Love when the setting for a novel is like another character - Midcoast is set in Maine and I felt like I could smell the water and see the lobster boats drifting out to sea as I read this debut. This novel focuses on characters and a mystery. I felt it dragged at times and I wasn’t invested in the characters which I would have needed to truly enjoy reading this one. I appreciated the writing as characters were complex and nuanced but it fell short for me in its pacing and cohesiveness. I debated quitting but am glad I read til the end. Heartfelt thanks to Hogarth Press for the advanced copy. I’m grateful.

Andrew and his family return to live in the area where he grew up, along the midcoast of Maine. A teacher, coach, and would be writer, he unravels the sordid story of just how Ed Thatch, an uneducated, struggling lobsterman became wealthy and his wife the political and social leader of the town.

Don’t read this expecting a thriller or great mystery to be solved, but rather for a well written, character driven, atmospheric narrative. White’s descriptions help the reader imagine the different midcoast locations, feel the weather, experience the environment. In addition to the main storyline, he explores class distinctions and provides a good exposition of the pressure sometimes exerted in small towns trying to promote themselves just to end up losing what makes them desirable.

The book goes back and forth in time and sometimes I found myself trying to figure out just where we were in the timeline.

All in all, a great debut offering!

The shifting between the timeline was a bit jarring at first, but was less noticeable as the story progressed. The characters were well written, so it was easy to empathize with them as the storyline progressed. Did NOT see or guess how this one would end. Will probably be doing a re-read of this later this year to catch the more minor nuances that I missed during the initial read.

This is an easy five star for me! I'd give it even more stars if I could and it may turn out to be my favorite book of the year. The characters, the sense of place, the way the story fits together so adroitly! There is much to admire in this novel and the writing is such that you will feel you are there each moment with each character.
If you are attracted to the idea of living in Maine and/or that Maine way of life, this is your book. I'm quite sure it will be well read and I hope that it hits the top of every best seller list!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed it!

Andrew, an English teacher, lacrosse coach and would be novelist, has returned home to Damariscotta, Maine with his family. He hopes that small town life will be healthier and more affordable than Boston and its suburbs. On the surface, Damariscotta has not changed. However, what is under the surface is deeply hidden, ugly and life threatening.

The Midcoast purports to be Andrew’s first novel, examining the trajectory of the Thatch family. When Andrew was a teenager, he worked in the summers for Ed Thatch at the family lobster pound. When he returns home, the Thatches have become a driving force. Ed is now is a real estate investor, a town benefactor and his wife Steph is the town manager and a prime mover herself. Andrew and Ed bond over lacrosse and Ed’s ambitions for his daughter to play the sport at an Ivy League college. Still, there is something simmering and unseen. A lobster cookout for Ally’s team marks the end of the lacrosse season and a seismic change for Ed.

It is hard to make sympathetic characters out of those who aren’t. Adam White accomplishes this and more in this luminous and compelling story of class, ambition and love. My favorite lines: “Look,” Allie said, “do you realize that going to college isn’t even a big deal anymore…”
“Its a big deal for us.” “Yeah, I know…We’re like tourists taking pictures of stuff that’s not even famous.”

5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Random House and Adam White for this ARC.

I love a character study disguised as a thriller! Delighted to include this title in the June edition of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer magazine. (see review at link)

The telling of this story was like the waves in the ocean, they came and went in different directions, meeting here and there, but they all worked together in a really unique way.

This is a suspense/drama book that felt as if I was sitting down and talking with the actual investigator and hearing about the incident first hand. I loved it!

We go to the sleepy town of Damariscotta, Maine that is right on the river and lobster is the thing. Ed Thatch has risen greatly economically and Andrew, a local that grew up with Ed, is fascinated at how this happened. He stumbles upon some disturbing photographs at Ed's mansion and then we deep dive into the history and past!

This book was atmospheric and sensational. I was 100% captivated the whole way through. I never quite knew where we were going. I was given enough information on the crimes and events, but didn't know where it would end up until I read the end. Loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the advance e-copy in return for my honest review.

This book was not what I thought it would be. I thought it would be a mystery. Instead it was more of a character study of a small town full of people who are struck with the downfall of one of their towns most notable families. That kind of thing can lead to self-reflection. The characters go through that but I never really connected with any of the characters enough to embrace their struggles.

The Midcoast by Adam White explores the rise and fall of the Thatch family. Ed, the patriarch, amasses a fortune through his (apparently) legitimate lobster business. Steph, his wife, works as mayor of their small coastal town with the hopes of transforming it into a new it tourist hotspot while their two children reconcile their different upbringings. EJ - who was born while the family was poor - follows in the footsteps of his working class father while Allie - who was born after the family’s ascent - pursues academic glory.

