RaveNew York Times Book ReviewVividly rendered ... A propulsive crime saga and the story of a family’s disintegration ... It might seem easy to assume that The Midcoast is a crime procedural, and there are certainly elements of the genre. But White is too interested in character development for the novel to become bogged down in technical detail. Every time the book veers in that direction, we’re drawn back to mysteries of people and place ... The strength of White’s novel lies in the way this loss of authenticity is mirrored in the Thatches’ transformation from blue-collar nobodies to polished, small-town big shots. Brimming with keen observation, not just of the landscape but of dialect and class distinctions and all the tiny, vital particularities that make a place real in fiction, The Midcoast is an absorbing look at small-town Maine and the thwarted dreams of a family trying to transcend it.
