When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin

The Bottom Line

Charles Martin's novel, When Crickets Cry, touched my heart more than any story has in years. It's a work of southern fiction, drenched with spiritual lessons, yet not one sermon is ever preached. The emotional story of heartache and loss drifts slowly at first, but then captures your heart with a strong current. I couldn't help but join the characters on their courageous, soul wrenching journey to self-forgiveness, renewed hope and healing. I won't soon forget them, or what they taught me.

Pros

• A novel revealing God as he meets people in their weakness, pain and tragedy, and cares through people in their weakness, pain and tragedy. A very lovely picture of Christianity.
• Real, well-developed, inspiring characters.
• Well-researched writing and skilled story-telling.
• The pace really picks up toward the middle and end, becoming a medical thriller that's hard to put down.

Cons

• A bit "splintered" and hard to follow in the beginning, making for a slow start.
• Slightly over-dramatic in suspenseful moments, more like a screenplay - could there be a movie deal on the horizon?

Description

• Genre: Southern Fiction
• Release Date: April 4, 2006
• Author: Charles Martin
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• ISBN: 1595540547
• Format: Trade Paperback; 320 Pages

In a small Georgia town, little Annie greets the townspeople from her lemonade stand with a bright smile and hope for the future. She's raising money for her own heart transplant. Reese stops at a nearby store, on a rare errand in town. He has spent the last five years running from the past and the pain of losing Emma, his childhood sweetheart and the love of his life. The scene unfolds in slow motion as Reese looks up from his car just in time. Blown by a strong wind, Annie's lemonade money flies into the street. As she runs after the paper bills, a bread delivery truck spins around the corner. The truck driver sees Annie, but not until it's too late. Reese's instincts buried just below the surface, spring him into action, making him the first one to reach Annie, now lifeless in the road. What Reese does next changes both of their lives forever.

Reese's world is cloaked in mystery and bottled up pain until he encounters seven-year-old Annie. Their fragile lives collide unexpectedly, forcefully, and divinely. Annie's future is doubtful. Her need for a heart transplant grows more critical each day. Her tender spirit, frail body and lion-heart reach through Reese's protective wall and bring him back, back to who he once was, back to life again.

Perhaps this story affected me so deeply because someone I love just as dearly as Reese loved Emma, could one day be a candidate for a heart transplant. This brought it close to home and near to my heart. Yet perhaps even more credit should go to Martin's storytelling gift. When Crickets Cry reminded me of Nicholas Sparks' early works such as A Walk to Remember and The Notebook. They each possess stories and characters that come to life and remain in your heart forever. I believe Charles Martin has the rare qualities that mark a great fiction writer. I hope he'll always remain faithful to the gift.

When Crickets Cry is Charles Martin's third novel, preceded by The Dead Don't Dance and Wrapped in Rain. He makes his home in Jacksonville, Florida with his wife and three boys. He holds a B.A. in English, an M.A. in Journalism and Ph.D. in Communication. Martin left a career in business in 1999 to pursue writing full time.

Favorite Quote from the Book

This was a hard choice with so many poetic expressions of human emotion. I selected this one because it is the moment that Reese consciously and courageously decides to say yes to life:

Sitting on the floor, beneath the shadow of all that I once was and everything I had once hoped to be, I said yes. The word formed slowly and came up from someplace deep, recessed behind my soul where the nerve endings to my heart tingled with feeling.