She Treads Softly: The Briars

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

The Briars

The Briars Book Cover

The Briars by Sarah Crouch
1/13/26; 320 pages
Atria Books

The Briars by Sarah Crouch is a highly recommended literary mystery melded with a romance novel.

After her marriage ends, Annie Heston accepts a job as a game warden in the small town of Lake Lumin, Washington, in the forests and mountains of the Pacific Northwest. When she arrives, Annie discovers a small office where she works closely with young local sheriff Jake Proud. Immediately there is a cougar that she needs to track and collar. This becomes more serious when a body is found near hiking trails with claws marks on it. Later it is determined that the claw marks were postmortem, the young woman was already dead.

The search is on for who killed the young hiker. While tracking the cougar, Annie meets recluse Daniel Barela who owns land near the lake. He allows her to set traps for the cougar and the two immediately feel a connection. Then the body of another young woman is found in the briars that border Daniel’s property, and Annie assists the local sheriff with the investigation.

The well-written novel immediately sets the atmosphere and setting of the plot while introducing the characters. Annie is an interesting young woman who has been deeply hurt but is very invested in her job as a game warden. Jake is depicted as an outgoing, friendly, and inexperienced. Daniel is a much more careful and guarded character, but his background, which he eventually shares with Annie, is heartbreaking. All the characters are depicted as fully realized individuals with strengths and weaknesses.

The narrative is mainly told through the point-of-view of Annie and Daniel, with some chapters through Jake's perspective. Since the town is small, Annie helps Jake with the murder investigation, While the search for the cougar is what intrigued me about the synopsis of the novel, the narrative very quickly set that plot point aside and focused on the burgeoning relationship between Annie and Daniel and the murder investigation. I'm not a great fan of romance novels. The unexpected focus on the quickly developing new relationship felt unrealistic as did the unlikely pairing of Jake and Annie investigating the murder together.

The Briars is a good choice for those who enjoy literary mysteries mixed with romance. Thanks to Atria Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.