MADISON – Sarah Crouch of Madison is receiving rave reviews for her first book, “Middletide,” set in the Pacific Northwest where she grew up.

“I’ve always enjoyed writing. My earliest memories with a pen in hand were scribbling terrible poems that no one but my mother ever read,” Crouch said.

“Not until I was 25 did I wonder if I had the sort of stamina it takes to write a novel. I was delighted to discover that I did, and though that first manuscript was absolutely plotless and had no publishing future, I was hooked on the novel writing process!” Crouch said.

Today, writing is Crouch’s full-time job.

“Middletide” has been chosen as a “Book of the Month Club” pick and an “Indie Next” pick. Amazon just named Crouch’s work as one of the “Best Books of 2024.”

The book is a whodunnit but Crouch would argue that it’s, perhaps more so, a love letter to the Pacific Northwest’s deep beauty.

“Middletide” follows Elijah Leith, a failed mystery writer who returns to his hometown to find purpose in restoring the ramshackle cabin his father left behind and rekindling his relationship with his first love, Crouch said.

“But just as he is getting his feet underneath him again, his new life is turned upside down,” Crouch said. “A woman has been found dead on his property in a crime exactly like the one he wrote about in his failed novel.”

“I chose to include strong themes in this book. Love, longing, redemption and Biblical themes that I believe infused the story with an amount of heart that would not have existed otherwise,” Crouch said.

Crouch wrote most of “Middletide” before 6 a.m. “I’m an early-morning writer and an insomniac. As a busy mother of toddlers, I don’t have the luxury of writing within normal daytime hours,” she said.

Crouch majored in kinesiology at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash.

Her husband Michael is a running coach. Their children are three-year-old Charlotte and two-year-old Emerson. “Charlotte and Emerson were immensely disappointed to find out that the book mommy wrote contained no pictures,” Sarah said.

Sarah is a 4X Olympic Trials qualifier. She set personal best of 2:32 in the marathon (5:49 mile pace for 26.2 miles) at the 2018 Chicago Marathon. She finished as the first American woman to cross the line.

Sarah has a unique skill – riding a unicycle. “My dad owned an old Schwinn unicycle. One summer at age12, I decided to commit myself to learning how to ride it. Several weeks and knee scars later, I can now ride proficiently,” she said.

Sarah’s book is available anywhere books are sold (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Simon and Schuster and other sources).