Middletide is the debut novel by author Sarah Crouch described as an atmospheric mystery reminiscent of Where the Crawdads Sing.

When I read the synopsis for Middletide it sounded very interesting, so much so that I ordered a hard copy from the Book of the aMonth club even after receiving an ARC from NetGalley. Unfortunately I don’t think it’s the book for me, or maybe it just wasn’t the right time for me to read it.

I really struggled to get into the story for a few reasons. First the pace is slow, which I expected but at the same time I was not quite prepared for just how slow it would be, and how hard it would be to remain engaged.

Second, like others, I found it strange that the author made up a fictional indigenous people instead of researching the beliefs, and customs of a real people and including them. I felt that was an odd choice. I will admit that I was so bored that I skimmed a bit, so maybe I missed it, but it didn’t seem like these people were an important aspect of the story either.

Third, the main character, Elijah kind of irritated me for some reason. I’ve read lots of books where I didn’t like the main character, but for some reason his character grated on my nerves more than usual.

I could say more but I don’t want to be too negative. I truly don’t think it’s a bad book, I think I was just not in the proper frame of mind for it. I think lots of people will probably love it.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Middletide
By Sarah Crouch

This begins with two teenaged star-crossed lovers, Elijah and Nakita, living in the small town of Pont Orchards and the adjacent Sacred Mountain Reservation. Elijah can't wait to leave the small town for San Francsco, where he aspires to be a writer. Nakita loves her home and has no wish to leave. As Elijah heads off to college, the lovers agree to meet back at their lakeside spot in exactly four years. But, as we all know, life happens and different paths are taken.

The book then becomes a mystery. When the young woman doctor is found hanging, is it a suicide – or a murder disguised as a suicide – or maybe a suicide disguised as a murder? Thus the convoluted story unfolds.

This is a very clever piece of work. And well before the end, the reader is made aware of the "what" and the "who" – but the "why" takes a little longer. And the ultimate solve is certainly a show stopper! Great debut!

At its core, Middletide is a murder mystery with a moody atmosphere from its Pacific Northwest location. However, the extra details are what set this book apart, for better and worse. It focuses on Elijah Leith, a man who grew up outside the small town of Point Orchards. We get to see two different points in time, first when he’s just graduated high school and is getting ready to leave for San Francisco, then when he returns after his father dies, 15 years later. Once he’s been back in town for a few years, a hanged body is found on his property. Eerily, the entire scene matches a book Elijah wrote while in San Francisco.
The best part of this book was the atmosphere and environment. Crouch’s prose about the Pacific Northwest was the highlight of the story, and truly transported me to the quiet acreage Elijah lives on. The small town he lives by felt like a true small town, filled with loyalty, distrust, hierarchies, and gossip. There were no cutesy moments that pulled me out of the story. Instead, the environment is was kept me grounded as I read.
The plot itself was interesting but the pacing felt incredibly slow. In between every moment that moved the plot forward was long stretches of character development. Unfortunately, the character development focused only on Elijah, whose story wasn’t compelling to me. He is very one-dimensional, with minimal emotion. The other main character is Nakita, Elijah’s first love. Nakita is a strong, independent archetype of a woman whose only purpose in the story is to progress Elijah’s development. Similarly, when Erin, another woman, is introduced, her only purpose is to move the plot forward, with no nuance.
Another issue I had was the made-up Native American tribe Nakita is a part of, called the Squalomah. Crouch has an author’s note before the story, explaining her reasoning for creating a fictional tribe. However, I don’t understand why it was necessary to make a fictional tribe when she referenced the real tribes in her author’s note. It’s clear that Crouch was trying to be respectful, but instead, it felt like an easy out to avoid doing research.
Overall, this was a book I liked, but didn’t love. I found myself wishing the plot had been paced a little faster, and that the characters had more dimension. Together, those dynamics made the story feel incomplete and made the ending feel anti-climatic. The final twists really pulled their weight to make this feel like a thriller, but the first 80% had dragged me too far down to fully enjoy the last 20%.
I think this was a decent debut novel, and I will definitely continue to follow Crouch’s journey as an author. However, this is not a book I would recommend often. I think it has a few very key things that could attract readers, but as an overall story, it will most likely fall a little flat for most.
Thanks to Netgalley and Atria for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Smart, intense, riveting. I found this to be a marvelous story from a new debut author. This author's talent radiates off of every page. It reminded me of "Carolina Moonset" by Matt Goldman, which I also loved. The storyline twists and turns and keeps the reader guessing. I highly recommend this well thought out mystery and I would read anything this author writes in the future.

