The Secret History of Twin Peaks: A Novel

Diane, it is 8:16 PM, Central Daylight Time, October 22, 2016. I am holding in my hand a green hardback book wrapped around a half dustcover (itself adorned with the most wonderful trees you can imagine) titled "The Secret History of Twin Peaks: A Novel by Mark Frost." Its construction is solid and sturdy, and its price reasonable, especially at the substantial discount Amazon was gracious enough to provide. All in all, this is a solid book, reasonably priced. I'm now opening the book. It's contents, Diane, are a marvel. This is a few streets down from the Hardy Boys--maybe a few counties. Each and every page stands out: an 18th Century handwritten expedition report here, a government document there, transcripts, newspaper clippings, pictures, and footnotes. Footnotes written by FBI Special Agent T____ P_____, who seems to be trying to make heads or tails of this masterwork of an enigma along with me. After spending quite a bit of time with this strange book, I've gotten a lot of insight into the history and events of this fascinating town, and of the even more bizarre collection of states we humbly call the US. Mysteries and secrets abound both in and out of Twin Peaks, some considerably and shockingly real, others enjoyably peppered with fiction, all of it, to the last word, magnificently well written and believable. I've also learned certain details containing loose ends left untied 25 years ago after the untimely cancellation of the television series, Twin Peaks. Some unresolved plotlines, I can say with confidence, are duly resolved as of the publication of this work. This does not mean, however, that the answers are all out in the open; nor does it mean that this work doesn't sow several questions in its own right. This is not a book, Diane, to take at face value. While it is enjoyable enough for casual reading and keeping up with old familiar characters, there seems to be something beneath the surface. Strange and obvious inconsistencies pepper the work. Inconsistencies that stand out over the care and research otherwise blended into its construction. We may have an unreliable narrator on our hands, or maybe even something much much more. I've taken a look at a live interview with author Mark Frost, who said the following in response to such changes: "In life you have to learn to live with paradoxes, and sometimes what we think we know isn't what actually happened. Sometimes what we think really happened isn't something that we actually know. And sometimes things will be revealed further down the line that will help clarify all those things." In conclusion this is a magnificent insight to the world of Twin Peaks, a fine bridge between the 1991 TV series and its 2017 resurgence, an entertaining look into the surreal side of American history, a solid study of the difference between mysteries and secrets, and a damned fine mystery in its own right. This is gonna need a few pots of coffee, Diane, and at least another reread.

This is not a novel in the traditional fashion. What it is, is a collection of letters, documents, newspaper clippings, and photos. These start way back with Lewis and Clark and go all the way forward to now. It’s a bit slow in the first 100 pages but after that the collection hits its stride. It becomes suggestive, gloomy, and quirky; much like the series. The attention to detail is really nice. The footnotes are distracting, but they do add to the overall body and contain their own add-in of data. The cover is beautiful, and I am surprised the price wasn’t higher. The cover is highly embossed and gives it the feel of a book much older than it is. It is apparent that pride was taken in making this, and it is something that Mark Frost should be proud to have his name on. Does it answer questions? Heck yes it does. Sometimes those answers are subtle; a single line in a document. Other times it’s a headline about a bank explosion that you can’t un see. DON’T flip through it casually if you want to read it the whole way through. Yes, the answers are there for a whole lot of things you may have wondered, and a lot of things that may not have dawned on you no matter how many times you have read it. Are there any bad points? Maybe. It depends on what you want. If you want something that tells the story in a way that is very fitting of the Twin Peaks world, this is the book for you. If you want a novel to just read through, you may be disappointed. The one bad thing for me was about every 50 pages there would be something incorrect for the time period, like cellophane on a 1947 pack of cigarettes, or a 1800s’ era person using a bit of modern slang. This isn’t an issue once it gets to the 1960s’ and if you are not big into history it’s quite possible that you wouldn’t even notice. It just broke the continuity for me which was a bummer since I was trying to get back into the Twin Peaks feel. A lot of material produced for a TV show or movie tend to be filler to make more dollars from a franchise. This book was written for fans, by folks who care about the fans and the Twin Peaks world. It answers a lot of questions, but still leaves enough unsaid that season three will be very welcome. I think this book does exactly what Mark Frost said it would, bridge the gap between the seasons.

