to Mercy, tells the story of two young girls who are thrown together with their estranged father, a washed-up baseball player. It is set during the 1998 home run battle between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.[14]Chicago Tribune reviewer Hope Reese praised Cash's "knack for flow and dialogue" but said that the story felt rushed and underexplored.[12]Washington Post reviewer Ron Charles felt that This Dark Road to Mercy was overly predictable and flat in comparison to Cash's debut.[17]
His 2017 novel The Last Ballad is a fictionalized version of the 1929 Loray Mill strike in Gastonia, centered on the murder of activist and musician Ella May Wiggins. He was drawn to the subject by the fact that its history had been seemingly forgotten despite its close proximity to his own family and hometown; his parents both grew up in nearby milling communities, and his mother's maiden name was Wiggin. He also took inspiration from music of the 1920s and 1930s thanks to his friendship with members of the string band Old Crow Medicine Show.[10] New York Times reviewer, Amy Rowland, praised the novel's blend of fact and fiction, saying "Cash vividly blends the archival with the imaginative. .... Cash, with care and steadiness, has pulled from the wreckage of the past a lost moment of Southern progressivism."[18]
Cash also contributed an essay to the 2009 book This Louisiana Thing that Drives Me: The Legacy of Ernest J. Gaines.[19]
His fourth novel, When Ghosts Come Home, is a murder mystery set in the town of Oak Island, North Carolina. It was published by Morrow in 2021. Reviewing the book for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Phil Kloer called it a "gripping, multi-layered novel about the South and race and how the past keeps a grip on the present."[20]