The opening chapters of Sarah Crouch’s debut novel, MIDDLETIDE, are a series of quick back-and-forth checks that put together the chronology of her story.

The sweetness of a teenage romance begins in 1977 but is put on hold when the young man, Elijah Leith, leaves to attend college in San Francisco, discover himself and write his version of The Great American Novel. He does not return to Point Orchard as promised in 1981; in fact, he doesn’t come back until 1988. The thread that ties the novel together is a dark mystery beginning to unfold in 1994: the town’s beautiful young doctor is found hanging from a pine tree in a secret cove adjacent to Elijah’s land.

"MIDDLETIDE has the smart surprises of a good mystery, and I loved the small, insignificant-at-the-time details that Crouch uses to create tension and discovery.... There are too few real page-turners in our world of books. This is one of them."

The novel’s setting is real enough, near Puget Sound, but the Sacred Mountain Reservation --- flat farmland ringed with evergreens and lying at the base of the eastern mountains --- is fictional. The Squalomah tribe is likewise imagined, but Crouch’s creations feel authentic. The book's heroine, Nakita Mills, is a Native American girl, and her loyalty to her people, their traditions and herself is strong.

Elijah returns to the small home where his mother and father lived. His dad’s drinking had escalated and killed him after his mom’s death years earlier. Elijah has few choices at 33 years old. He cannot afford to stay in the city, and his flirtation with the writing world had broken his heart. This homestead offers security. He curiously examines the land and the rooms, heavy with dust and abandonment, startled by what has remained. That first evening home, it grows chilly. In remembered movements, he begins to light the wood stove with logs from the piles that he and his dad used to stack with precision. He needs paper to crumple for the fire to catch and, in a flash of inspiration and defeat, tears out the pages of his book, the sole one he has written, feeding his last copy of Middletide into the stove.

The story moves back to the apparent suicide of the young doctor, which is soon determined to be murder. The local sheriff and his deputy are searching for a suspect, a sustainable motive, and the means to carry out an isolated, complicated hanging. The men have help. The suicide-but-really-murder scenario is nearly identical to the plot of Elijah’s book, complete with bloody boots hidden in a rotting log. A copy of Middletide is mysteriously delivered to the police station.

We settle into the lush setting of the deep forests, hearty vegetable gardens, and impossible varieties of berry bushes and fruit trees of Point Orchard. We understand that MIDDLETIDE is a writer’s novel. Elijah has the perseverance and insights that a writer needs. With a newfangled computer on his kitchen table, he finds that he has new things to say.

MIDDLETIDE has the smart surprises of a good mystery, and I loved the small, insignificant-at-the-time details that Crouch uses to create tension and discovery. And while the phrase “comes to life” may be overused, the supporting cast does just that. The Rev. Sam Miller, with a defining reference to Leah and Rachel in the Old Testament, and Chitto Begay, owner of the local garage, shape Elijah’s choices and responses to his world. There are too few real page-turners in our world of books. This is one of them.