Book review: ‘Midnight in Soap Lake’ weaves magic water mysteries with tales of murder

Not far into “Midnight in Soap Lake” by Matthew Sullivan, I had to stop and research if this place was real.

I was reading the novel in the middle of Kansas, as I looked out in the wheat field behind my house, which this time of year looks like a lush green lawn that stretches for miles. But Sullivan caught me from the beginning in a story of a desert town with acres of irrigated orchards and a lake with magic waters that could heal.

Having grown up in the deep green hills of the Ozarks and then the rolling plains of Kansas, I had fallen in love with the desert while living in Las Vegas and then California. I would take any opportunity I could to drive away from bright lights and into the painted pallet of peaceful desert that seemed to go on forever.

One with a lake? A natural lake? Once I learned Soap Lake was a real place, I wanted to start planning to visit there on my next trip to visit my friends in Spokane. I jumped back into the pages by the realization of an impending deadline for this review.

The promise of a scientific mystery unfolding, what lurked in the foamy depths of the waters of what sounded like a quiet town, sounded perfect for a relaxing weekend. I was more excited to be in Soap Lake than Abigail, the main character. She had moved from Denver, following her newlywed husband Eli, a limnologist (also a real thing) who had a grant to study the lake. Then he left her to pursue a six-month research opportunity in Poland. Abigail was stuck with no job and no company, in a dying, desolate desert town.

Then the first person died.

Abigail is lamenting her lonely life, walking on an old irrigation trail that brings in water from the Columbia River via the Grand Coulee Dam to create the fertile farms and orchards of this rich agricultural community. Suddenly, she sees a toddler running alone, scared.

The boy leads Abigail to a car and the scene of his murdered mother.

That all happens in the first two chapters, covering six pages.

Sullivan writes a story at a frantic pace that quickly sets the scene, provides us with a murder, and builds with layers and complexity for the next 400 pages.

It includes science mystery hinting of prehistoric organisms deep within the lake. That would have been enough to keep my attention.

Then he adds the murder of a young single woman, Esme.

Then there’s another murder, or at least the questionable death of Esme’s father, of which she is secretly a witness.

Then there’s another murder.

Then there’s Tree Top, a Boo Radley-Sasquatch-BTK boogeyman type of figure who haunts the shadows of the town and the nightmares of its children.

With the infectious charm of the decaying town and it’s 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. We even know what Esme’s third favorite color was in the fifth grade.

The story unfolds in the twin timelines that have become a staple of contemporary novels, tracing in alternating chapters between the stories of Abagail and Esme. The device can get a little wearing, used in so many stories recently. But Sullivan uses it to give us details that unveil answers to the bigger themes this story addresses.

They include challenging tradition, greed, power and misplaced values. It explores environmental truths – we don’t really know the value of unexplored natural life. In the process of protecting known wealth, we could be destroying something priceless.

It also exposes how some people are too quick to stereotype and demonize mental health and drug addiction, instead of trying to help heal the troubled.

Abigail, a psychology student who never finished school, deals with bungling small-town police, gets caught up in trying to solve Esme’s murder. “I’m just a bored newcomer to town, poking around because I’ve got nothing better to do,” she tells Daniel, Esme’s brother. “Like those true-crime weirdos in all the podcasts.”

Along the way, Abigail learns about the colorful, caring people in a community she had not been interested in getting to know. And they have some dark secrets, which included trying to protect what’s in their special lake.

Now excuse me while I go plan my weekend at Soap Lake. Although after reading this, I may have a hard time sleeping once I’m there.