EXCERPT: And so it was for our town, a dark month following the death of Katie Mackey. More than anything, we wanted to move on beyond the tragedy, but how could we when there was still so much we didn't know. Who was it that had posted Raymond Wright's bail, and what had happened to Wright once he was free? What did Henry Dees know about all of that? Where had he gone and why? If we couldn't get those answers, we'd be stuck in that summer for the rest of our lives. We'd remember the way the heat was and the way the light stretched on into evening. We'd be able to call to mind exactly where we were when we first heard that Katie was dead. We'd always be afraid that it could happen again. Someone like Raymond R. Wright could take another one of our children.

ABOUT 'THE EVENING SHADES': One afternoon in the autumn of 1972, a lonely widow in Mt. Gilead, Illinois, makes the impromptu decision to rent out a room in her house to a stranger who has come to town. It is risky—she doesn’t know anything about him. But Edith Green can no longer bear a life lived alone. And Henry Dees is haunted by the past he carries with him from another small town, particularly by the death of a little girl that some people think was his fault.

And slowly, Henry and Edith's suspenseful dance between secrets and trust leads them to start revealing things to each other — and themselves ...

MY THOUGHTS: The Evening Shades is a quiet and deep story featuring two towns - Mt. Gilead, Illinois, the home of Edith Green, a spinster with a car too big for her to handle and a house too quiet for her to stand, and more time than she knew what to do with; and Tower Hill, Indiana, the town Henry Dees, odd bird, a man who kept to himself, a very strange man indeed, flees during a September night.

A chance meeting brings these two together and an impulsive decision on both their parts is the beginning of their love story. Think slow waltz as these two circle one another, taking stock, their relationship moving forward then back, then forward again.

But Henry has something he has to come to terms with, something he has tried but failed to leave behind him in Tower Hill. Edith also has something she has to face up to; but nothing so serious as Henry.

The towns are as much characters in this tale as Edith and Henry, and take their turns at telling their story. Mt. Gilead tells of its distrust of Henry Dees. Where has he come from? What is he doing here? How did he worm his way into Edith Green's affections so quickly? Is he going to hurt their Edith or, even worse, charm her out of the $500,000 she has promised the town library?

Tower Hill is reeling from the abduction and murder of young Katie Mackey and they just know that Henry Dees was somehow involved, but just how is unclear. The big question is, why would a man walk out of his house in the middle of the night and disappear if he's not guilty of something?

My opinion of the characters changed as little details are revealed through conversations, gossip and recall during the course of the story. The characters are flawlessly depicted - they slide from the page and into the room. And best of all is the moral dilemma. If there is anything to take away from this read it is that no one is perfect - we do the best that we can do at the time; and, hindsight is always 20/20 vision.

The Evening Shades quietly stirred my emotions. I was spellbound. The writing is beautiful and evocative of a time we can never go back to. That may or may not be a good thing.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.4

#TheEveningShades #NetGalley

MEET THE AUTHOR: Lee was born in southeastern Illinois, where his father farmed eighty acres in Lawrence County’s Lukin Township. The gravel road that went past the lane to the Martin home, was the road that divided Lawrence County from Richland County, and Lee was amazed as a young boy by the fact that simply walking across the road could move him from one county to the next. In 1963, when he was eight, those gravel roads that ran straight and formed right angles when they intersected moved him to the “hard roads”—first the blacktop into Sumner, and then U.S. Route 50 and Illinois Route 49—heading north to the family’s new home during the school year in Oak Forest, a southern suburb of Chicago, where his mother had accepted an offer to teach third grade for Arbor Park School District #145. Just like that, the familiarity of the two-room Lukin School, the small Berryville Church of Christ, and the shops and cafes of Sumner, was replaced by the strangeness of urban living.

Although the family returned to the farm for holidays and summer vacation (and finally moved back downstate when Lee started high school), he never lost the feeling of being caught between cultures—an experience repeated time and time again through his adult years when he was a nomad in academia for a good while, living and teaching (and always writing!) in Evansville, Indiana; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Athens, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; Lincoln, Nebraska; Harrisonburg, Virginia; and Denton, Texas. He now lives in Grove City, Ohio, with his wife, Cathy, and their orange tabby, Stella the Cat.

Among his students at Ohio State, he’s known for his collection of wind-up toys—a collection that keeps growing as more and more people present him with additions. He insists that each one has a pedagogical purpose, and, therefore, an important place in the classroom, where he invites students to not take themselves too seriously. His favorite quote about writing, which he passes on in each class he teaches, comes from Isak Dinesen, who said, “Write a little every day, without hope, without despair.”