What a good book! The story flits from present to past effortlessly. It’s a good mystery and the ending did really surprise me. It’s a hard to put down book,

🖤🖤Book Review🖤🖤
#middletide by @sarahcrouch1989

It was offered by @bookofthemonth BUT I got my copy from @netgalley !!
I wanted to read this just by the cover! This was a slow burn mystery of murder and an awesome court case ending! An unpopular author moves to his home town after his writing career ends. Not only does he run into his first teenage love but also the most beautiful doctor who wants to date him! Then, a suicide happens on his property in the most beautiful area. Did he do it? I mean the murder is set up just like the novel he wrote! What!!!!! This was a unique thriller and I enjoyed it. Perfect ready for a gloomy day. Great character development and I felt like I was in the story!
4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Elijah Leith returns to his rural hometown outside of Seattle after failing to make it as a novelist in San Francscio. After learning to homestead and suffering a personal loss, he attempts to rekindle his high school romance. This is interrupted when he becomes the prime suspect in the murder of the beautiful but haunted town doctor, Erin Landry, which seems to be cannily based on the plot of his failed novel.

I loved Crouch’s description of the Pacific Northwest; she made the setting come alive and the reader can understand why Elijah is connected to his birthplace. Unfortunately, the plot and character development were weaker than I’d like. This read like the screenplay for a cable tb movie - lots of sentiment and dramatic plot points that felt extremely unrealistic. While there were a few twists, the main mystery was pretty clear from midway through the book.

While this was a miss for me, I would recommend it to those who enjoy descriptive setting and/or readers who like a plot-driven novel more than a character-driven novel.

4.5 stars rounded up
It's hard to believe that Middletide is Sarah Crouch's debut novel! Her writing is so beautifully descriptive, and the plot of this mystery/romance novel is a compelling page-turner. While the book itself is relatively short, the characters were well developed, the mystery had me guessing until the main character figured it all out, and the twists were unique.

I especially loved the descriptions of Elijah's homesteading experiences and his friendship with his father's friend, Chitto. His developing love for the home he had left as a young man added depth to the story, as well.

The story is written in multiple timelines, and jumps around a bit, which was a little confusing sometimes. It did not significantly impact my enjoyment, though I did have to page backwards to check the date on occasion.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the digital ARC of Middletide by Sarah Crouch. The opinions in this review are my own.

I was very bored the first half of the book but am glad I stuck with it! The writing was great but the time and story jumping just didn’t hold my interest at first. I liked it better towards the end when I could better track where in time the chapter fell. I also liked that there were several plot twists so even if the reader guessed where it was heading, we were still surprised!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for sending me both a physical and digital ARC of this wonderful debut novel by Sarah Crouch. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars!

One morning, in a small northern Washington town, two fishermen come across the body of the young town doctor hanging from a tree. Suicide? Murder? The tree is on the property of Elijah Leith, who left Point Orchards to become a famous writer. Failing that, he's now home, living in his dad's cabin. Soon the investigation leads right to Elijah, with the plot of his failed novel mirroring the doctor's death.

This is a slow burn, very atmospheric, novel that really pulled me in. It took me a minute to get used to the different timelines. As a guide, it's set in 3 main time periods: the 1970s, when Elijah and his girlfriend, Nakita, are together; the 1980s, when Elijah returns; and the 1990s as more present day. Once I get that set in my mind, I liked the back and forth of the plot giving us background information. While it's definitely a character study into grief and second chances, the murder mystery played out well, with a few twists. I can't wait to read more from this author.

