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When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin
I was impressed when I read my first Charles Martin book a few weeks ago, Chasing Fireflies, so sought out another title of his to try. When Crickets Cry was was even better!
Seldom do I find a book that I can't put down, but this one was like that.
The descriptive characters make up most of the interesting ingredients, with a bit of mystery, dash of love, a pinch of loss, occasional sprinkles of religion, lots of quotes from Shakespeare to Willy Wonka, and the best part for me - location - all add up to make a great story.
Don't you love to find a story based in a familiar location? This one is set in the north Georgia Mountains of Rabun County, home of the city of Clayton, Lake Burton, and the Tallulah River, all places I have been to or passed by.
Burton didn't really get famous until Elliot Wiggington wrote his Foxfire books, and then Jon Voight climbed out of the gorge in the movie Deliverance, and the state of Georgia constructed Highway 400, so romantically depicted in the many chases of the Burt Reynolds classic, Smokey and the Bandit.
The main character is Reese, and the story of his life unfolds piece by piece through flashbacks to his childhood and his marriage and back to the present, bits and pieces of the puzzle of his story are filled in a little at a time, making you try to figure out the mystery and anticipate the next tidbit of information.
The next most important character is little Annie:
She was small for her age... a tomboy's heart in a china doll's body. Dressed in a short yellow dress, yellow socks, white Mary Janes, and a straw hat wrapped with a yellow ribbon that trailed down to her waist. She was pale and thin and bounced around like a mix between Eloise and Tigger.
From the jacket - A man with a painful past … a child with a doubtful future … and a shared journey toward healing for both their hearts.
A great summer read, so make some lemonade, sit on the screened porch, and escape to the mountains of north Georgia to see if you can hear the crickets cry.
