Spotlight On “Middletide” By Sarah Crouch

A gripping and intensely atmospheric debut, in Middletide by Sarah Crouch, disquiet descends on a small town after the suspicious death of a beautiful young doctor.

In This Spotlight On Middletide by Sarah Crouch

About Middletide

After the suspicious death of a beautiful young doctor, all clues point to the reclusive young man who abandoned the community in chase of big city dreams but returned for the first love he left behind. Perfect for fans of All Good People Here and Where the Crawdads Sing.

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 upon closer inspection, there seem to be clues of foul play when he discovers that the circumstances of the beautiful doctor’s death were ripped straight from the pages of Elijah Leith’s own novel.

Out of money and motivation, thirty-three-year-old Elijah returns to his empty childhood home to lick the wounds of his futile writing career. Hungry for purpose, he throws himself into restoring the ramshackle cabin his father left behind and rekindling his relationship with Nakita, the extraordinary girl from the nearby reservation whom he betrayed but was never able to forget.

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 in this scintillating literary thriller that seeks to uncover a case of love, loss, and revenge.

Source: Publisher
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN13: 9781668035092

Excerpt from Middletide

Chapter 1: August 22, 1973

Elijah chased Nakita’s laugh down the trail.

He was fast, but she was faster. He drove down the pace, almost sprinting, but all he caught were brief glimpses of long hair as it whipped around tight corners and flashed between tree trunks just ahead.

She knew this trail as well as he did now. They’d been running it all summer. It was the pretense, the excuse they’d given their parents; Nakita needed to train for her senior year of cross-country, and since Elijah had been captain of the team the year before, he would put in the miles with her over the summer before he left for college.

Every day since school let out, at the precise moment the minute hand on the kitchen clock slid from eleven-fifty-nine to noon, Nakita’s firm knock sounded on the front door. Elijah sometimes had to remind himself not to fly to the door and throw it open in excitement after the long morning hours he’d waited to see her.

After a quick drink from the hose out back, they jogged side by side past the woodshed and behind the chicken coop, where a break in the fence opened into the forest beyond. That was their starting line, the beginning of the trail loop where they’d now put in hundreds of miles of training. There were plenty of other places in Point Orchards to run, but this trail guaranteed seclusion. Out here, they were totally and completely alone.

“Which way?” she shouted over her shoulder, barely out of breath as she reached the fork in the trail. The left turn would take them back to his house by way of a mossy mile loop through the forest; the right turn was barely an animal trail, overgrown with stinging nettles that would slap and blister their shins. That one would take them toward the sound, to the secret lake they’d first visited weeks before.

“You know which way,” he called, slowing to a walk, his hands folded behind his head as he sucked in August air swollen with the sweetness of dead pine. A bright shaft of sunlight had broken through the firs overhead and illuminated Nakita’s glistening body like a spotlight. She smiled, her black eyes sparkling with the same excitement that stirred in Elijah, and took off like a rabbit down the narrow trail to the right, hopping over thick patches of nettles and Queen Anne’s lace in her bare feet.

The quick pace didn’t feel so taxing when Elijah thought about what was just a few minutes ahead of them, and he quickly pulled even with Nakita, laughing as he darted around her.

Praise for Middletide

Middletide is “[A] cunning debut…[with] vivid prose and evocative sense of place…readers will be eager to see what Crouch does next.”—Publishers Weekly

“With her first novel, Sarah Crouch has hit the ground running. In Middletide, she offers readers an emotionally compelling story of loss, vengeance, and redemption. The characters are wonderfully complex, and every scene is nested in a beautifully evoked sense of place. To top it off, she’s crafted an amazing, twisted mystery with a stunning conclusion. Sarah Crouch’s fine debut novel deserves a place on every reader’s bookshelf.”—William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author of The River We Remember

“Sarah Crouch’s brilliant debut [Middletide] is a tale of twisted love, revenge, and redemption set against the breathtaking backdrop of Puget Sound. You won’t be able to put this one down.”—Tarryn Fisher, New York Times bestselling author of Never Never

“Middletide is a riveting mystery with the beating heart of a debut author who has the respect and skill to honor the wisdom of the natural world and the complexity of human desire. In forests thick with both beauty and danger, Crouch’s novel is a love letter to the natural world, to the power of friendship, and the willingness to fight for those we love. With the suspenseful timelines drawing ever closer, the pages flying, and a twist that takes the breath, Middletide is an immersive, richly drawn, and wholly powerful experience.”—Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Book of Flora Lea

“Middletide is the rarest of novels: a blistering page-turner and a dazzling love letter to the natural world. Tautly plotted, lushly atmospheric, and gorgeously written, Crouch’s debut is stunning. Readers will feel the moss under their feet and smell the petrichor in the air, but they will never guess the twists hidden in this Pacific Northwest forest.”—Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters

“In this brilliant debut, the line between fiction and reality blurs, as a failed novelist’s murder mystery is mirrored in real life, with the author as the prime suspect. An enthralling tale of long lost love, loss, and stunning retribution. I absolutely loved it!”—Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

About Sarah Crouch, Author of Middletide

Sarah Crouch is known for her accolades in the world of athletics as a professional marathon runner. Middletide is her debut novel, and is set in the Pacific Northwest where she was raised.

You can find and follow Sarah Crouch on her website, on LinkedIn and on X.

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