St. Ulphia's Dead - by Scott Lambridis (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Disgraced medical researcher Mirs and his skeptical new supervisor Jo arrive on the remote island of St. Ulphia to investigate an outbreak of mass psychosis. The villagers claim they're being possessed-- one by one-- by a cannibalistic demon known as the Wendigo.While unraveling the villagers' strange tales, Mirs and Jo are drawn into a tangle of local politics, mysterious disappearances, and impossible contradictions. When the missing begin to reappear, the boundaries between fact and folklore become dangerously thin. As tensions rise and trust fractures, Mirs and Jo must confront the possibility that the madness around them may not be entirely imagined-- or may not be the villagers' alone.A psychological mystery laced with absurd humor, St. Ulphia's Dead explores how trauma warps truth, how isolation breeds belief, and how the most terrifying demons are the ones we conjure for ourselves.

Review Quotes

"The dead never tell the truth about themselves." St. Ulphia's Dead begins as a mystery and turns into a provocation, asking us to question our most fundamental moral assumptions. Daring, inventive, and transgressive, it is also romantic--and deeply joyful.

--Olga Zilberbourg, author of Like Water and Other Stories

A dark and richly imagined story, with some sweet surprises.

--Molly Giles, author of LIFE SPAN

A sociomedical mystery and ontological adventure bristling with satiric energy, dramatic irony, and romance. Provocative to think about, and great fun to read.

--Jennifer duBois, author of THE LAST LANGUAGE

Drawing on the traditions of science fiction, folk horror, and the literary ghost story, but with the sensibilities and lyrical style of the best magical realism, St. Ulphia's Dead is a detective story that becomes more mysterious rather than less as the investigation progresses, and the detectives gradually learn that the true mystery is within themselves.

--Bradshaw Schift, author of the New York Times Bestseller The Parliament of Mice: A Fable

Like a bowerbird, Lambridis sculpts a story from bits of cultural anthropology, murder mystery, obscure definitions and romance; all woven together with a ribbon of magical realism. Loved it so much I read it twice and both times I cried at the end.

--Jessica Nersesian, uncommonly voracious reader

One of the most sweet and surreal love stories I have had the privilege to read. An odd combination of magical realism, murder mystery and forced proximity romance. Equally odd and touching, this is peculiar romance will stay with the reader long after the strange satisfying ending.

--Jessica Nersesian, uncommonly voracious reader

Scott Lambridis brings us a provocative philosophical novel about the desire to name and thus control the mysteries of the world--and about the parallel inclination to become the ecstatic expression of human hunger.

--Carolyn Cooke, author of The Bostons, Daughters of the Revolution, and Amor and Psycho

Scott Lambridis deftly weaves together absurdity and humor with the weighty issues of life, death, and love. In this ingenious novel, nothing is as it appears, including the mere fact of existence. A delightful and wildly inventive debut!

--Laurie Ann Doyle, award-winning author of World Gone Missing: Stories

Shocking, immersive, and compulsively readable, St. Ulphia's Dead is a fascinating look at how we process our darkest experiences, and who we rely on to help us survive them.

--Martha Conway, author of We Meet Apart

The characters are all very deeply psychotic, but their psychosis highlights how society works on a set of agreements, and that we do have the power of making different agreements. Love it.

--Olga Zilberbourg, author of Like Water and Other Stories

The end gave me chills and rippled back through my experience of the book like an undertow, gripping.

--Carolyn Cooke, author of The Bostons, Daughters of the Revolution, and Amor and Psycho

Welcome to St. Ulphia! Here you will meet a cast of strange and magnetic characters circling around a compelling central mystery. Your stay on the island will be eerie, unsettling, intriguing, amusing, and ultimately heartwarming. As you learn the fantastical true secrets of the island and its inhabitants, you'll come to realize that the greatest mystery is in the connections between people, the way we understand each other, and the ways we love.

--Ben Black, AGNI editor

What a mind-blowing novel. Scott Lambridis has created an amazingly creative and cohesive bleak (but kinda hopeful?) fairy tale / horror story.

--Martha Conway, author of We Meet Apart

About the Author

Born and raised in New York, Scott earned a degree in neurobiology from the University of Virginia. He's toured the Midwest with a progressive rock band, founded an indie press and performance series, earned an MFA from San Francisco State University, tended a 40-acre olive farm, and read a book from every country of the world. He wrote St. Ulphia's Dead during his daughter's naps during a year in France, and finally settled with his wife and child in Bellingham, Washington, " the city of subdued excitement." This is his first novel.