Late One Night by Lee Martin
On a night no one will ever forget, Della Black and three of her seven children are killed in a horrific fire in their trailer. As the surviving children are caught in the middle of a custody battle between their well-intentioned neighbor and their father and his pregnant mistress, new truths about what really happened the night of the fire come to light. When the fire marshal determines the cause—arson—rumors quickly circulate as the townspeople search for answers. Ronnie Black is the kind of man who can leave his wife and children for a younger woman, but is he capable of something more sinister?
Ronnie and his girlfriend, Brandi Tate, maintain his innocence—he’s a loving, caring father who wants to do everything he can to protect his family. But as the gossip mounts, Ronnie feels his children (and, eventually, Brandi) pulling away from him. Soon enough, he finds himself at a crossroads—should he allow gossipmongers to seal his fate, or should he fight to prove that he’s not the monster people paint him to be?
In Late One Night, Lee Martin examines the devastating effect of rumors and the resilience of one family in the face of the ultimate tragedy.
Hardcover Publication Date: May 10, 2016
Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN: 978-1-938103-49-0
Paperback Publication Date: August 15, 2017
Paperback: 336 pages
ISBN: 978-1-945814-30-3
Also available as an eBook
PRAISE FOR LEE MARTIN
“In the taut, suspenseful Late One Night, Lee Martin (The Bright Forever; Such a Life) reveals the consequences of a rash act and its impact on a community, infusing his characters with anger and guilt, regret and compassion.” —Shelf Awareness
“Carrying an almost archetypal resonance, this well-crafted tale of romantic desperation feels as sad and inevitable as an old murder ballad and should have an appeal beyond readers of serious fiction.” —Library Journal
“[A] vividly nuanced portrayal of a small town in the heat of a troubled summer.” —Newsweek
“[Martin] does a good, clean job of keeping the reader in suspense, which is the lifeblood of the literary thriller he has set out to write...Martin has real talent.” —Chicago Tribune
ABOUT LEE MARTIN
Lee Martin is the author of the novels, The Bright Forever, a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; River of Heaven; Quakertown; and Break the Skin. He has also published three memoirs, From Our House, Turning Bones, and Such a Life. His first book was the short story collection, The Least You Need to Know. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in such places as Harper’s, Ms., Creative Nonfiction, The Georgia Review, The Kenyon Review, Fourth Genre, River Teeth, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, and Glimmer Train. He is the winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. He teaches in the MFA Program at The Ohio State University, where he is a College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of English and a past winner of the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching.
