Author Maria Chen Releases Debut Thriller “Low Tide”

For immediate release

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 22, 2026 — Portland author Maria Chen released "Low Tide," her debut thriller, today through independent publisher Cedar Hollow Press. The novel is set in the small coastal town of Baymouth, Oregon, where a marine biologist returning to settle her father's estate finds a second set of human remains in a tidal pool that was catalogued 30 years earlier.

The 336-page novel is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook formats at independent bookstores and major online retailers, priced from $17.99. Cedar Hollow Press has ordered a first printing of 8,000 copies.

"I wanted to write a mystery where the coast itself is a character, because the tide decides what you find and when you find it," Chen said. "Every clue in the book arrives on the water's schedule, not the detective's."

Chen, a former newspaper reporter who covered coastal communities for nine years, spent two years researching tidal patterns, marine archaeology and Oregon estate law for the book. She has published short fiction in regional literary journals, and "Low Tide" is her first full-length novel.

Chen will appear at Powell's City of Books in Portland on Oct. 4 and at bookstores in Astoria, Eugene and Seattle later in October. Roughly 40 independent bookstores across the Pacific Northwest will stock "Low Tide" as a regional pick for October. A second Baymouth novel is under contract for 2028.

About Cedar Hollow Press

Cedar Hollow Press is an independent publisher of mystery and literary fiction founded in 2014.

Media contact

Media contact: Maria Chen, [email protected]

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