By Ande Jacobson
Matthew Sullivan’s second book, Midnight in Soap Lake, was released in early 2025 and is another windy mystery. Like his first book, this is a standalone story even though its title is similar to Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore. This story takes place in a real Washington town, Soap Lake, where Sullivan and his family lived for a time. There are a few aspects of the story that are real. The town of Soap Lake is named for its lake of the same name, and it’s a special kind of lake. Soap Lake is meromictic, i.e., the water is effectively stratified so that the water at the bottom stays at the bottom, and the water higher up stays higher up in various layers. This allows for different ecosystems and the appearance of extremophiles, special microbes specifically adapted to the unique conditions of the portion of the lake they inhabit and not seen anywhere else. As in the story Sullivan weaves, various limnologists have studied the lake over the years, and it even served as a sort of healing spa for a time. A giant lava lamp also figures in both reality and fiction, and in neither telling does it come to fruition. Finally like in the story, Soap Lake is a rather isolated small town in the middle of the desert northwest in eastern Washington state. After that, reality and story part ways.
As he did in his first book, Sullivan weaves a pair of parallel storylines that start separated in time and eventually collide with some explosive consequences. Unfortunately this time the story’s progression feels a bit more contrived. Although the resolution answers the questions raised earlier in the text, it’s not as satisfying. Still, there is some excitement, mystery, murder, urban legend, and human connection as well as a good bit of science along the way which makes for an interesting if not all-consuming read.
Structurally, the book is broken into short segments alternating perspectives between Abigail who moves to town with her husband, and Esme, a young woman who grew up in Soap Lake and is brutally murdered when she returns to town after a time away. Much of Esme’s story is told in flashback until it catches up to the current time. Abigail’s story is in the present, and the two come together early in the book. It takes a good deal of flashback to make the present make sense. The mysteries involve determining both why Esme died and whodunit along with unraveling some history surrounding the lake and the town. Abigail becomes the amateur sleuth searching for answers because one morning she happens upon George, Esme’s terrified and tattered young son running from the desert.
Beyond Esme and Abigail, Abigail’s husband Eli is a presence in the story. He’s a limnologist who came to Soap Lake specifically to study the lake’s oddities, although he spends a good portion of the book across the planet in Poland. When he comes back, things really heat up, but not because he returns, he just has good timing. Sophia is Abigail’s neighbor and befriends her helping her investigate the situation. Sophia has a troubled past, but she’s working hard to get her life in order. Esme’s older brother Daniel is also an important character who Abigail befriends after she finds George. Abigail also befriends a local police officer, Abe Krunk who generally just goes by Krunk. He’s clearly in the wrong job, but he wants to do what’s right. People from Esme’s childhood abound, and being a small town, everyone knows everyone else’s business.
There’s also an urban legend in the background – Treetop – a monster who haunts the orchards on the outskirts of town and terrorizes people young and old. Esme has seen things over the years, although she’s unable to make people believe what she actually saw regarding Treetop. Although that arc is complete fiction it is an anchoring facet of the story. Being new to the town, Abigail isn’t initially familiar with the legend, but over time she comes to learn its history and unintentionally comes far closer to the powers behind the legend than is generally healthy while racing to unravel its manifestation before she becomes its victim.
Sullivan paints vivid pictures for readers despite the landscape being less than stunning. Readers come to understand the dusty, oppressively hot desert backdrop along with the unique characteristics of the lake. The fictional extensions of the science that come to light are less believable, although they are central to the conspiracy that’s uncovered through Abigail’s investigation. Along the way, she and Eli track down Eli’s predecessor who helps them understand what happened to the lake. Despite the dramatic conspiracy that’s central to the plot and the town’s primary industry, the resolution to Esme’s murder seems almost an afterthought being unconnected to the bigger controversy.
As he did in his first book, Sullivan shows how childhood trauma can color one’s entire life, this time with dangerous consequences. And also like the first book, he slowly reveals the depths of that trauma once readers have become attached to the characters involved as he explores and reveals some pathological behavior from some unexpected sources.
The problem is that Sullivan’s various arcs are more disjoint this time, and when he pulls them together in the end, it’s a bit of a force fit. Still, he leaves open the possibility to continue Abigail’s story along with a few of the friends she’s made along the way should he later choose to revisit this character set. It would be interesting to see how George turns out once he grows up.
Reference:
Midnight in Soap Lake, by Matthew Sullivan
A Good Reed Review 