PRAISE FOR
The Dead Don’t Dance

“An absorbing read for fans of faith-based fiction . . . [with] delightfully quirky characters . . . [who] are ingeniously imaginative creations.”

—Publishers Weekly

“A strong and insightful first novel, written by a great new Christian voice in fiction. Brilliant.”

—DAVIS BUNN, AUTHOR OFThe Great Divide ANDElixir

“The Dead Don’t Dance combines writing that is full of emotion with a storyline that charts a haunting story of love and loss—and finding one’s way back. Charles Martin quickly plunges readers into the story and takes them to a dark place. Then he draws them, like his protagonist Dylan, back to the surface, infusing them with renewed strength. Martin’s writing is strong, honest, and memorable. He’s an author to discover now—and then keep your eye on.”

—CAROL FITZGERALD, CO-FOUNDER /PRESIDENT, BOOKREPORTER.COM

“The Dead Don’t Dance affirms that even when the world drags us into its gloomy den, we can emerge battered but ever the victor holding life ecstatically by the tail. Charles Martin’s wise and tender audacity lifts us out of our ordinary lives to help us see that the extraordinary is all around us, grander than our earliest visions, and filling our cups with the sweet nectar of life. You will fall in love with Martin’s writing and believe in the goodness of humanity again. The Dead Don’t Dance is the best book you will read this year! Bravo, Mr. Martin!”

—PATRICIA HICKMAN, AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR
OF Fallen Angels and Nazareth’s Song

“The Dead Don’t Dance is a poignant page-turner filled with loss, hope and redemption. With passages that shine as bright as the South Carolina moon, Charles Martin captures the heart of the land and its people. This novel is bound to linger with many readers and leave them wanting more.”

—MICHAEL MORRIS, AUTHOR OFA Place Called Wiregrass

“This is the story of real person’s real struggle with the uncertainties of faith, unadorned with miracles of the deus ex machina sort but full of the sort of miracles that attend every day life if you bother to notice. Charles Martin notices, and for that I commend him. He’s unafraid of tackling the crucial questions—life, death, love, sacrifice.”

—DUNCAN MURRELL, EDITOR AND WRITER

“Charles Martin writes with the passion and delicacy of a Louisiana sunrise—shades of shepherd’s warning and a promise of thunderbolts before noon. Evoking a vivid picture of a young man’s dance with dark and desperate moments of ordinary life, his story swirls like the river with drama, humour, and sense of hope. To many of us in England, the reality of America’s deep south is as unknowable as the celestial kingdom of the orient in the days of sail, yet Charles has made it splendid and unforgettable. This is a lovely book that brims with heart and sensitivity, and most of all with a profound insight into what matters in our lives. I enjoyed it hugely.”

—JOHN DYSON, WRITER, Reader’s Digest

“The Dead Don’t Dance is a gentle novel that reminds me of Robert Frost’s famous poem, “For Once, Then, Something,” in which “Water came to rebuke the too clear water”: for Dylan Styles water means life, loss, and recovery. After a horrifying tragedy, he is adrift, searching for clarity, for an understanding of order that Frost’s speaker never found. Charles Martin’s debut novel is a moving, believable study of redemption pulled from the pieces of an all too-disordered world.”

—BRIAN RAILSBACK, AUTHOR OFThe Darkest Clearing: A Novel and Parallel Expeditions: Charles Darwin AND the Art of John Steinbeck