4.25 stars

A debut? Yes! Set in the Pacific Northwest? Yes! About a murder? Yes! About an author? Yes!

This novel hits so many notes that I adore. Why I liked it even more is that it has a unique plot that you don't see every day. In Sarah Crouch's debut MIDDLETIDE, struggling author Elijah returns to his Pacific Northwest hometown to find his high school girlfriend has moved on, and the woman he starts dating is found murdered outside his family cabin in the same way a murder happens in his novel.

The ambiance is superb, and I think the setting for this novel is supposed to be near or on Lummi Island in Washington State, but for some reason it's called Point Orchards (similar named to Port Orchard, a real town a few hours away). This is a perfect read on a cold or rainy day - plenty of which we get in Washington State!

As I said before, the plot of this novel, while slower than your typical mystery/thriller, is really interesting. Now I'm someone who enjoys a novel that you can sink into, and this is definitely one where you have the space to do so.

There are timeline jumps in this novel. Because I was physically reading, I didn't mind it. It might get a little confusing on audio. Also, the "current" timeline is 1994, which I'm presuming is because the author wanted to set it before DNA testing was commonplace and quick. However, the current timeline actually reads very modern. I think it might have helped to have some "1994-isms" in the novel to secure it into that moment in time. Also, the novel spoke to the character selling produce at a farmers' market in 1988. I don't believe farmers' markets were a "thing" in 1988.

The police in this novel seem well-intentioned but a bit bumbling as far as procedure, which I would expect in a small town. I liked the characters of Elijah and Erin. They were each interesting in their own ways. The main problem I had with this novel was with the character of Nakita. Nakita is Indigenous, but there is no mention of Indigenous culture except for one paragraph in the epilogue. I am stymied why the author had an Indigenous main character without highlighting aspects of the associated culture. I feel if the author isn't going to address the culture piece, then why not make the character white or not mention race? Because I had such a problem with this (was there no sensitivity reader?), I had to take some off my rating.

As far as the resolution, there is a bit of a rabbit being pulled out of a hat. So the mystery didn't unfold as naturally as I would have liked.

Overall, I really liked this debut. It was very strong in so many ways that I'm sure to pick up the next by this author.

I am surprised by just how much I enjoyed this book!

The writing flows, easy to read, and I was invested in Doc Landry & Elijah's stories from the very beginning!

A very interesting take on someone being falsely, we assume accused of a murder that mirrors one in his book that only a few people have read. This is both his fight for justice and his coming to accept who he is and what is important to him. A slow burn but a good read 4.5

Thank you Atria Books and Sarah Crouch for the gifted copy!

Wow wow wow. I was genuinely blown away by this book. I think I finished it in under 24 hours!

I have to be 100% honest and say it is being compared to two books I didn't particularly enjoy, one of which being Where the Crawdads Sing - Middletide delivered SO much better than Crawdads for me. It was absolutely everything.

This book isn't long at only 288 pages and yet the characters are so rich and well-developed and I felt so attached to everyone's stories and their final outcomes. I loved that we alternated back and forth between past and present and got to see some of the same events from different characters' perspectives.

I truly don't have anything but glowing praise for this book, I cannot believe it is a debut novel. Sarah Crouch has a new lifelong fan in me!

A stunning debut!

Thank you so much to Atria and NetGalley for the gifted ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. This book is a marvelous debut for Sarah Crouch! I was absolutely hooked from the beginning. It definitely is the closest thing to WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING that I have gotten - the beautiful nature prose, themes of identity/outcast of society/loneliness, theres also a murder mystery as well as some romance and redemption. What a beautiful book! I cannot believe how much story was told in a <300 page book. I was kept up throughout the night reading this book and pondering about it when I would put it down. I highly recommend everyone picking up what could possibly be the book of 2024!

Ummm do you want a book to keep you up all night? Sure? This is the one!

I LOVED this one. I thought it was going to be a snooze fest but I loved the twists in the story and the way it kept me engaged. This is the exact definition of page turner! I really fell in love with Elijah, and although I predicted the ending early on, I was SO delighted to be wrong! This one will entrance the reader that doesn’t like anything - I’m convinced. And maybe, just maybe, if you grew up in the northwest, Point Orchards may remind you of another town that sounds quite similar…. :) I always love books set in my home state/town, and this one did not disappoint!

If you're looking for a good, atmospheric mystery, look no further! I feel with so many psychological thrillers on the market it was a nice change of pace to read a good solid mystery novel. Elijah Leith has returned to his hometown and is homesteading at his family cabin in the woods. He is charged with a murder and all signs point to him, including aspects of the killing taken right from the pages of a book he wrote...but did he really do it? This book has Where The Crawdads Sings vibes with the loner in the woods and a murder investigation, but move the setting to the Pacific Northwest and you've got a whole new context and plot line. (In fairness, I actually preferred this novel over Crawdads!)

