When Crickets Cry

Title: When Crickets Cry
Author: Charles Martin
Major Themes: Surgeons, Forgiveness, Redemptive, Southern
Synopsis: With a past to hide and a present persona to cling to, Reese is unprepared when he meets a young lemonade seller with a backstory of her own that threatens to rip open his old wounds when the unthinkable happens.

When scrolling through a list of potential books to request ARCs of, I came across When Crickets Cry, a recent reprint (or at least, brought back, hoping to find a new audience). It looked intriguing to me, but I didn’t really have time to read this at the time, so I put the audiobook on my someday/maybe list. I ended up needing an audiobook soon after, so I decided to try this one out—I’m so glad I did! This ended up becoming one of my top favorite fiction reads of the year!

Publisher’s description:

My thoughts:

I’m somewhat surprised that I haven’t read any Charles Martin books before now. I know I’ve seen his name around at times, but somehow, I never managed to read any. At this point, though, I fully intend to try out more of his titles—if they’re anything like this book, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it!

This book is written in a very slow-burn style. It seemed to take forever for anything to happen, but at the same time, that felt quite realistic to me. I found myself enjoying and even leaning into the pacing of the story, and before too long, I forgot altogether that I thought it was a bit slow.

It didn’t take long to connect with Reese. I absolutely loved watching as different layers of his story were slowly exposed, and I enjoyed trying to guess how he was connected to different characters or knew the things he knew as the story moved along. There’s a lot of backstory to this character, and I loved how that was slowly revealed, one tiny piece at a time.

Then there are the other characters! The little girl is just the sweetest thing, and I loved her aunt; then there’s a fun, determined sidekick who knows how to say just the right thing at the right time and makes a good work partner. There’s a young man who has lost his bearings, and some of the advice he is given is spot-on and beautiful (and jet-skis and pig roasts? Definite favorites of mine now!). This is a very community-oriented story, and I enjoyed watching that aspect develop as the main character grew and healed.

If you enjoy medical mysteries or books with lots of internal conflict, it’s safe to say that you’ll love When Crickets Cry. I’m trying to convince Mom to read it, and I’m sure she will sometime; some of my brothers also read and enjoyed it, although I don’t think they found it quite as gripping as I did. I may have stayed up late one night, acting like a 7-year-old who doesn’t want to go to bed, just so I could listen to the last 20 minutes. Maybe. Anyway, I loved this story, and am definitely eager to try out another Charles Martin book in the near future—I think it’ll be good!

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