The novel is a compelling blend of literary fiction and thriller. Its characters - especially Ed - are fully realized. But it suffers from a sense of detachment. The story is told in a removed first person. The narrator is not a Thatch but a far less interesting family friend writing the novel we read. The author explains this narrative choice in a passage towards the end of the novel but not in a way that justifies the decision.

Overall, The Midcoast is an impressive debut and definitely worth a readThe Midcoast by Adam White explores the rise and fall of the Thatch family. Ed, the patriarch, amasses a fortune through his (apparently) legitimate lobster business. Steph, his wife, works as mayor of their small coastal town with the hopes of transforming it into a new it tourist hotspot while their two children reconcile their different upbringings. EJ - who was born while the family was poor - follows in the footsteps of his working class father while Allie - who was born after the family’s ascent - pursues academic glory.

The novel is a compelling blend of literary fiction and thriller. Its characters - especially Ed - are fully realized. But it suffers from a sense of detachment. The story is told in a removed first person. The narrator is not a Thatch but a far less interesting family friend writing the novel we read. The author explains this narrative choice in a passage towards the end of the novel but not in a way that justifies the decision.

Overall, The Midcoast is an impressive debut and definitely worth a read

I requested this title from NetGalley expecting some sort of crime thriller, but the book is more of a character study than a taut mystery. And, sadly, I had little interest in most of the characters.
The main story involves Ed and Steph Thatch, and Ed's involvement in the illegal activities that finance his plush lifestyle. This part was fascinating, and should have been explored more fully. Why the tale is told by one of Ed's old acquaintances . . . I'm not sure. There are too many characters here, and they distract from the interesting pair at the center of the drama. Also, W-A-Y too much time is wasted on Ed's boring daughter.

Maybe an editor with a firmer hand might have helped . . .

On the plus side, I did enjoy the author's chatty tone; it made the book seem more memoir than fiction.

I see plenty of other readers enjoyed this one, so perhaps - you might, too.

I think most people are seeing something in the book that I'm not. For me, it was just an ok read. The writing is serviceable enough to tell the story. But I didn't feel any particular way about the book while I was reading it; it felt like someone was telling me the newest gossip that featured a bunch of people that I just didn't care about and didný know. It's a little interesting while reading, but not exactly engaging.

Maybe I came with the wrong expectations. Because even though it is advertised as a mistery, it is not one. It's more the retelling of the big scandal that happened with a powerful family,giving a little bit of more information than one would find reading it in a newspaper.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

I was intrigued by the premise but found the book itself very disappointing. The storyline was very poorly developed and the characters left much to be desired.

While reading this book, I realized I've read at least three books set in Maine this year, and one in Rhode Island. THE MIDCOAST was more of a character study than a mystery or thriller, especially since the "big twist" about the family is revealed fairly early in the book. I was getting some subtle THE GREAT GATSBY vibes from this book - story observed and told from an outsider's point of view about a wealthy family and their lavish lifestyle. The non-linear timeline was a little confusing at times, but didn't take away from the story.

This was interesting in that it was written as if it were nonfiction and written in first person as if from a journalist actually writing a book about these events. I was engrossed by this family but not the author. I couldn't have cared less about the (fictional) author, which was good because he didn't write much about himself instead of obsessed with the Thatch family. There was a lot of build up but then it seemed to fizzle into nothing . . . the end just came up and I found myself thinking, why do I care? I will read more from this author because I was intrigued by the format and it was well written.

The Midcoast comes out next week on June 7, 2022 and you can purchase HERE.

Back when I lived out of state, people always used to get excited when they found out where I was from. They didn't meet all that many Mainers—I was like a moose descended from a log cabin, wandering their backyard, eating their shrimp—and wondered if I was from anywhere near the town where they'd gone to summer camp or cruised in their custom sloop.

Where to start with this one. I struggled to get through it. I debating DNFing it a few time. The more I tried to read it the more I just wanted to move on to something that hooked me.

I could not connect with the characters and was bored the majority of the time ultimately DNFing it at 36%.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

The Midcoast by Adam White is a highly recommended debut novel examining a family striving to achieve wealth and status in the town of Damariscotta, Maine

Ed and Steph Thatch have risen from a modest beginning to a place of wealth and prominence in Damariscotta. Andrew, a high school English teacher and coach, has recently moved his family back to Maine due to the lower cost of living there. He knew Ed Thatch back when they were both teenagers and Andrew worked summers for Ed as a dockhand at the Lobster Pound, owned by Ed’s father. As the narrative opens, Andrew and his family are invited to a lavish reception for the Amherst College lacrosse team at the Thatch's estate. It is here that Andrew sees a disturbing photo that will be the impetus for the rest of the novel.

