Middletide is a fantastic debut from author Sarah Crouch. The Pacific Northwest setting is perfect for this story. The author does a fantastic job of setting the scene and allowing you to feel like you are in the cabin on a lake living off the land with the main character Elijah. I loved the atmospheric elements of nature. This book is a mix of mystery, drama, romance, revenge, and ends with a courtroom trial. Although this book is under 300 pages, it reads quickly due to the tension being revealed as well as the past/present timelines. The ending was unexpected and my only disappointment was that it wrapped up very quickly. If you enjoyed reading “Where the crawdads sing” or books by authors William Kent Krueger and Peter Heller, then you’ll enjoy Middletide by Sarah Crouch!

This was a nice and easy to follow mystery/thriller about the death of a doctor, a man who may or may not be guilty that wrote a book exactly like how the person died, some slight romance interwoven, and a small town community shaken by the crime. I like that we get all the answers in the end and how it wraps up for the main characters. I didn’t really connect to them in particular but did like the story told about them.
My rating for this is little lower just because it wasn’t very exiting and thrilling. It had more of a low key mystery vibe to it that made it easy to read without paying too much attention to the details. This is one of those mysteries that you kind of piece together the twist as you uncover more clues. I did really appreciate the past and present timelines that made it fun as a reader to go back and see the clues laid out building up to the present time, post death of the doctor. I would still recommend this book if it interests you or is your type of vibe that you like mysteries that aren’t scary, but overall a more average read for me.

I received a digital copy from NetGalley & the author of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Sarah Crouch for this novel!

I absolutely loved this one. Taking place in the Pacific Northwest, this one reminded me of "Where the Crawdad's Sing" with mystery and love. Highly recommend this one.

Middletide was a murder mystery that kept me going back and forth throughout. I really enjoyed the time hopping through the years to put the truth together. The characters were all very likable.. until they weren’t.

Loved this book! It was a quick read that kept me interested from the beginning! Finished in one sitting. Sarah Crouch knocked it out of the park with this book! Elijah had to do everything he needed to do to prove his innocence of the murder of the young doctor.

Well I want to start by saying I loved the characters, I really loved the setting, and I think crouch has a beautiful writing style. Unfortunately this book was "Middletide" literally. Like Elijah's Middletide the whole murder thing just didn't work. This books would have been Elijah's second book. There was so much potential for this to be a great literary fiction, coming of age, redemption story. The parts about Elijah coming home finding himself finding his family again earning back his love with Nakita, all of that was enough. But then unfortunately it felt like there was this outlandish deranged murder trial just dropped into the middle of a beautiful life story and it didn't work, it didn't make sense, it didn't mesh.
I also didn't like the made up tribe. The name didn't even sound right. I think an unnamed tribe or a real tribe name from the area would have served better.

I’ll start with what I liked. The setting and the imagery in the PNW was well done. While reading it I felt like I was part of the environment.

I didn’t love the made up indigenous tribe. It felt unnecessary and tokenizing. I also didn’t like how the case played out and how everything was neatly cleaned up. It felt a little too convenient.

Lovely writing. Great story. Loved the setting, too. An easy read that keeps you wanting more!

4 stars

Gotta love a book about a book/author!

This one had a lot that I love in - small town, a recluse with a story, a mysterious death. This one was a bit of a slow burn, but burned enough that I was invested.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a good mystery--not a fast paced thriller but a slow burn mystery about a man returning home and finding himself accused of murder. Better than I expected.

So atmospheric this one. I loved the voice, the mystery, the character development, the small-town mystery. A gem of a novel.

This was a little slow to start, but once it did, I was thoroughly gripped. The back and forth of the timelines I think is what made it harder to get into, but ultimately, it shaped the story.

A beautiful young doctor is found hanging from a tree on the property of the town’s prodigal son and author, Elijah Leith. And while it seems like an apparent suicide there are enough inconsistencies to rule it a homicide. Not only a homicide, but one that follows the plot of Elijah’s book perfectly, making him a prime suspect. As the small town police start digging into the evidence, Elijah has to figure out how to prove his innocence when no one seems to believe him.

A page turner and an excellent debut.

Middletide by Sarah Crouch was a slow burn small town mystery. It was slow to start but did pick up about halfway through. Lots of loss and grief in this character driven story with some fun twists. I look forward to seeing more from this author in the future.

Should all unsuccessful authors be scared? Especially about where their few sold books went or what those "readers" got out of their books. Even those these authors failed to hit NYT best sellers list, should they stick to what they do instead of looking for other jobs (to buy food and get shelter, etc.)? Because both of those decisions could get you in a trouble that you couldn't dream of.

Elijah was going to make it big in CA. He was going to be an author and never come back to the small town he was born in. His only heartache would be leaving this beautiful girl behind. But life... Years later, Elijah came back to the very cabin his father was hiding after his wife's passing. Elijah was not the author he dreamt to be. Only few books were sold and he was back to square one. Even though he had traumas in that place, he still had few friends to keep him in the society. However when a doctor was found dead hanging off of a tree in his property, a story that should be turned into a novel started to unfold.

I didn't want to put this book down. Although I had my guesses (which turned out to be correct), I was still surprised the way things turned out. Denial and depression could make people unspeakable and unimaginable things. I was sad that one of the characters wasted all their potential and future to set up an elaborate plan instead of finding peace.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance audiobook copy. This one was a struggle for me to get through I was just bored from the beginning

Favorite parts:

+ I loved the description of the setting. I saw many reviews that compared it to "Where the Crawdads Sing", and although the settings take place in different geographic locations, the descriptions of the settings were very similar. I also especially loved them, being from the PNW myself.

+ The mystery/romance was interesting and engaging. I wanted to keep reading and was invested in the characters and their outcome.

Parts I could've done without:

- I thought it was strange she made up the Indigenous tribe. It almost seemed lazy and like she didn't want to put effort into researching one of the hundreds of existing tribes that do exist.

Overall: I enjoyed reading this and it would have been a solid 4 star read without the imagined Indigenous tribe. I am interested in reading future works by Crouch, because I do think she is a talented author despite that questionable choice.

Sometimes format matters. I started 𝐌𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐝𝐞 a couple of months ago and set it aside. I was enjoying it, but not feeling connected. When @librofm offered it as an ALCI decided to try it again. It was the right choice because the audio format totally worked for me.

Middletide is a genre defying debut. It's set in the Pacific Northwest and is a mix of mystery, drama, romance, and revenge. The atmospheric elements of nature are elevated in the audio format. The story's tight tension is unveiled at a steady pace in its 288 pages.

Middletide was an excellent read. Crouch does a great job with the atmospheric details of the creepy setting. I flew threw it!

This was a beautifully written, atmospheric read. The beginning was a creepy setting and the characters were all easy to connect with. I couldn’t put this one down.

The premise of this one sounded so interesting to me but sadly it was a bit of a miss for me. The book was simultaneously a little boring but also was confusing because there was so much going on and it was hard to keep up especially with the two timelines.

I also really didn’t like the fact the author created an indigenous group. As far as I can tell the author is white so it gave me the ick that she created a new group. Especially because she made the Nalira’s (the main love interest who was indigenous) the leader of the indigenous group and a christian preacher. I just felt like it was a weird mix.

The ending did bring the story together well and increased my rating slightly though it seemed like some of the court aspects weren’t super well researched.

I wasn’t super excited to keep picking it up but wanted to finish it to see how it ended. I ended up just increasing my audiobook speed so I could get through it a little faster.

While this wasn’t my favorite debut I do feel like it had potential and I would consider picking up future books by Crouch.