Middletide by Sarah Crouch
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Sarah Crouch’s rural thriller has been likened to Delia Owen’s Where the Crawdads Sing. Since I was nowhere near a fan of Owen’s runaway bestseller, I almost passed over this ARC, but I decided to give it a try because I am drawn to stories with an indigenous element.
The author is an acclaimed marathon runner and two of the lead characters in this story similarly share a love of long distance running – and, eventually, each other!
But, alas, the path to young love is rarely smooth and the young lovers are parted by time and Elijah Leith’s “fatal flaw” – his overriding ambition to escape the constrictions of his small coastal town and make it big in the literary world.
Fast forward a decade and a half later: young Elijah is forced to return to Point Orchards, penniless and dispirited. This rambling story is told from the third person, omniscient narrator point of view, which I found a bit distancing.
There were also the usual issues with a novice publication: character development was lacking, there was a tad too much telling and not enough showing, and the plot stretched my credulity one too many times.
Those of us who have anything to do with the legal profession often avoid reading amateur court room dramas: we can’t help cringing at the blatant gaffs during those sensationalized court room scenes. Apart from the obvious ethical breach of a doctor dating her patient, the “copycat death” of Dr. Erin Landry and the reasons for her “murder” were too far fetched for me: I just wasn’t buying the motive and the actual execution of the crime. (I kind of agreed with Elijah’s literary critic on this one!!)
SPOILER ALERT:
(view spoiler)[The following highly dramatic legal gaffs spoiled the story for me:
1. Blatant Bias: The jury repeatedly broke out in accusations and condemnation of the prisoner during the trial: hardly the sign of an impartial jury – and yet the judge didn’t do much to restrain or caution the jurors to reserve judgment until all the facts of the case had been placed before them. Conversely, Elijah’s one emotional protestation in defense of his innocence during his trial was soundly rebuked by the judge, who immediately threatened him with contempt of court. My jaw just dropped at that glaring evidence of total bias on the part of the presiding judge AND the jurors.
2. The police investigation was woefully inept. It took amateurs and the legal defense team to expose the shoddy investigation, find a vital piece of evidence and save the day!
3. Finally, that “last minute evidence” introduced by the defense at the end of the trial was a major “disclosure” procedural gaff. In an actual criminal trial, both the prosecution and the defense must allow each side to review all evidence which they intend to present during the trial so that each side can conduct an informed cross examination. When newly discovered evidence is introduced during a trial, it is customary to seek leave from the judge for permission to present the new evidence, and there is inevitably an adjournment ordered to allow the opposing party time to review it for a proper rebuttal.
Oh, and one last thing, which I may have forgotten or skimmed over because I put this book aside several times: Question: how was the issue of Dr. Landry’s clean feet explained? This puzzled me at the very end. I even went back and skimmed through the sections where the similarities to Elijah’s book were mentioned, but couldn’t find an explanation for it. The “clean feet” reference in Elijah’s book and in this story made it obvious to the investigators that this was not a suicide, however….!?!?! Okay, I won’t go any further for fear of an even worse spoiler. (hide spoiler)]
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. I’m rating this a 3.5 out of 5. This was a decent first novel: characterization and credibility need a bit more work, but I applaud the author’s ingenuity. I guessed the culprit from the outset, but not the actual motive.
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