A NOVEL.
Available now.
Harper Collins/Hanover Square Press.
As featured in The New York Times’ “Best Mysteries of the Month” and Parade Magazine‘s “Six Books You Should Read if You Love Stranger Things!“
With this novel I set out to write a different kind of mystery, one that is spooky & fun and brings to life an imaginary version of a real place: Soap Lake, WA. I’m thrilled to be working with a publishing team that wanted to capture that vision with a distinctive wraparound cover… a sort of narrative map, encompassing the physical book in the same way that the place encompasses the story.
A Midnight in Soap Lake book discussion with a fabulous local store, The Fabric Patch–including a video tour of the real Soap Lake, spoilers galore, and revelations about the novel’s ending:
A spoiler-free interview with author Sharma Shields about Midnight in Soap Lake:
Shooting the breeze (& talking booze, writing, and life) with thriller writer, Carter Wilson:
A brief, spoiler-free interview on About the Authors for TUBI TV:
A lake with mysterious properties. A town haunted by urban legend. Two women whose lives intersect in terrifying ways. Welcome to Soap Lake, a town to rival Twin Peaks and Stephen King’s Castle Rock.
“Midnight in Soap Lake made me fall in love with reading all over again! It’s everything I adore in books: a tangled mystery, rich characters, a terrifying villain, and a strange setting, in which everything harbours a secret. I’ll be handing copies of this one to my friends for years!”
–Stuart Turton, bestselling author of THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD and THE 7½ DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE
“Midnight in Soap Lake hooked me from page one! This twisty, smart thriller is brimming with complex characters, a page-turning plot and big questions of science, nature, marriage and murder. Matthew Sullivan expertly blends fact, fable and the evocative setting of Soap Lake in rural Washington state to create a spellbinding novel – I adored it!”
–Tara Conklin, NYT bestselling Author of COMMUNITY BOARD and THE LAST ROMANTICS
“Midnight in Soap Lake is a shimmering, shadowy tarn of a mystery, rippling with complex heroines, David Lynchian townspeople, sinister bogeymen (TreeTop is terrifying!), and a spectacularly rich storyline set in smalltown Washington State. Fans of Tana French, Jess Walter, and Kate Atkinson will absolutely love this novel.”
-Sharma Shields, Award-winning Author of THE CASSANDRA and THE SASQUATCH HUNTER’S ALMANAC
“In Matthew Sullivan’s unforgettable novel, Midnight in Soap Lake, those who live on the periphery of American life hold the very secret to its future. Amidst a mysterious mineral lake and puzzling murders, generational survival and hidden truths discovered between friends and family, Sullivan paints a deeply captivating portrait of Soap Lake, a small town teetering between its bright past and a mysterious decline happening in real time. Midnight in Soap Lake is an absolute joy to read. Soap Lake’s enchanting, rebellious characters had my heart from the first page.”
–Michael Zapata, author of THE LOST BOOK OF ADANA MOREAU
“Matthew Sullivan has crafted a brainy thriller that conjures the mischievous humor of Lynch, while imagining conspiracies more unspeakable than Chinatown. His spiderweb of a plot, deeply felt characters, and enchanting love of science will have me dreaming about Soap Lake for a long time. This is my kind of weird.”
–Nova Jacobs, author of THE LAST EQUATION OF ISAAC SEVEREY and THE STARS TURNED INSIDE OUT
“Midnight in Soap Lake is a swirling story for readers who like their dark tales moderated by compassion. Matthew Sullivan has created a town populated by a wild and motley cast—the flawed, the fallen, the damaged and deranged. The still waters of his fictional Soap Lake run deep with historical secrets, scandals and small-town tensions. And as all the colorful threads in this delightful novel converge, the tale heads for a dazzling, bittersweet conclusion.”
–Christopher J. Yates, author of BLACK CHALK and THE RABBIT CLUB
“Casts a chilling shadow… It’s this powerful sense of location that gives Midnight in Soap Lake its staying power.”
—The Seattle Times
“With the infectious charm of the decaying town and its quirky characters, ‘Midnight in Soap Lake’ is like a thrilling mixture of ‘Twin Peaks,’ ‘Northern Exposure’ and ‘Big Bang Theory.’ Sullivan’s lively writing keeps the story moving and the characters engaged on a personal level.”
—The Spokesman-Review
“Conspiracy theories and a local legend called Treetop all combine to make this a cracking read.”
—The Daily Mail (U.K.)
“…a fascinating mystery with small-town intrigue and a magical, scientific angle…”
—Booklist
“Murder, family secrets, mysterious water and a terrifying urban legend. It’s all lurking behind the small-town innocence of Soap Lake.”
—Columbia Basin Herald
When Abigail agreed to move to Soap Lake, Washington, for her husband’s research, she expected old-growth forests and craft beer, folksy neighbors and the world’s largest lava lamp. Instead, after her husband jets off to Poland for a research trip, she finds herself alone, in a town surrounded by sand and haunted by its own urban legends.
But when a young boy runs through the desert into Abigail’s arms, her life becomes entwined with his and the questions surrounding the death of his mother, Esme. In Abigail’s search for answers, she enlists the help of a recovering addict turned librarian, a grieving brother, a broken motel owner and a mentally shattered conspiracy theorist to unearth Esme’s tragic past, the town’s violent history and the secret magic locked in the lake her husband was sent there to study.
As she gets closer to the answers, past and present crimes begin to collide, and Abigail finds herself gaining the unwelcome attention of the town’s unofficial mascot, the rubber-suited orchard stalker known as TreeTop, a specter who seems to be lurking in every dark shadow and around every shady corner.
A sweeping, decade-spanning mystery brimming with quirky characters and puzzle-hunt scenarios, Midnight in Soap Lake is a modern-day Twin Peaks—a rich, expansive universe that readers will enter and never forget.
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