The Midnight Show A Novel

By: Lee Kelly, Jennifer Thorne

Published by Random House, 2026-04-07

<b>An immersive, page-turning novel about surviving as a funny woman in the male-dominated world of comedy—and what happens when the most promising female star of her generation disappears.</b><br><br><b>“An utterly addictive read.”—Amy Tintera, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>Listen for the Lie</i></b><br><br>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 <i>The Midnight Show</i> and it would air every Friday night, live from New York, and change the landscape of TV and comedy forever.<br><br>But first it would change Lillian’s and her friends’ lives. When the show becomes a runaway hit, 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 <i>Rolling Stone</i>. Lillian, in particular, seems destined for bigger things—until one winter night in Lower Manhattan, she vanishes, leaving nothing behind but questions. Was Lillian a victim of her own excesses? Was it a mugging gone wrong? Or could she have been killed by someone in her own inner circle?<br><br>Forty years later, Lillian’s disappearance has still never been solved. But when a budding journalist looking to examine Lillian’s story from a modern lens begins asking questions, she stirs up decades-old drama—as well as tightly-held secrets some comedy legends would much rather stay buried.<br><br>A propulsive story of fame and friendship told through a variety of media—compiled interviews, articles, transcripts—<i>The Midnight Show</i> 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.