I didn’t quite know what to expect from this book, although having seen the brilliantly produced teaser/trailer online a couple of months ago, I have to say that it fully set the scene! In this book, you as the reader, get to follow the investigation of FBI Agent TP (probably deliberate initials there) as she works her way through a discovered dossier of primary documents, annotated by a mysterious Archivist. Her mandate is to discover the identity of the Archivist and to determine why the dossier was compiled. The documents range through Washington’s history from diary excerpts from Lewis and Clark, through to FBI classified documents relating to Roswell, UFOs and so on until the time the television series took place. I can’t say I know a lot about some of the real-life events discussed in the earlier parts of the book, but from the little I do know, an incredible amount of research has gone into integrating these real-life mysteries and conspiracies with the history of Twin Peaks. L. Ron Hubbard, Alistair Crowley, Richard Nixon and numerous other shady and renowned characters make an appearance. And the manner of doing this through the ploy of uncovered top-secret documents gives the whole thing a realistic, edge-of-your-seat and ominous undercurrent, just like the TV series. You’re not just reading a narrative, you’re alert and scanning for clues along with the agent. If you want any conclusions, you have to make them yourself! You’ll figure out the identity of the mysterious Archivist quickly enough, but that doesn’t detract from enjoyment of the book. There is still so much mystery to be enjoyed as you shadow TP’s investigation of the dossier that tries to explain the origin and nature of the supernatural, dark forces that pervaded Twin Peaks. I’ve only just finished reading it and my mind is still a bit boggling. It raises more questions than it answers (a lot of cheeky clues – red herrings maybe – thrown in) and assuredly sets the tone for what the new series of Twin Peaks will have to offer. It doesn’t go much beyond the events of the last episode although we do find out what happened to some characters in the immediate aftermath. Someone, for instance, survived the bomb blast at the bank. We also are given hints that some things were not as they seemed, for instance, the death of the Mayor’s brother may have been deliberate. Characters that were minor and seemed a bit thrown-in to fill in time in the series, here become significant players with complex back-stories. And while it does re-cap much of what happened in the series and film, there were some interesting omissions – some major characters not even mentioned, at least one main character’s death not mentioned-- which may or may not be significant. We also don’t find out what happened to Agent Cooper since a day after his visit to the Back Lodge. I had three problems with this book which prevented me from giving it 5 stars. Firstly, as documents in the dossier are presented as images, they were unreadable on my Kindle. I had to switch to my iPad in order to read this book and then it was fine although I had to squint at some of the earlier hand-written, cursive documents. If you are considering this book, I would recommend getting a hard copy. Secondly, there are some anomalies in the history of characters that don’t match up with the TV show – how Ed & Nadine, and Hank and Norma, ended up getting married for instance; and in this book Norma’s mother dies before the events of the TV series. The reason for Audrey’s civil disobedience in the last episode of the TV series is different. Here, Hank knew the Reneau brothers much earlier. Perhaps there is a reason for this. After all, we only know what we know because certain characters told us in the series, and there’s always the possibility of the “unreliable narrator”. But otherwise, it just seems a bit sloppy. Thirdly, there were a few errors in my kindle version. Paragraphs repeating themselves. In one case a whole page was duplicated. All in all, this a great read if you are a Twin Peaks fan and a great teaser to the upcoming new series. The ending to this book occurs just a day after the events of the last episode of the series. And like the last words of that episode, the last words of this book will leave you stunned, and desperate to know what happens next. I only hope the upcoming TV series can live up to the expectation!

Gives Twin Peaks fans exactly what they want, and even provides intriguing material for those not familiar with the show's lore. Some people have brought up legitimate concerns about inconsistencies with the show and/or unnecessarily tying it to other genres. Frost has indicated that the supposed inconsistencies will all be accounted for in the show (perhaps alternative time-lines, different accounting of events?). I was also leery of the tie-in with UFO accounts, but Frost handled this masterfully. No worries...this all expands the Twin Peaks universe and adds mystery to the mysterious elements of the locale and the Black Lodge (something I didn't think could be done). All of the previous books, seasons and Fire Walk with Me were integrated together very nicely (looking forward to seeing Harry Dean Stanton in the new season!). This is a great precursor to the Showtime premiere (starting 5/21/17!), and it's worth the price to read Jacoby's case files alone (what a treat!). Lots of things to speculate about...especially what Cooper/Bob's been up to this whole time (probably nothing good). Did anyone else think "Denver Bob" was Bob?

