In Midnight in Soap Lake, Matthew J. Sullivan returns with a masterful psychological mystery that simmers with tension, grief, and the surreal pull of myth. Set in a fictional Washington town whose name is as peculiar as its history, the novel examines how places absorb pain and how the people within them either deny, distort, or become its legacy.
Sullivan, best known for Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, has a unique literary fingerprint—one that blends quiet observation with emotional excavation. If his debut brought us into the mind of a haunted bookshop employee, Midnight in Soap Lake widens the lens. Here, the mystery is communal, sprawling, and spiritually tinged. The result is a slow-burning, deeply human novel that merges suspense with sorrow and myth with memory.
Story Overview: A Stranger, a Child, and a Town Built on Secrets
The story begins with Abigail, a woman who relocates to Soap Lake with her husband—an academic researcher chasing mystical properties of the lake itself. Shortly after their arrival, her husband is called away on a research trip to Poland, leaving Abigail alone in an unfamiliar, vaguely unsettling town surrounded by dust, silence, and rumors.
Everything changes the day a barefoot child, Tommy, runs into Abigail’s arms from across the barren landscape. His mother, Esme, has been found dead. But this is not a straightforward case. The more Abigail learns about Esme’s past, the stranger the town begins to feel—and the more tightly she clings to the boy’s fate.
With the help of unlikely allies—a librarian with a dark past, a motel owner losing grip on reality, and a brother grieving a sister who never fit in—Abigail uncovers Esme’s hidden life, the violent past of Soap Lake, and the chilling legend of TreeTop, a figure who may or may not exist but certainly watches from the shadows.
Character Study: People on the Edge of Their Own Lives
Sullivan’s characters feel like people you’d meet in a dream—familiar yet slightly off-kilter, kind but haunted. Each one is grappling with something invisible yet weighty. Their wounds are psychological, spiritual, and often inherited.
Key Characters Reimagined:
Abigail – Alone, grieving a distant marriage and now mothering a child who isn’t hers, Abigail’s slow transformation is as vital as the murder mystery. She is no detective, just a woman trying to make meaning from chaos.
Tommy – The boy at the heart of the mystery, Tommy is never reduced to a plot device. He embodies vulnerability, but also resilience. His silence speaks to the failure of adults to protect.
Esme – Though dead, Esme is the soul of this story. A woman defined by contradiction—free-spirited yet secretive, warm yet troubled—her life slowly unfolds in fragments, giving her posthumous dignity and dimension.
Gretchen – As a recovering addict and community librarian, Gretchen adds emotional gravitas. She bridges Abigail to the town’s memory and reveals that knowledge and forgiveness are often intertwined.
TreeTop – Possibly a man, maybe a monster, or maybe the town’s personification of guilt. TreeTop is what happens when communities turn fear into fiction—and fiction into religion.
Sullivan ensures none of these characters exist in isolation. Their arcs intersect, overlap, and echo—like voices bouncing off water.
Literary Mechanics: Atmosphere as Plot Device
The novel doesn’t sprint; it lingers. Sullivan’s structure favors introspection over action, which may challenge some readers but deeply rewards those who listen closely. Scenes are sculpted, not rushed. Dialogues feel real. Silence feels loaded. And the lake itself often seems to think.
The timeline slips between past and present, memory and myth, fact and belief. Like the sediment at the bottom of Soap Lake, the truth remains buried until something disturbs the water. And Abigail, unknowingly at first, becomes that disturbance.
Themes That Resonate: The Underlying Current
What makes Midnight in Soap Lake more than a mystery is its emotional and philosophical richness. It’s a book that asks big questions quietly and answers them with aching honesty.
Central Themes:
Maternal Identity: At its core, this is a book about what it means to be a mother—and how that role stretches, breaks, and reforms under pressure. Abigail and Esme represent two paths, neither perfect, both painful.
The Persistence of Trauma: Trauma is passed down in Soap Lake like family recipes—sometimes inherited, sometimes inflicted. Every character carries wounds that never quite heal, and the town itself bears the weight of collective denial.
Myth as Memory: TreeTop, the lake, the stories told at the diner—all form a tapestry of half-truths and community lore. These myths are not escapism; they’re coping mechanisms for a town that can’t bear to speak plainly.
Loneliness and Redemption: Loneliness here is not just emotional—it’s topographical. Wide spaces, abandoned motels, empty fields—all echo the characters’ isolation. Yet small acts of connection—between Abigail and Tommy, Gretchen and her books—hint at hope.
Narrative Voice and Prose Style
Sullivan writes with restraint. He doesn’t chase high drama; he builds it slowly, through interiority, detail, and dread. His prose is precise and metaphorically rich. The mood is what sticks—eerie yet tender, like watching fog roll across a landscape you thought you knew.
Readers familiar with literary suspense authors like Julia Heaberlin, Ruth Ware, or Emily St. John Mandel will feel at home in Sullivan’s language. His paragraphs sometimes read like short poems, and he knows exactly when to leave something unsaid.
What It Gets Right
Atmosphere Overdrive – The town becomes a character. You feel it breathe, creak, and whisper.
Emotionally Grounded Mystery – The crime matters, but the emotional undercurrents matter more.
Well-Drawn Supporting Cast – Even minor characters are vivid, like pages torn from unfinished novels.
Subtle Supernatural Hints – Never heavy-handed, the mystical elements stay ambiguous, enhancing rather than explaining the horror.
Strong Ethical Core – The story questions justice, guilt, and redemption without moralizing.
Where It Could Improve
Slower Middle – The pacing slackens around the 60% mark. A tighter edit might have helped maintain momentum.
Loose Ends – Some side stories (particularly involving motel lore and past crimes) feel unresolved or hastily concluded.
Abstract Resolution – Readers who prefer a clean wrap-up may find the ending unsatisfyingly elliptical.
Recommended For…
Midnight in Soap Lake will appeal to readers who enjoy:
Mysteries with a literary and psychological bent
Small-town noir with surreal edges
Slow-burn suspense that focuses on character and mood
Stories of trauma, recovery, and unconventional families
It’s not for fans of formulaic thrillers or those seeking rapid plot progression. But for readers who want to sit with ambiguity and let a story unfold like layers of sediment disturbed at the bottom of a lake—this novel delivers.
If You Enjoyed This, Try…
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
The Shadow House by Anna Downes
The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan
These novels share Sullivan’s talent for turning everyday settings into places of quiet terror and emotional complexity.
Final Thoughts: Still Waters Run Deep
Midnight in Soap Lake is not a puzzle to be solved—it’s a feeling to be absorbed. Its strength lies in its atmosphere, its emotional honesty, and its commitment to complexity. Sullivan isn’t writing for the impatient reader. He’s writing for the ones who enjoy staring into the dark, listening for echoes, and wondering what stories the water keeps.
This is a book that understands silence, that respects slowness, and that rewards the reader willing to listen not just to what’s said—but to what isn’t.