Questions arise when the police show up at the reception and from this point on Andrew starts looking back at their lives and what led to the current events. Back when Andrew knew Ed, he never would have predicted Ed would become the owner of several lobster boats and a major donor for town projects and Steph would become the town manager. A common theme running through their marriage is the known fact that Steph wants nice things and Ed wants her to have the life she deserves. This is the motive for everything Ed does.

There is a Gatsbyesque element to The Midcoast as it examines the quest for wealth and the deception involved as Ed does everything he can to make Steph happy and Andrew looks at Ed's life from the sideline. The narrative mainly follows Andrew interviewing people after the day of the party for a book about Ed's actions. The timeline is not chronological. The narrative moves around in time culminating with a return to the opening scene as the last scene in the novel. The complex plot slowly builds as Andrew discovers more of Ed's actions and activities. Sometimes the narrative is in first person while other times it is revealing the actions and thoughts of other characters. Suspense builds over the mystery concerning a photo Andrew sees while attending the reception.

The Midcoast is certainly an excellent debut novel that tackles an impressive amount of details and a myriad of issues in a complex plot. Not all the characters are as fully realized as I would hope as some important personal motivating factors seem absent, but this could be a deliberate choice as certain character's backstories are told through their own voices. It is not a quick paced thriller, but once you start reading you will want to know what happened, what the photo means, and how Ed is involved.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Random House via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Edelweiss, Google Books, and Amazon.

As a lifelong Maine goer, I was really excited to start this one. My family has vacationed in Wells for decades, and I am a sucker for coastal settings.

From the publisher via Goodreads: It's spring in the tiny town of Damariscotta, a tourist haven on the coast of Maine known for its oysters and antiques. Andrew, a high school English teacher recently returned to the area, has brought his family to Ed and Steph Thatch's riverside estate to attend an extravagant reception for the Amherst Women's Lacrosse Team, where everyone's wearing an Amherst shade of purple. Back when they were teenagers, Andrew never could have guessed that Ed--descended from a long line of lobstermen--would one day send his daughter to a place like Amherst, but clearly the years have been good to Ed. Andrew's enjoying the party, if a little jealously--a part of him wishes he could afford for his own family even a fraction of what Ed's provided for his.

As Andrew wanders through the Thatches' house, he stumbles upon a police file he's not supposed to see. In the file are pictures of a burned-out sedan: a blackened trunk, a torched body. Andrew's confusion and envy turn to horror. And when the police arrive an hour later, the true story of the Thatches--a family Andrew thought he understood--begins.

A propulsive drama that cares as deeply about its characters as it does about the crimes they commit, The Midcoast explores the machinations of privilege, the dark recesses of the American dream, and the lies we tell as we try, at all costs, to achieve it.

I really enjoyed this book. This isn't a fast-paced, race-through-in-one-sitting read, but rather one you'd pick up and consume; so if you're the kind of reader who prefers an immersive, character-driven story, this will definitely be the book for you. White did an excellent job developing the narrative voices, creating a slow-burning tension and resonating conflict.

Big thanks to Hogarth and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

I loved this fascinating novel set on the Midcoast area of Maine. I flew through this book, reading it over the course of one weekend.

Andrew and his family are now living in his hometown of Damariscotta, Maine after years away. The story quickly shifts to the mystery surrounding Ed and Steph Thatch, the town's success story, who come from very little but are now the town's most prominent and wealthy citizens. But it is exactly that rise to power that captivates Andrew and, by extension, the reader. Is it too good to be true?

The plot kept me turning the pages and I enjoyed watching all the pieces slowly come together. I thought the character development was strong, especially among the Thatch family.

I've been very interested in reading this book ever since I learned that it took place on the Midcoast of Maine, specifically Damariscotta, a place I've visited in the past. The feeling of Maine really comes through the pages and its geography and culture is incorporated into the storyline - this is not a story that could take place anywhere else.

I highly recommend it!

A failed screenwriter and former lacrosse star returns to his midcoast Maine hometown, where one of the local lobstering families seems to be doing a whole lot better than all the others. There’s got to be a reason, right? Class, greed, and small town secrets make for a fast read. Take this literary crime story with you on vacation or read it between plays at your kid’s lacrosse game.

The Midcoast is a novel of a small town in Maine and the unraveling of a long held town secret.
A rags to riches family can't explain their rise to the upper echelons of this working to middle class place. As the story unfolds , the secret is slowly revealed.
The characters are well written and make the story that much more tragic.