The Midnight Show

Author duo Kelly and Thorne follow My Fair Frauds with an immersive tale of a journalist investigating the death, 40 years earlier, of a young cast member on an SNL-like comedy show. Madeline Cohen, a Rolling Stone writer and failed comedian, is certain an article about Lillian Martin’s death and the misogynistic culture surrounding The Midnight Show in the 1980s will win her a cover story. She interviews early players on TMS such as Lillian’s close friend Gina Ross and likable rising star Bobby Everett, who dated Lillian. Madeline also talks to cutthroat head writer Sally Schumacher and the show’s dictatorial creator and producer, Aaron Adler. Stories differ about what happened in the hours after Lillian’s final broadcast, and whether she died by suicide, accident, or something more sinister. Told through interviews, emails, articles, and Madeline’s notes, the novel assembles contradicting views of Lillian and her rise to fame, during which she competed for airtime with the other two women in the cast, and the story offers both an engrossing mystery and a convincing depiction of the challenges faced by women in show business in the 1980s. Fans of Daisy Jones and the Six should take a look. Agent: Katelyn Detweiler, Jill Grinberg Literary. (Apr.)