I think some of the reviews of this book are totally valid in their concern with the usage of Indigenous Americans. There really wasn't a reason to include that as part of the story. I also think the ending was rushed, with the trial taking up so few pages after all the build-up. That being said, I really enjoyed the way the timelines were woven together. I also could relate to Elijah as someone who left home for college (twice) and ended up moving back and making a life, unlike the one I imagined at 18. So for me, this book worked well and was a quick read, but I can see that not being the case for others.

Thank you for this complimentary copy of Middletide. This story wound up not being for me. I did not finish. Loved the cover and I think it would be a great story for some. Just not for me. The synopsis made it seem to be a different story than it turned out to be.
Thank you for the opportunity to read.

So I was attracted by the pretty cover and I love books set in the Pacific Northwest because it seems so atmospheric there but the author’s note at the start turned me off. Instead of researching a real indigenous tribe native to the area she made one up? That was a huge turn off for me but I read the first few chapters but didn't care for the story, I read the last 15% or so because I like to know how a story ends but this one just wasn’t for me. Too slow plus the fake Indigenous tribe was a huge turn off for me.

Congrats to the author on her debut novel and thanks to the publisher for the NetGalley copy, all opinions are my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I requested this ARC from @netgalley after it was chosen as a book pick by @bookofthemonth, and I am SO glad I did. Honestly, I probably would have just glanced over it.

This story gave me all of the Perry Mason vibes. From backstory, setting, subjects, suspects, and jury trial I was hooked. It was a great book.

Set in the mountains of Washington State, which is equally part of the story, the prologue it begins with the discovery of a murdered woman. It follows in dual timelines the primary suspect of Elijah Leith, who had abandoned this small town to make it as a writer in San Francisco after his first book, Middletide, was published. When it fails to sell, he returns home considered a failure and becomes a recluse until this murdered woman is found in his property in the same way he had written about in his book.

Can this recluse prove his innocence in a small town that has already presumed his guilt? So good!

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This one was really interesting. A murder based off of a book, he author being pointed to as the obvious suspect. It was interesting to see how things played out and how information was revealed. I thought I had it figured out for a bit and then I realized I was completely wrong. There were a few things that still didn't add up and that I felt like needed to be addressed but otherwise it was really great.

Marking this as a DNF 36% in.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of Middletide by Sarah Crouch.

First off, this book has a gorgeous cover. And based on the blurb, I was expecting a bit more of a thriller/murder mystery. This is definitely way more towards the “Crawdads” comparisons than any thriller comparison. I liked Crawdads, but this book, while similarly descriptive and nature based, was way too slow moving for me. The moving timeline was also a bit hard to follow. The writing itself was very nice though, and I’d be willing to maybe pick up a second book by this author to check it out. This one wasn’t for me though.

not stylish enough to be gone girl even though it clearly wants to be. lots of time spent on our somewhat tragic, somewhat farcical hero and not enough on his female foils (because that's what they are). i'm not indigenous, but i'm also not sure "invent an indigenous tribe to make my love interest diverse" is the right way of going about "i want my love interest to be non-white." real mixed bag!

Thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books, Atria Thrillers, and Simon and Schuster for this copy of "Middletide."

Someone is trying to frame Elijah for the murder of a local doctor by using his only published novel "Middletide" to create the murder scene.

This book had many elements that I like:
-books about authors and writing
-murder mystery
-second chance love story
-thrilling legal scenes
-surprising, twisty ending

The ending was a little abrupt for me and I wish the trial scenes had been expanded, just to keep the suspense building. But it was definitely an ending I didn't expect!

This book started slow and kind of stayed there. It missed the mark for me and the multiple POV were a little confusing at times. Thanks to Net Galley and the author for this ARC.

Middletown by debut author Sarah Crouch is a classic “whodunnit” murder mystery. Set in a small town nearby a reservation of a fictiobal native tribe the “Squalomah” Elijah Leith is a reclusive former author and owner of some land where Erin Landry’s body is found. Elijah immediately becomes the main suspect for the murder and the reader follows along as he tries to prove himself innocent with the help of his high school sweetheart, Nakita.

The twists and turns of this novel were great, and the ending was definitely not one I was expecting! The multiple timelines were a little hard to follow at times as we switched between the present and past.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria for the ARC!