Charles Martin Books In Order

The Dead Don’t Dance

Last October, after the soybeans had peaked at four feet, the corn spiraled to almost double that, and the wisteria had shed its purple, a breeze picked up, pushed out the summer heat, and woke Maggie. She rolled over, tapped me on the shoulder and said, Let’s go swimming. We held hands down to the river where Maggie took a swan dive into the South Carolina moonlight. And so the story begins for Dylan and Maggie Styles, a young couple in love, who wait expectantly for the birth of their first son. But events take a tragic turn in the delivery room, and their child is delivered stillborn. When Maggie hemorrhages and slips into a coma, Dylan too slips into what can only be described as a walking coma, holding vigil at Maggie’s bedside. Usually tough and self reliant, an outdoorsman and a farmer, Dylan finds that everything he has known and relied upon, even his deepest sense of who he is as a person, is suddenly thrown into doubt. In a desolate place, naked and alone, he asks Why live? and hopes someone is listening who has the answer. Through friends and grace filled moments of insight, the defenses around Dylan slowly break away, but it will take a second tragedy and an anxious period of wrestling with God to truly awaken him from his stupor and open him up to a new life.

Maggie

‘When Maggie opened her eyes that New Year’s Day some seventeen months ago, I felt like I could see again. The fog lifted off my soul, and for the first time since our son had died and she had gone to sleep some four months, sixteen days, eighteen hours, and nineteen minutes earlier I took a breath deep enough to fill both my lungs.’

Life began again for Dylan Styles when his beloved wife Maggie awoke from a coma. A coma brought upon by the intense two day labor that resulted in heartbreaking loss. In this poignant love story that is redolent with Southern atmosphere, Dylan and Maggie must come to terms with their past before they can embrace their future.

Wrapped in Rain

‘Tucker, I want to tell you a secret.’ Miss Ella curled my hand into a fist and showed it to me. ‘Life is a battle, but you can’t fight it with your fists. You got to fight it with your heart.’ An internationally famous photographer, Tucker Mason has traveled the world, capturing things other people don’t see. But what Tucker himself can’t see is how to let go of the past and forgive his father. On a sprawling Southern estate, Tucker and his younger brother, Mutt, were raised by their housekeeper, Miss Ella Rain, who loved the motherless boys like her own. Hiring her to take care of Waverly Hall and the boys was the only good thing their father ever did. When his brother escapes from a mental hospital and an old girlfriend appears with her son and a black eye, Tucker is forced to return home and face the agony of his own tragic past. Though Miss Ella has been gone for many years, Tucker can still hear her voice and her prayers. But finding peace and starting anew will take a measure of grace that Tucker scarcely believes in.

When Crickets Cry

A man with a painful past. A child with a doubtful future. And a shared journey toward healing for both their hearts. It begins on the shaded town square in a sleepy Southern town. A spirited seven year old has a brisk business at her lemonade stand. But the little girl’s pretty yellow dress can’t quite hide the ugly scar on her chest. Her latest customer, a bearded stranger, drains his cup and heads to his car, his mind on a boat he’s restoring at a nearby lake. The stranger understands more about the scar than he wants to admit. And the beat up bread truck careening around the corner with its radio blaring is about to change the trajectory of both their lives. Before it’s over, they’ll both know there are painful reasons why crickets cry…
and that miracles lurk around unexpected corners.

Chasing Fireflies

They have one summer to find what was lost long ago.’Never settle for less than the truth,’ she told him. But when you don’t even know your real name, the truth gets a little complicated. It can nestle so close to home it’s hard to see. It can even flourish inside a lie. And as Chase Walker discovered, learning the truth about who you are can be as elusive and as magical as Chasing Fireflies on a summer night. A haunting story about fishing, baseball, home cooking, and other matters of life and death.

Where the River Ends

‘Nobody fights forever, so I prepared myself for two battles. The first was fighting alongside her. We’ve done that. As well as two can. But, as the years have ticked by, I’ve seen a second front coming and it’s the tougher of the two. Abbie might still be swinging but she was beat. To be honest, I think she was still in the ring fighting, simply for me. Lately, the thing that had been keeping me up nights was wondering what would happen if I told her that she could let her guard down that she could stop fighting. What if she was just waiting on me?’Doss Michaels and Abbie Colman should never have met let alone fallen in love. As the only child of South Carolina’s most senior senator, Abbie’s father had wanted better for her than Doss, who grew up in a trailer park next to the St Mary’s river. Abbie and Doss had married quickly and secretly, returning to face her parents’ objections that haven’t faded even after over fourteen years of marriage. But now Abbie and Doss are coming to the end of the road. Diagnosed with breast cancer four years before, Abbie’s case is now terminal and they’ve run out of options. Rather than letting Abbie spend her final days in a cold, sterile hospital room, Doss packs their bags and steals away with her in the middle of the night. They carry with them Abbie’s ‘wish list’ ten things she wants to do before she dies. The wishes are simple, normal; because after four years of non stop invasive medical treatments, ‘normal’ is a fleeting memory. Along with taking a final trip with Doss on the river that holds so many memories for them both, Abbie wants to dance with her husband, drink wine on a beach, laugh until it hurts. But as they head for river’s end, racing against weather and time, Abbie’s father, the press and the police are determined to find them and bring Abbie home…

The Mountain Between Us

From the author of Where the River Ends, comes this page turning story of love and survival. On a stormy winter night, two strangers wait for a flight at the Salt Lake City airport. Ashley Knox is an attractive, successful writer, who is flying East for her much anticipated wedding. Dr. Ben Payne has just wrapped up a medical conference and is also eager to get back East for a slate of surgeries he has scheduled for the following day. When the last outgoing flight is cancelled due to a broken de icer and a forthcoming storm, Ben finds a charter plane that can take him around the storm and drop him in Denver to catch a connection. And when the pilot says the single engine prop plane can fit one more, if barely, Ben offers the seat to Ashley knowing that she needs to get back just as urgently. And then the unthinkable happens. The pilot has a heart attack mid flight and the plane crashes into the High Uintas Wilderness one of the largest stretches of harsh and remote land in the United States. Ben, who has broken ribs and Ashley, who suffers a terrible leg fracture, along with the pilot’s dog, are faced with an incredibly harrowing battle to survive. Fortunately, Ben is a medical professional and avid climber and in a lucky break, has his gear from a climb earlier in the week. With little hope for rescue, he must nurse Ashley back to health and figure out how they are going to get off the mountain, where the temperature hovers in the teens. Meanwhile, Ashley soon realizes that the very private Ben has some serious emotional wounds to heal as well. He explains to Ashley that he is separated from his beloved wife, but in a long standing tradition, he faithfully records messages for her on his voice recorder reflecting on their love affair. As Ashley eavesdrops on Ben’s tender words to his estranged wife she comes to fear that when it comes to her own love story, she’s just settling. And what’s more: she begins to realize that the man she is really attracted to, the man she may love, is Ben. As the days on the mountains become weeks, their survival become increasingly perilous. How will they make it out of the wilderness and if they do, how will this experience change them forever? Both a tender and page turning read, The Mountain Between Us will reaffirm your belief in the power of love to sustain us. From the Hardcover edition.