One peaceful morning, in the small, Puget Sound town of Point Orchards, the lifeless body of Dr. Erin Landry is found hanging from a tree on the property of prodigal son and failed writer, Elijah Leith. Sheriff Jim Godbout’s initial investigation points to an obvious suicide, but then he discovers that the circumstances of the doctor’s death were ripped straight from the pages of Elijah Leith’s own novel.

Elijah had returned to his empty childhood home to lick the wounds of his futile writing career. As the town of Point Orchards turns against him, Elijah must fight for his innocence against an unexpected foe who is close and cunning enough to flawlessly frame him for murder.

Sarah Crouch has given us an engrossing literary thriller about love, loss, revenge, and redemption. The echoes of this novel will stay with the reader well after the last page has been turned. Highly recommended. #Middletide #NetGalley #SaltMarshAuthorSeries

This has been pushed heavily for fans of “Where the Crawdads Sing,” and since I liked that, I thought I would try this. And it was great. I loved the nature writing and the mystery really caught me. Since I’m not a male, I don’t know how men think. But this was written by a female, and it felt like it was written by a female. Lots of thoughts of life and love and loss…but I’m not sure how accurate they are to the male mind. So that was my only hiccup. Some female writers tend to project their convoluted female emotions onto male characters, and it’s unclear (to me) if men accurately think like this. But I’m not here to debate the gendered psyche of thought.

I did get an inkling of how this might end, so I skipped ahead and read the ending. And for once, I was right. And that’s saying a lot because I’m dumb and rarely catch an ending. But I loved how this ended. I didn’t complete the book because I didn’t want to go back and read about the trial. But I still highly recommend this book. It was fun. For a debut author, I will definitely be watching for what she writes in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria books for the advanced reader copy. This was my honest review.

This was a great debut novel for this author. With vibes similar to Where The Crawdads Sing, the main character Elijah gets caught up in a murder/suicide situation and looks to prove his innocence. The language and imagery in this book was written beautifully. Although I thought the last 15% of the book felt a bit brisk, this is a perfect cozy mystery that will have romance & mystery readers wanting more from this author. The multiple timelines sometimes made it hard to follow, but once you understood how each timeline was going it wasn’t too bad.

Decades ago, Elijah Leith left the small, placid town of Point Orchards in Puget Sound to pursue a writing career that began and ended with a single novel, "Middletide." Before long, the publishing front grew quiet and Elijah was left with no other option but to return to Point Orchards and forge a life in the community where he was raised. And for a time, Elijah's life stayed quiet and unassuming.

Until, that is, the body of community doctor Erin Landry is found hanging from a tree on the outskirts of Elijah's property. In a blink, Elijah's life is upended as the search for the truth behind Erin's death unearths long-buried secrets that suggest Point Orchards' resident writer may have more to hide than anyone could have imagined.

Initially hailed as moody, atmospheric, and made for lovers of "Where the Crawdads Sing," "Middletide" is a debut mystery that, on paper, should have checked every box for me as a reader. The narrative, the Pacific Northwest setting, the premise of a small town death and a misunderstood main character who finds himself at the center of it all. Unfortunately, I found "Middletide" both poorly-paced and poorly-executed; the writing felt underdeveloped and noticeably lacked the descriptive qualities that make novels truly atmospheric.

With further revisions or developments, I think this novel could have absolutely been likened to "Crawdads" but pales so much in comparison that I can't help but heartily disagree with those reviews. The mystery itself played out neatly and predictably without a compelling emotional quality, making this one of the more forgettable books of 2024 thus far. "Middletide" goes to show that judging a book by its (admittedly beautiful) cover is still bound to lead you astray once in awhile.

The writing was engaging, the mystery kept me guessing, the description of the scenery painted beautiful pictures in my mind, however, the switching back-and-forth with all the timelines that were so close to each other was a bit confusing to me. I often had to hop back to the chapter before to get straight in my mind exactly where we were and I found it distracting. I will definitely read another book by this author, if it does not have competing timelines, because I did enjoy the story. I will give the book a generous four stars, but I cannot go five because the dates seemed too close together to be jumping back and forth. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy.

I love how this was being compared to When the Crawdads Sing, because I most definitely felt that atmospheric mysterious storyline throughout the novel. I really felt the love of the countryside and small-town living. I look forward to reading more by this author. Thank you for the opportunity to read this e-galley.

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.