Before landing a job teaching creative writing, he worked in a shoe factory, a garment factory, a tire repairs manufacturing plant, a department store. He earned money umpiring men’s slow-pitch softball games, gathering addresses for the U.S. Census Bureau, delivering pizzas, detasseling corn for the Dekalb Seed Corn Company, flipping burgers at Hardees, and working on a Christmas Tree Farm. Through all those jobs, he kept writing. If that’s what gives you pleasure, he hopes you will, too. (Source: leemartinauthor.com - abridged)

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Melville House Publishing via NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of The Evening Shades by Lee Marting for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Beautifully written, melancholy and hopeful. Mr. Hees and Edith are past middle-aged. Life seems to have passed them by and they both wished they had made different choices. Edith longs to be noticed and to feel as if she matters. Mr. Hees wishes he wasn't socially awkward. He wishes that he wasn't carrying a shameful secret. Mr. Hees leaves the town he lived in with his mother, full of shame and arrives in a little town one state over. Edith does something she has never done....waves her scarf at him and offers him a place to stay. As they become each other's person, secrets spill out. A beautiful story about believing in your man. A hopeful story about two people starting life anew. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the complementary digital ARC. This review is my own words and thoughts.

A chance encounter at an Illinois gas station changes the lives of two lonely people. Edith and Henry both have secrets which slowly come out over time the course of the novel. Henry is bearing guilt over the death of Katie, a young girl and frankly his behavior to her was, well, inappropriate. Edith's concerns are less dramatic and dreadful but no less important to her. No spoilers but know that your view of each of them will change as they talk to one another. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A thought provoking read.

I was just a few pages into Lee Martin’s The Evening Shades when I felt its similarities to Kent Haruf’s Our Souls at Night. And if you’re like me, that’s all I’ll need to say to make you add this to your TBR list.
Book Review of The Evening Shades

At the outset, The Evening Shades is a quiet love story of two people who have already lived much of their lives. Henry Dees is attempting to drive out of his life, escaping a horrible tragedy and, though not guilty, the culpability he feels for his part in how it all unfolded. He crosses the state line and ends up in Mt. Gilead, Illinois, where he meets Edith Green, who invites him to rent a room in her home.

Back in Tower Hill, Indiana, a little girl that Henry tutored has been murdered, and the man responsible for her death disappeared immediately after making bail. With Henry also gone, he’s left the small town wondering what he might have to hide.

Widowed and searching for purpose in her small town, Edith makes an impulsive pledge to the local library—one that leaves her even more anxious about the secret she’s hiding. When she offers Henry a room to rent in her home, the whole town takes notice—especially a local would-be suitor who is determined to play spoiler to the budding romance.

Together, Henry and Edith find the companionship both are longing for. They begin to confide in one another, unburdening themselves from the secrets they each carry.

Told from multiple perspectives, including a chorus-like voice representing the community, Martin’s The Evening Shades weaves a compelling story with characters you can’t help but care about. The two small towns that form its setting are just as vivid and familiar as the people who live there.

I haven’t read Martin’s The Bright Forever, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize that introduces the character of Henry Dees, but I definitely will go back and pick this one up.

Verdict: Highly recommend

(Post on my blog includes discussion questions.)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for offering me a copy of this book for review. The premise was mysterious enough to intrigue me; I love both literary and historical fiction. The change in POV was refreshing between single people, but the Tower Hill parts really threw me out of the story. I don't think the narrative was consistent throughout and this caused me to need breaks from the story. The cover is really beautiful and adds to the nostalgic feel, though some phrasing and somewhat overindulgence of specific items within the plot felt ill placed. Overall, this was interesting and I really tried to understand whether the author or character Henry Dees himself were trying to convince me that his interest in children was not inappropriate. I felt icky reading about this aspect, however much Mr. Dees was trying to say he "had pure intentions". The fact that he was worried about speaking to other adults about his feelings made it pretty clear. Edith had her own problems, and it was interesting to navigate through both of their relationships with each other and the people around them. Themes of alienation were present throughout and it added a new perspective for readers that was relatable.

I really enjoyed this book . I think that the fact it involves middle aged love ( my age )! I could connect with the book. I havent actually read the first book but I will be rectifying this. This was an unexpected suprise as to how much I loved it.

As soon as I read that this book compared to Kent Haruf’s “Our Souls at Night”, I had to request a copy, as that book holds a special place in my heart. See my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1328465894

Both books evoke a nostalgia to years past, and each features two lonely people who find companionship later in life when they didn’t think it would be possible to do so again. What makes this book different is that it adds a bit of mystery as to what exactly happened in Tower Hill, Indiana, that would make Henry Dees flee his life in the middle of the night, September 1972.

TW: CHILD MURDER

His inaction may have cost a young girl her life, and he can no longer live with the guilt about what he DID and DID NOT do the night she was killed.

When Henry stops in the tiny town of Mt. Gilead, Illinois, for gas, he wasn’t planning to stay long. His powder blue ‘65 Mercury Comet catches the eye of the woman filling up her Lincoln Continental at the adjacent pump at Hutch’s Sunoco-a lonely Spinster named Edith Green.

And when the wind picks up, catching Edith’s head scarf, it flutters past the stranger who manages to catch it just in time. As he returns it to her, and introductions are made, he mentions that he might like to stay in town for a bit.

Edith impulsively offers to rent him a room in her house. It is risky—and tongues will wag-but Edith Green can no longer bear a life lived alone.

