BOOK REVIEW: The Dead Don't Dance
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by Laura V. Hilton
Dancing Word Reviewer
Title: The Dead Don't Dance
Author: Charles Martin
Publisher: WestBow Press
ISBN: 0-7852-6181-8
Genre: Inspirational/Contemporary/Fiction
Dylan Styles’ life is just about perfect. His beloved wife, Maggie, is pregnant with his first child, a son. They’d managed to make a good living off the farm the past year, even though Dylan had never been a farmer until he’d inherited his grandfather’s farm. And Maggie loves it out there on the farm, miles from everyone, with the nearby river available to swim in at any hour of the day or night.
When Maggie goes into labor, Dylan is there for her. But something goes horribly wrong during delivery and suddenly Dylan is facing an unexpected tragedy. Somehow, Dylan must come to terms with how much he lost and learn to go on in spite of sorrow and heartbreak. The sleepy little town of Diggers, South Carolina, thinks it’s up to the challenge, and Dylan finds friends in unexpected places. Can love triumph and lead Dylan through the darkness of despair and into the light of hope?
Written entirely in first person, in Dylan’s point of view, I thought at first The Dead Don't Dance was going to be a type of guy lit. But the story quickly went beyond that genre as the plot started to twist and turn and unexpected things happened in Dylan’s life. I quickly grew to care for Dylan and had to keep turning pages to find out what happened next. Even some of the quirky secondary characters were realistically developed. Amos, Dylan’s childhood friend, turned police officer, still had a lot of fun left in him. And Bryce is an adorable character who loves to play the bagpipes in full costume.
The only thing I didn’t like about The Dead Don't Dance is that the story seemed to skip around a lot. You are one place, and something happens, but you don’t know what, and then there is a lot of flashbacks before you find out what actually happened. There is a lot of backstory woven through the book, but it is done in such a way that the story flows seamlessly.
I recommend The Dead Don't Dance for an enjoyable read. Some readers might want to have a box of tissue handy for parts of the story.