I have found a new-to-me author whom I cannot wait to share with the world: Charles Martin.

Chasing Fireflies starts out feeling a bit hick, a bit noir, but once you lean into the cadence of the language and the feel of the colorful characters, it is as if you are living right there on the Zuta in Georgia next to Chase, Unc', Tommye, and Aunt Lorna. Written through the eyes of journalist Chase Walker, once a foster child turned permanent resident of the questionable-of-character Uncle Willie McFarland and his wife Lorna, Chase is tasked with trying to track down the identity of the mute boy found just off the tracks of a car vs. train accident and goes by the name of Snoot.

Immediately taken by Snoot's drawing skills, Chase changes the kid's moniker to Sketch. As Chase spends time looking into Sketch's background and any potential relative he may have, he is also working, as always, on the truth of how Unc' ended up in prison years ago accused of a crime Chase is certain his uncle could never commit. With the help of Tommye, a girl raised as a sister to Chase who also has secrets needing to be unearthed, a lot is happening in the Zuta.

Numerous underlying stories are happening in Martin's Chasing Fireflies, but the overarching theme is one of fathers and sons -- strike that, one of good fathers raising decent sons. Chasing Fireflies is an easy to relate-to, soft approach to a hard-hitting, spot-on story of how boys need good father figures, guidance, love, hope, and a chance. The theme is not one of being perfect, it's one of being present, doing your best, owning your mistakes, and standing up when you need to. We all need an Unc' in our lives, and we all need to be an Unc' when called upon. You really MUST READ Chasing Fireflies.

This is my first go-round with a Charles Martin book, and I have already purchased my second.
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This is a GREAT book! Everyone needs an Unc in their lives. ( )

Another excellent book by this author.
About the importance of family especially between a boy and his father.
Throw in an age old mystery and to get another fantastic book. ( )

Chasing Fireflies is a heartstring-tug of love and loss and betrayal that’s also a love story to the Georgia Lowlands, but it’s not a construct that will withstand a great deal of scrutiny.

Chasing Fireflies centers around Chase Walker, the adult foster child of Willee and Lorna McFarland. Now a reporter who remains close to “Unc Willee”, Walker’s personal history of abandonment pulls him into the story of an unidentified abandoned child slowly beginning to emerge from years of trauma and abuse. And if that’s not enough to push the Angst-o-Meter into Hallmark territory, there’s a parallel plot involving a deadly feud between Willee and his brother Jack. Martin deals out the feud background sparingly – generally a better option than dumping 30 years of exposition onto one page, but at times the technique crosses over into coyness, which may put off some readers, rather than encouraging them to keep reading.

There’s plenty here to keep the pages turning. Who is the mute boy, shoved from a car moments before its cataclysmic encounter with a train? And can Chase and the Child Protective Services attorney assigned to the case ferret out the clues the boy leaves in his remarkable drawings as they attempt to identify him?

What about Jack’s daughter Tommye, who has suddenly decided to walk away from some bad life choices but chooses refuge with Unc Willee rather than with her father? (Again, readers with an I.Q. higher than their body temperature will have this one figured out way in advance, along with recognition of what’s behind Tommye’s reappearance.)

And if this isn’t enough, what about the bone-deep blood feud between Willee and Jack, which now threatens to take away what Willee holds dearest via a vague lawsuit which is never really explained.

Some of these answers become obvious to even the most casual reader as the narrative goes along; some of them just lie there in the narrative as the people supposedly looking for them pointedly ignore their flashing-neon existence. And yet this is all relatively minor stuff (along with a boatload of oddly hyphenated words apparently left over from some earlier, uncorrected typescript), and most readers will let it slide because, gee whiz, these characters are so doggone likeable (except for brother Jack, who has ascended into moustache-twirling territory long before the details of his sins are spelled out on the page).

The book’s biggest failure, however, and the one that knocks it irretrievably from a four-star rating down to a three, comes after a truly shattering climax. When All Is Revealed, the reader is still sitting there trying to make sense of the motivations behind the Deep Dark Secrets of the McFarland Brothers. It’s impossible to get into specifics here without major spoilers. Suffice to say that we don’t ever fully understand why The Bad Brother did what he did, or why The Good Brother didn’t do what he finally did 30 years later and, ultimately, what the point of Good Brother’s action was.

So, despite a resolution meant to be hopeful and healing, the whole novel makes about as much sense as a Mason jar full of fireflies, slowly going dark. ( )

Another excellent book from Charles Martin. ( )