I liked everything about this book, but had one minor hang-up -- the chapters include many flashbacks, and it's not like flipping between a distant past and the present, but it is flashing back only a few years (between 1991 and 1944 for example). I constantly found myself forgetting whether the chapter was past or present, and if past how far past? Each chapter was a little puzzle piece, but it was hard for me to put the pieces in sequential order.

Overall though, a really solid mystery novel that I devoured quickly!

I had a tough time with the time jumps. Each chapter is named for a date. Many times, when picking the story up again, I had to review the times and remember what was going on when. It’s not my favorite reading method. The highlight of the book are the interesting descriptions of the NW US. It made me feel as if I was there. As detailed as the plot seemed to be, I thought both the mystery and romance were too easy to figure out. I gave it three stars because its an average book.

Middletide by Sarah Crouch is a debut that held such promise! The story’s biggest strength is the strong sense place. The vivid atmosphere in Puget sound is palpable and so transportive. The premise also had such great potential: a young female doctor is found on the property of Elijah Leith, an author whose fictional book depicts a murder exactly the way that the doctor was found dead.

Unfortunately, the characters didn’t come to life in the same way the setting did. There was a discrepancy between how well I knew and loved the land and how well I knew the characters that came across as a bit one dimensional with flat dialogue.

The other thing that is interesting about this book is the invention of the Squalomah tribe, a fictional Indigenous community. It was an interesting choice to not include an Indigenous community native to the pacific northwest. I understand the complexities of a white woman writing from an outsider’s perspective and how that could open up a book to criticism, but I would have personally appreciated a thoughtful representation of people native to the PNW as opposed to a fictional tribe.

With additional character development I think this could have been really great. I’ll look forward to reading the author again.

PUB DATE: June 11, 2024
RATING: 3/5

Many thanks to Atria and NetGalley for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed Middletide. Elijah Leith, simple and complicated, ends up back in his childhood home. It’s a place he wanted to escape, and did for a while, even though it meant leaving his first love, Nakita, behind. Fate brings Elijah and Nakita back together but then a young doctor ends up dead on Elijah’s property and police suspect Elijah is involved. After all, the crime mirrors the book Elijah wrote. Middletide centers around the mystery of the doctor’s death, and Elijah’s trial. It is a well-written novel with characters you feel compelled to root for. I really enjoyed the book and I was happy with the way the author resolved the story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Middletide is a carefully constructed mystery, written by debut author, Sarah Crouch. Much of Middletide works well as a romance, but it also succeeds as a murder mystery. Elijah is a would-be, nearly has-been writer, whose dream of writing a successful novel is lost after one bad review. His return home to his boyhood log cabin is very much a starting over story. Elijah has to heal the ghosts of his past flight from home before he can truly start over. Middletide begins with a death, a suicide that is designed to look like a murder, but that is just the beginning of this well-crafted novel.

The action in Middletide is character driven. Elijah is the central character in this novel, which also includes his father's best friend, the sheriff, his deputy, and two very different women. Middletide is more complex than the usual who-done-it. The plotting works well, thanks primarily to several solid characters. The sheriff and his deputy are very nearly stock characters in an old Perry Mason show. The two lawmen are the weakest characters in an otherwise strong first effort. With police who focus on face value circumstantial evidence, and who fail to provide the defense with copies of crucial diary evidence, these two men are an unneeded distraction. They fulfill a purpose, to set up an unnecessary trial, which permits Elijah's girlfriend, who is playing the Perry Mason Paul Drake character, to enter the courtroom with a last-minute surprise witness. This scene is the only flaw in an otherwise strong novel. I hope Crouch will rewrite this last section of the novel.

Except for the ending, this is a good start to what I expect will be a terrific writing career. Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC for me to read and review. My comments are my honest thoughts about Middletide. I did enjoy this novel very much and hope it will find a good audience of readers.

A slow burn, that is ultimately a love story to his woman and the land. An introverted writer finds himself accused of a murder that mirrors the one in his book. It is slowly and carefully deconstructed to the truth. 4.5

Elijah Leith Returns home to Point Orchards after his writing career false flat. While laying low on his family’s land and working to restore the old cabin, he suddenly becomes a murder suspect when the body of a doctor is found hanging in a tree on his land. While the story starts off with a suicide that turns out to be murder, the real story is about Elijah and his return back to Point Orchards.

