The Briars  

By Sarah Crouch  

Atria Books, 2026  

Hardcover: $29.00 

Genre: Literary thriller  

Reviewed by Lisa Harrison  

The majestic environs of rural Washington state, its mountains, lakes, forests, vegetation, and fauna, form a setting integral to the plot of The Briars by Sarah Crouch, the follow-up to her highly praised debut novel Middletide.  The prologue sets the tone with rich, vivid descriptions of the mountain setting, where a father and daughter, out eagle-spotting, locate not only the majestic bird but also the recently deceased body of a young woman. The tense story that ensues plays out against this backdrop of evocative beauty and peril.   

Game warden Annie Heston transfers her job to the tiny town of Lake Lumin, Washington to start over after a betrayal lead her to end her marriage. Annie has found refuge and renewal in the woods since the death of her mother when Annie was a teenager. On her first day, she learns that she will share an office with Jake Proudy, a young law enforcement officer. A cougar is making its way toward Lake Lumin, and Annie is tasked with tracking and tagging the animal. She immediately faces an obstacle in the form of a reclusive landowner whose property is ideal for entering the area where the cougar is most likely to be found. And when Jake and Annie learn of the body found on the mountain, the complications quickly multiply. Annie’s new hometown may be small, but it harbors its share of potential suspects, including the two men Annie has grown close to during her short time in her new home. Who among her neighbors and friends can be trusted?  

The novel focuses on the murder investigation and the characters’ psychological states; the story is prefaced by the discovery of a body, and Annie is thrust almost immediately into the heart of the triple threats of  the approaching cougar, the recluse whose property features in both the animal hunt and a murder, and the presence of a killer in the small community. This makes for a fast-paced, tight narrative. A few scenes set in the small town provide glimpses of its quaint appeal, but most of the descriptive interludes concern the mountainous land where the dual hunts for cougar and murderer take place. The reader can almost smell the forest air, trample the woody paths through the undergrowth, and see the unusual light effect on the surface of the water that gives Lake Lumen its name. The briars of the title that border the lake feature as a metaphor for the tangled emotional and moral situations in which the characters find themselves.  

The protagonists are, for the most part, sympathetic. Annie is intelligent and courageous with a no-nonsense approach to her work. Jake, the town’s enforcement officer, is affable yet a consummate professional. Town recluse Daniel is the most psychologically complex: flashbacks hint at the past he tries to escape by living as a recluse: these become more informative as the story progresses. When the reader first encounters Daniel, the loner is committing an act of horrendous violence, but circumstances revealed later provide context, though not justification, for his action. Jake’s parents display a kind, familial interest in their boarder Annie. The tiny town includes a family whose wealth its members believe entitles them to certain privileges. And there is the family headed by an eccentric father on the other end of the economic spectrum. The issue of trust is a recurring theme: Annie at times doubts both Jake and Daniel. When townspeople learn that the owner of a property where a body was found has a possible criminal past, they jump to the conclusion that he must be the killer. But when the real killer is discovered, the question of who can be trusted takes on another dimension: why are we shocked or surprised when an unexpected person turns out to be a criminal?  

The Briars is an atmospheric, tense psychological thriller that fans of wilderness settings will enjoy.  

Lisa Harrison is an avid reader who spent 15 years in the book publishing industry. When not curled up with a cup of tea, a book, and a rescued cat or two (or more), she enjoys all varieties of needle crafts.