The Evening Shades

“Martin’s slow-burn mystery runs on reflective character work and lucid prose, and he keeps the reader guessing right up to the end. This is one to savor.” —Publishers Weekly

“Unsettling yet compelling, the story is driven by themes of gossip, shame, and loneliness. . . engrossing reading experience for fans of noir literary mysteries.” —Booklist


“The heartbreak of loss and the power of love intertwine in The Evening Shades, Lee Martin’s suspenseful follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Bright Forever. . . . tightly, tersely crafted novel. . .” —Shelf Awareness

“Lee Martin’s small-town novel is a stunner. . . the novel proceeds with glass-like smoothness but it’s actually trickier than it seems. . . filled with beautiful, exclamation-worthy language. . .
It’s a gentle, compassionate book that is ruthless in its examination of its characters’ motives.” —Minnesota Star-Tribune

“When the worst has happened and we did nothing to stop it, who are we now? Do we still have a right to happiness? Are we worthy any longer of being loved and loving in return? These are just some of the deeply human questions raised by this mesmerizing novel by one of our country’s finest novelists. Part crime novel, part love story, Lee Martin’s prose is spare yet wonderfully evocative, rendering once again the often forgotten voices of the heartland. But what I admire most about The Evening Shades is its refusal to turn away from darkness, an unflinching gaze that opens into hard-earned grace and hope. This is a superb American novel.” —Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog

“Lee Martin is a brilliant chronicler of small-town life, and in The Evening Shades, set in 1972, he vividly portrays two midwestern communities in the aftermath of a child’s mysterious murder. Nevertheless, Martin’s ultimate concerns are beyond time and place as he delves into the deepest, and often most unsettling, mysteries of all—those of the human heart.” —Ron Rash, author of New York Times bestselling novel, Serena

“Who would guess that a cowardly math teacher, fleeing from dubious crimes, and a long time spinster, guilty of fraudulent promises to her library, would fall truly in love? Certainly not their neighbours in Mt. Gilead, nor this reader. The Evening Shades is gorgeously written and suspenseful in the best way. Martin makes us care deeply about his vivid characters. An absorbing novel from a writer at the height of his powers.” —Margot Livesey, author of The Road from Belhaven

“Lee Martin deftly eases us into the minds of two Midwestern towns and several of their most isolated residents. This quiet but intense battle between the instinct for self-preservation and a desperate hunger for connection is both unsettling and familiar.” —John Sayles, filmmaker and author of Jamie MacGillivray

“There is not another American writer living today who better understands our Midwest and the people who live there than Lee Martin. In The Evening Shades, Martin explores grief and betrayal, love and hope, loneliness and redemption in small midwestern towns in 1972 when two broken people come together in surprising ways. I simply love this book.” —Ann Hood, author of The Stolen Child

“Taking place in the aftermath of a horrific crime in 1970’s small-town America, Lee Martin’s The Evening Shades is an eloquent and quietly moving novel; and the way he is able to enter so completely into the lives of his characters is absolutely astonishing.” —Donald Ray Pollock, author of The Devil All the Time & The Heavenly Table

“The Evening Shades begins with the death of a young girl, in a town where many people have a piece of the puzzle but don’t know how to share their knowledge with each other. People try to move on with their lives, but the death causes tension that creates new problems that threaten the entire sense of community that people have counted on. How can a town carry grief sorrow without losing its sense of community? Lee Martin has written another compelling story that is both a page turner and full of wisdom.” —Alice Elliot Dark, author of Fellowship Point