And, this chance encounter and gust of wind, will end up changing both of their lives.

This quiet story unfolds from several POV’s in both towns, past and present until the two worlds collide. The story is both a search for the truth and a search for forgiveness and a path forward.

I didn’t know that little Katie was murdered when I selected this story, and although Henry is not her killer, he did hold some feelings toward her that weren’t quite right. I think this prevented me from having the same emotional connection to this book that I had for the book it was compared to.

But, I was drawn in by the pensive writing and its melancholy feel, and I am looking forward to reading the author’s earlier work-Pulitzer finalist “The Bright Forever”.

This book is available on March 25, 2025.

Thank You to Melville House for the gifted ARC provided through NetGalley. As always, these are my candid thoughts.

The book is timid, and it seems to think that its stakes are higher than they are. It hinges on tropes: residents of a small town being simultaneously hospitable to a new stranger and suspicious as to why he’s relocated there. One lonely resident takes a particular fascination with him.

Its bigger issue is one that plagues a lot of contemporary fiction in that it can’t portray older characters (described here as “past middle age”) without infantilizing them. Edith and Henry don’t read as genuine. They narrate as though they are confessing, their souls stripped of any darkness apart from this one sin that each has committed and carries with them (and Edith’s “sin” would be a nothing burger if she didn’t live in a town of busybodies with nothing else going on) that gives the book its supposed driving impulse. (“Dolores Claiborne” set the standard for this kind of delivery, the title narrator’s wounds and grudges informing every spite-filled sentence.) People who have lived that long, who are widowed, have seen more, bargained with more, and cope with more nuance than Martin allows them.

Otherwise, the narration is clean, and the voices of the characters are rendered distinctly enough to keep everything straight with ease. Martin alternates chapters from the perspectives of Edith and Henry with those of the “towns” (Tower Hill, where Henry is fleeing, and Mt. Gilead, where he seeks a “balm”), which would seem like an easy play but suitably conveys the perception of these two without having to introduce too many minor figures to the story.

Driving a spotless, powder blue ‘65 Mercury Comet, Henry Dees stopped for gas in the one
horse town of Mt. Gilead, Illinois. It was the year 1972. Many businesses had shuttered their
doors, young families were settling elsewhere. A chance meeting occurred when Edith Green
stopped for gas. As her scarf went airborne, lifted by a sudden breeze, Henry rescued it and
returned it to her. Henry had arrived in St. Gilead, suitcase in hand, having disappeared from the
equally small town of Tower Hill, Indiana. Mt. Gilead seemed as good a place as any. The
gossip mill would wonder if his arrival was connected to the disappearance and death of little
Katie Mackey of Tower Hill.

Imagine the solitary life of Edith Green. She had devoted herself to caring for her parents. Now
all alone, the fifty year old spinster volunteered at the local library. To garner attention and
status, she pledged a generous donation to the library, money she did not possess. Why in the
world did she offer to rent a room in her house to Henry Dees, a total stranger? But, Henry
accepted the generous offer bringing his suitcase as well as his hidden emotional baggage to
Edith’s door. They were two middle aged people, lonely and looking for companionship.

Henry Dees arrival connected Mt. Gilead to Tower Hill. The reader is privy to the gossip
traveling, at the speed of light, through each town. In Mt. Gilead, most “news” was shared in the
Town Talk Cafe. Some of the colorful residents aimed to protect Edith from the outside influence
of the stranger…typical interference…after all, the liberal library donation was at stake.

What did Henry know about the death of both little Katie Mackey, daughter of Mitchell Mackey,
the owner of the Mackey Glassworks Company and Raymond R. Wright, Katie’s killer? One
thing was for certain, Mitchell’s words to Henry, “do whatever it is you have to do” would haunt
Henry adding more fuel to his moral dilemma.

Tenderness would create a safety net for Edith and Henry to divulge their deepest secrets and
regrets. Henry might perhaps question his inaction in one instance and his heroic action at
another juncture. Seeds of a budding love would emerge, their shortcomings addressed..

“The Evening Shades” by Lee Martin is the tale of two small Midwest towns. The reader will
come to know many of the town dwellers through the detailed conversations and snippets of
gossip shared through the grapevine. In the blink of an eye, a decision can impact one’s life
forever. Some people will be judgmental, others will be supportive. A morally unsettling novel.

Thank you Kezia Velista @ Melville House Publishers for the print ARC in exchange for an
honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle ARC. I read Lee Martin's book, "The Bright Forever" years ago when it was first published and I never forgot it. I was pleased to get a copy of "The Evening Shades." The year is 1972 and the story is centered around Henry, a middle-aged math teacher, and Edith, a middle aged woman who spent her younger years caring for her elderly parents. Neither of them has ever been lucky in love. Both of them have a secret. Edith hides her financial status from the people of the small town she lives in and Henry hides a bigger secret which is much more damning. A chance encounter when Henry is passing through Edith's town pairs the two of them and their stories unwind together. I read this book in two days as I was eager to find out what would happen. A very satisfying read.