To get this out of the way first, the source book is a fantastic expansion of the mysteries of Twin Peaks. It weaves together a few hundred years worth of America's factual events, dubious accounts of strange phenomena, and conspiracy theories, with a thread of fiction to tie it all together and to Twin Peaks' mythology. It is mostly presented as a dossier with a series of source documents and photos with comments in the margins, but it tells a flowing story. Now for the audio: The narration is fantastic, with some particularly enjoyable readings by members of the show's cast. However, not all characters are relevant to this expanded mythology and so are not included, and a few who are part of it are played by deceased or retired cast members and so some substitutions are made. Nonetheless the audio version it is thoroughly enjoyable. While you lose the visual elements of way the book is presented (there is a CD of PDFs but if you're listening you probably aren't always going to be looking at this), the narrations make up for this in personality.

Beautiful book, perfect as a “coffee table” book. Great for fans and we definitely have enjoyed it.

I just finished reading The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost. This is a special occasion because it's the first new Twin Peaks story since 1992 and what a mind bender it is. The story covers such a wide range of elements, stitching up a wonderful and strange history of the town and its residents, but that's only what's on the surface. There are deep, deep mysteries going on in this narrative. My feelings about this book are evolving as I continue to think on it. The more I think about it, the more I am coming to realize that this is a deviously constructed puzzle laid out for Twin Peaks fans and readers to play detective with. Without giving away any spoilers, like the show, everything about this book is not what it seems and it invites the reader to dig into its secrets to glean what's really going on in the narrative. Who really wrote the materials in the book and what are they trying to misdirect the reader from learning? What is the difference between a secret and a mystery and what does that mean for the deeper truths that the book seems to be hinting at? This book calls for careful reading, for sure. I found it immensely entertaining and engaging, especially given what the answers to its many questions may mean for the upcoming third season of Twin Peaks.

A fairly interesting read that's nevertheless tough to enjoy on a Kindle (or comparable ereader) because of its reliance on images in place of text. A good chunk of this book is made up of fake primary source documents, many of them handwritten, and unfortunately they're just plain hard to read on an e-ink display. Most of them weren't created to fit the dimensions of a kindle's screen and take up maybe half of the screen as a result, and the image quality also varies from image to image. A lot of them end up as blurry dark grey text on a light grey background. Even zooming in doesn't really help, because the source images just aren't that high-res. I think if they updated this with higher-resolution imagery for the ebook, it would go a long way towards making it more readable. As it stands, I just don't think they should be selling this book in this format!

A aparência, qualidade e acabamento do livro são excepcionais. Linda capa dura, páginas grossas, além do conteúdo, que pra quem é fã, é muito interessante e te dá muita profundidade na história de Twin Peaks.

