THE MIDCOAST by Adam White

4 stars

This family saga and crime thriller just vibrates with coastal town Maine authenticity and the underside of dark secrets lurking behind a taciturn Maine mindset.

Narrator Andrew, having attended Exeter and played lacrosse at Dartmouth, has returned home to teach public high school English and coach lacrosse after the cost of living in Boston proved too high. The book opens with his wife and their two young kids attending a lavish lawn party and lobster bake for the traveling Amherst women’s lacrosse team who are up in Maine to play Bowdoin. The daughter of the local couple hosting bash, the Thatches, plays on the Amherst team. Andrew worked on the docks with her dad, Ed Thatch, summers before leaving home at the Thatch family-owned lobster business. Andrew marvels at how Ed as a lobsterman has emerged the wealthiest man in town, and then recoils when stumbling across a photo in a folder that Ed has been reading in his family room showing dead bodies in a burnt car. As Andrew steps outside, police cars, sirens blaring, pull into the Thatch’s driveway.

The story then goes back in time, with Andrew playing the role of amateur investigator and writer, trying to ascertain what has happened in the time he’s been gone that lead to the Thatch’s rise in wealth and power, as well as the police arriving in full force. This includes interviewing Ed’s wife Steph and others in the town, and weaving in their first-person perspectives on the events as they unfold.

What emerges is a compelling story of young love, ambition, police corruption, drug trafficking and house burglaries: the dark underbelly of the idealized Maine life to which summer vacationers flock.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy of this book.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.