You see, someone is apparently setting Elijah up for murder, because the doctor is killed in the exact same way, as in in one of Elijah’s stories. In order to clear his name, Elijah will need to confront the past and fight for the life he couldn’t wait to leave behind when he was younger. Will he be able to reclaim his life, or will he fail yet again?

A great debut for author, Sarah Crouch. I love the setting, and the Puget sound area and confronting your past. In the present is always a pretty good way to set up a solid story. I will definitely read more from this author in the future.

Middletide is the story of Elijah Leith and the book he wrote by the same name. Elijah's big dream has always been to be an author. He wrote one book called Middletide, but due to an early bad review, it did not sell well. He came home to his small town on the Washington coast, and is working to reignite an old flame from his youth.
A woman is murdered, found hung in a tree on Elijah's property. The method of hanging usually implies suicide,but it appears to be an attempt to cover a murder - and since this is the exact plot of Elijah's book, he becomes the number one suspect!
The race is on to prove his innocence. He believes someone is trying to frame him... but who? and why??
This was a well written book, I liked the authors writing style. The storyline was interesting. I had suspicions as to who was behind it, but it kept me guessing until near the end, when you truly begin to understand the who and why.
The ending came about a little quick and easy, but wrapped things up well.
I enjoyed it, I'd say 3.5+ so rounding up to a 4.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this eARC!

At this point I have read multiple books published by Atria Books and have heartily enjoyed them all. This one landed in my inbox through an email sent by the publisher and it sounded intriguing so I downloaded and picked it right up. I had little to no expectations and I think that was the perfect way to go into this novel. Middletide was immersive and propulsive, pulling me through the book in ways I never would have expected. I didn't want to stop reading and couldn't wait to get back to it during work. The mystery unfurls so slyly and quietly, that the reader is struck by the genius of the climax of the plot. What a great mystery and the other side plots were so well done too. What an excellent debut Sarah Crouch! I look forward to more books from you in the future!

3.5 stars
Recommend

I received a complimentary Kindle e-book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to Sarah Crouch, Atria Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This was a non-bloody mystery thriller which I appreciated. The blood and guts normally make this type of book a non-starter for me.

The writing is good, but the multiple timelines especially in the beginning of the book made it hard to follow at times.

The biggest issue is that Native American characters are included in this book and the author is not Native American. That is concerning to me.

Come June 11 we will be hearing comparisons to Where the Crawdads Sing. However, there’s no comparison. Middletide did it better.

This thriller is everything you want from a murder whodunnit. Two possible unreliable narrators. You just have to decide which one is lying.

I loved the setting, the PNW and the representation of Native Americans. I loved the complexity of the characters and the real emotions they feel.

This book also tackles grief and how far would you go as a parent or a bereaved widow. How far would you go for love?

This is going to be one of the best books of the year. Seriously. Sarah Crouch wrote a masterpiece.

I loved this book. The setting is gorgeous, the characters develop throughout, and the story is a slow burn you won't be able to put down. Will be highly recommending it this summer.

Elijah returns home to the small town of Point Orchard after his father died. Elijah is a failed writer who’s single, living alone in the woods, and disappointed in himself for giving up on the girl he loved to chase a dream that led nowhere. When the body of an attractive doctor is found on his land in a manner described in the novel he wrote that almost no one read, he’s the only suspect.

This novel isn’t exactly fast paced, but it does get pretty tense toward the end. There is a lot about loss of both loved ones and opportunities.

NetGalley provided an advance copy of this book, which RELEASES JUNE A11, 2024.

This is a wonderful debut novel. It is set into Pacific Northwest. It is written in multiple timelines before the event and the current time. Switching of the times was very confusing to me.
The story begins with two fishermen who discover a dead body hanging from a tree, January 1994. The body is identified as Erin Landry, a prominent doctor.
The body is discovered on the property of Elijah Leith, a reclusive former author.
Elijah and Nikita were high school sweethearts making their future plans.
Nakita was a member of the fictional Squalomah indigenous people. She lived at a nearby reservation. Elijah couldn’t wait to leave and go to San Francisco to become an author . Shortly before Elijah leaves they make a pact to return to their favorite spot in four years. Akita goes to meet Elijah put he never shows up.
Success as an author is not in the cards for Elijah. Out of money and ambition the prodigal son returns to reunite with Nakita,
As Erin‘s body is found on Elijah‘s property, he becomes the main suspect in the investigation. It seems his published book is very similar to the way Erin’s body was found dead. Elijah claims to be innocent.
This was a very intriguing murder mystery. The plot was very unique.
I loved the setting of the Pacific Northwest. The atmospheric prose was just beautiful.
A very suspenseful murder mystery.
Thank to NetGalley and Atria publishing for the arc.