Never written a review before and never had any intention to, but I am impelled to do so now in light of the negative reviews thus far submitted for this book, which I feel are wholly unjustified. Let me be clear, I am a HUGE Twin Peaks fan. In fact, I almost don't feel ridiculous in saying that each episode, for me, is almost like a rosary bead, helping me keep count of the number of Hail Marys said, as 'the mysteries [of Twin Peaks]' are contemplated... almost. NEVERTHELESS! I am not in any way the kind of mug who would gobble (like a turkey in the corn) up any and every piece of franchisey cash-in ephemera related to something they love. That being said, let me now proceed to saying that, so far (104 pages in, I think), this book is AMAZING!! It begins with a memorandum from Gordon Cole, briefing an unnamed agent on a new murder (or 'crime scene' I think it says actually... I assume murder...) that occurred THIS YEAR IN JULY 2016. Said memorandum explains that said crime scene may relate to a spate of murders which occurred in 1991, in Twin Peaks, and that said agent is tasked with going through this trove of evidence which has been recovered, and reporting back with findings/conclusions. The book then the proceeds, page by page, by presenting all of this 'evidence' which has been recovered - this, in and of itself, for me, is an incredible way of telling a story (in fact almost 'genre-inventing/busting', unless it's been done before I guess) - thumbing your way through old newspaper clippings, photographs, lost letters, and so on, all with annotations from the unnamed agent to whom it is addressed, and all relating to (and enriching in the process) the history of Twin Peaks, is THRILLING. To give you one example, without giving too much away (avoid the following regardless if you want to go in blind, and if you're already sold at this point then you should do so!), there are letters in this book, supposedly recovered and written by certain members of what you might call, 'the pioneers' or 'the pilgrims' of early American history, in which the authors talk about meeting Native Americans for the first time, in the Pacific North West... and one of these Native Americans, it is explained, gives the explorer/pioneer/pilgrim a RING(!!)... and when asked where they got the ring, they say they got it from 'white people', BUT...... ACCORDING TO ALL RECORDS, THESE EXPLORERS WERE SUPPOSEDLY THE FIRST WHITE PEOPLE TO REACH THIS FAR INTO THE INTERIOR OF NORTH-WEST AMERICA!! Cue goose-bumps. Another fascinating thing that's happening in this book is that the pioneers mentioned are actually real people/pioneers... and one in particular, in real life, has a 6 day ish gap in their actual published memoirs/journals, which historians actually speculate upon, in real life, like 'what happened?'....... and this book purports to have recovered these missing pages of the journal, and these purported pages purport to document said pioneers going to a strange place......... in other words, it seems the author has taken real-life gaps in historical people's lives and histories, and attempted to weave the Twin Peaks mythology right into the heart of American history. THAT BLOWS MY MIND. Who knows, maybe the next 250ish pages won't amount to anything wholly incredible and/or altogether cohesive... but I'm already a satisfied customer at this point(!), and all signs so far indicate that I'll love the rest! You'll read about Mayor Milford as a cub scout, Owl Cave will be mentioned, even Roswell is mentioned... and who knows what's to come! This book presents the mysteries of Twin Peaks as something that both predates the original series, and, rightly I think, something that will likely outlast season 3. It grounds the Lynchian abstractions that make Twin Peaks the (more than just a) great show it is, in a degree of context and historical detail, WITHOUT in any way reducing Twin Peaks's mysteries to 'this explanation' or 'that'. To me, much like the best 'non-Lynch episodes' of Twin Peaks do, this book serves as a sort of reaction to, and reflection on, the abstract and surreal aspects of Twin Peaks that usually present themselves in the Lynch episodes - like a WHOA WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED LAST EPISODE/SEASON - it aims to make more comprehensible, and more tangible - without being reductionist (crucially) - the perennial and inexplicable mysteries at the heart of Twin Peaks, and in doing so it creates a new sort of 'platform' of new material which Lynch can, in future episodes, depart from, and twist or mess with or whatever, taking Twin Peaks into newer and even more strange territories! In other words, this book sets the stage for season 3, and as such you should be DEVOURING it, in preparation for season 3! Make the purchase!

Qué maravilla. Qué edición tan cuidada. Está llena de secretos y de detalles. Es un lujo si te gusta Twin Peaks y te gusta saber cómo se fragua una serie. Ideal como regalo.

Inizialmente mi aspettavo un testo che trattasse le sorti degli abitanti della tenebrosa Twin Peaks, raccontandone gli ultimi venticinque anni. In realtà vi è poco di tutto ciò, ma il libro risulta comunque estremamente interessante, poiché contribuisce a delineare il background di alcuni personaggi secondari, e ad aprire squarci molto, molto interessanti, relativi ad altre figure. Utile per conoscere un po' meglio la città di Twin Peaks dall'interno, anche se comunque molti aspetti vengono del tutto (consapevolmente) tralasciati, poiché destinati ad essere ripresi, e più esaustivamente analizzati, nel nuovo libro, appena pubblicato (e che ho immediatamente acquistato, questa volta in lingua italiana). I testi, in inglese, sono scorrevoli e piacevoli, e la qualità del libro è sorprendentemente elevata. Splendida la scelta grafica, con mappe, foto, ritagli di giornale e lettere, che rendono effettivamente l'idea di un dossier compilato a mano. Un libro che consiglio a tutti gli amanti della serie. Un libro che non darà la rispose cercate - su questo è meglio esser chiari - ma aiuterà a tratteggiare ancor meglio il contesto in cui si sono svolti i fatti raccontati nella serie! Il mondo di Twin Peaks è, semplicemente, meraviglioso!

I have just finished the Secret History of Twin Peaks during my lunch break and I want more! I devoured this book like BOB and his fellow anomalies from the black lodge would feast on garmonbozia. I wished I could stop to savour every mouthful, but I could not put it down until I read the last page. This experience put me right back in that misty town and reacquainted me with it's inhabitants, shedding light on some of their secrets and creating new ones in the process. This is a universe that has many more mysteries to discover and potentially solve. Twin Peaks MUST continue beyond the existing show and literature! I can only hope that Frost and Lynch take us further down this windy path of wierdness and wonder.