A whip-smart coming-of-age novel about trying to be a funny woman in the male-dominated world of comedy and what happens when the most promising female star of her generation disappears.
In the 1980s, women were not supposed to be funny. But when a group of college improv comedians gets the chance to join a new late-night show, it’s Lillian Martin who stands out. The new show was called The Midnight Show and it would air every Friday night, live from New York, and change the landscape of TV and comedy forever.
But first it would change Lillian’s and her friends’ lives. The show is a runaway hit and the cast is thrown into the spotlight. Suddenly, they’re skipping the line at the city’s hottest clubs and posing on the cover of Rolling Stone. Lillian, in particular, seems destined for big things. Until one night, she vanishes, leaving behind nothing but a pair of shoes in the middle of the Williamsburg Bridge.
Forty years later, Lillian’s disappearance has never been solved. And when a budding journalist starts asking questions, she stirs up decades-old drama and secrets some would rather stay buried.
A page-turning story of fame and friendship, The Midnight Show takes readers behind the scenes of the cutthroat world of comedy in 1980s New York and asks if the rush of getting a laugh is all it’s cracked up to be.
Praise for The Midnight Show
“If Saturday Night and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo had a baby, with a mysterious death to drive the stakes through the roof–The Midnight Show is a whirlwind of relationships, emotions, and drama, along a brilliantly crafted backdrop of a fictional sketch comedy show. It will make you want to watch forty seasons of a show that doesn’t exist– after you finish the book, of course, because you won’t be able to put it down.” – Dalia Hamilton, Doylestown and Lahaska Bookshops
“In THE MIDNIGHT SHOW, Kelly and Thorne have created a wholly realized world and a compelling, propulsive narrative. I kept pausing to ask myself if I hadn’t seen some of the comedy sketches the fictional cast performs, like Potato President. The mystery of Lillian Martin’s disappearance unfolds through a kaleidoscope of unreliable narrators, each with their own agendas (some overt, some less clear), several carefully deployed twists and reveals, creating a genuinely fun and immersive story.” – Lexi Beach of the Astoria Bookshop
“I read The Midnight Show and thought it was an entertaining mix of Fabulous Mrs Maisel, Saturday Night Live and Daisy Jones and the Six. Weaving together all the stories past and present was page turning and the blurring of fact and fiction was enchanting.” – Benedict Tanter, manager of Main Point Books
“Book clubs, behold your next great read. The Midnight Show is all the things: a brilliantly researched deep dive into the world of New York City comedy in the 1980s, a meticulously plotted mystery, and a big-hearted ode to complicated friendships in all their messy glory. Readers of Taylor Jenkins Reid will fall hard for this groundbreakingly original, utterly immersive story, with its cast of characters who feel impossibly real. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll immediately want to talk about it with everyone you know. At times comedic, at times tragic, but always unflinchingly human. A spellbinding, wildly imaginative book.” – Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, USA Today bestselling author of Till Death Do Us Part and The Girls Are All So Nice Here
“The Midnight Show is an utterly addictive read — I couldn’t stop thinking about it once I started. Kelly and Thorne expertly capture the cutthroat world of late night comedy in juicy, hilarious detail, with special attention to the women at the center of it all. I loved it!”—Amy Tintera, New York Times bestselling author of Listen for the Lie
“Dark, dazzling, and impossible to put down, The Midnight Show captures the high-wire world of live TV and the secrets festering just off stage. With inventive storytelling and characters that feel achingly real, it plunges us into 1980s New York with all its glitter, gossip, grime, and glory and a mystery that refuses to stay buried—an absolute knockout.” —Chandler Baker, screenwriter and New York Times Bestselling Author of Whisper Network and The Husbands
“The Midnight Show is my kind of escapism: meticulously crafted, hilarious yet grounded, and filled with characters who are my actual friends now, I don’t care if they’re fictional. Late-night comedy fans will find this extremely delicious, but so will feminists and nostalgists and people who enjoy being wildly entertained.”—Holly Brickley, author of Deep Cuts
