''The Secret History of Twin Peaks'' is an
epistolary (dossier-style) novel by
Mark Frost
Mark Frost (born November 25, 1953) is an American novelist, screenwriter, film-and-television producer and director. He is the co-creator of the mystery television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991; 2017) and was a writer and executive story ...
, which provides background information on the history of the fictional town and characters from the television series ''
Twin Peaks
''Twin Peaks'' is an American mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cancellation in 1991. The show returned in 2017 for ...
''. The book was published in October 2016, several months before the debut of
a new season of the series in May 2017. A follow-up book, ''
Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier'', also written by Frost, was released after the new season aired.
The audiobook release features four original cast members from the original and sequel television series,
Kyle MacLachlan
Kyle Merritt MacLachlan (; ' McLachlan, February 22, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Dale Cooper in '' Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991; 2017) and its film prequel '' Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me'' (1992), as well as roles ...
,
Russ Tamblyn
Russell Irving Tamblyn, also known as Rusty Tamblyn (born December 30, 1934) is an American film and television actor and dancer.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Tamblyn trained as a gymnast in his youth. He began his career as a child actor f ...
,
Michael Horse
Michael Horse (born Michael James Heinrich; December 21, 1949) is an American actor known for his portrayals of Native American characters in film and television.
Early life
Horse was born Michael James Heinrich near Tucson, Arizona, on Decem ...
, and
David Patrick Kelly, joined by original cast member
Chris Mulkey
Chris Mulkey (born May 3, 1948) is an American film and television actor.
Career
Mulkey played the supporting role of husband to Annie Potts's character in '' Any Day Now'' from 1998 to 2002. He has also appeared in '' Captain Phillips'', '' ...
and cocreator
Mark Frost
Mark Frost (born November 25, 1953) is an American novelist, screenwriter, film-and-television producer and director. He is the co-creator of the mystery television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–1991; 2017) and was a writer and executive story ...
, and introduces 2017 season actors
Amy Shiels thumb
Amy Shiels (born 21 February 1991) is an Irish film and television actress who has appeared in the films '' Veronica Guerin'', '' Slaughter'', ''Twin Peaks'', and as Lunafreya Nox Fleuret in ''Final Fantasy XV''.
Early life and family
S ...
,
Robert Knepper
Robert Lyle Knepper (born July 8, 1959) is an American actor best known for his role as Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell in the Fox drama series '' Prison Break'' (2005–2009, 2017), Samuel Sullivan in the final season of the NBC series '' Heroes'' ...
, and
James Morrison.
Summary
The book takes the form of a dossier of documents, letters, clippings and notes compiled by an unnamed individual referred to as The Archivist. The dossier was recovered in a steel lockbox at an undisclosed crime scene, and has been assigned by
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
Deputy Director
Gordon Cole to an FBI analyst with the initials "TP" for review and investigation.
The documents are presented in a roughly chronological order, beginning with the exploration of the area by the
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gr ...
, correspondence with President
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...
, and
Meriwether Lewis's mysterious death in 1809. The next section concerns the flight of the
Nez Perce people
The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames ...
from the area, with their leader
Chief Joseph
''Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt'' (or ''Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it'' in Americanist orthography), popularly known as Chief Joseph, Young Joseph, or Joseph the Younger (March 3, 1840 – September 21, 1904), was a leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa ...
. Both Lewis and Joseph are mentioned to have experienced "vision quests" in the area where Twin Peaks would be founded.
The town of Twin Peaks is founded when two families, the Packards and the Martells, form two rival sawmills on either side of the river. In 1927, boy scout Andrew Packard and scoutmaster Dwayne Milford see a giant figure in the woods during a camping trip. Milford confides to Packard that his brother, Douglas Milford, also reported seeing a similar figure. Douglas Milford—a minor character in the television series—subsequently becomes one of the key figures in the book. His involvement with the
Roswell UFO incident
The Roswell incident was an event that occurred in 1947, pertaining to the recovery of mundane metallic and rubber debris from a military balloon that crashed near Corona, New Mexico by United States Army Air Forces officers from Roswell Army ...
while with the U.S. Army Air Forces sees him assigned to investigate UFO sightings and abduction claims for
Project Sign
Project Sign (Project Saucer) was an official U.S. government study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) undertaken by the United States Air Force (USAF) and active for most of 1948. It was the precursor to Project Grudge.
History
The project w ...
,
Project Grudge
Project Grudge was a short-lived project by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to investigate unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Grudge succeeded Project Sign in February, 1949, and was then followed by Project Blue Book. The project formally ended in De ...
and
Project Blue Book
Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, O ...
, and to establish Listening Post Alpha, a
SETI
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other pl ...
facility near Twin Peaks. In 1940, three children including Maggie Coulson (the
Log Lady
Margaret Lanterman (), better known as the Log Lady, is a character in the television series ''Twin Peaks'' (1990–2017), created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. She appears in both seasons of the show, the prequel film '' Twin Peaks: Fire Walk ...
), Carl Rodd (the trailer park owner from ''
Fire Walk with Me
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products.
At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames are p ...
'') and Alan Traherne, go missing in the woods, re-appearing with strange triangular markings on their bodies, and
no memory of that day.
The last section covers the events of the television series, including the murder of
Laura Palmer. The backstories of several other characters including
Josie Packard,
Lawrence Jacoby,
Ed and
Nadine Hurley
The following is a list of characters from the television series ''Twin Peaks'', the film ''Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me'', and the Twin Peaks (season 3), 2017 revival.
Overview
Concepts
Bob
Frank Silva was a set decorator who worked ...
, and
Norma Norma may refer to:
* Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
Astronomy
*Norma (constellation)
*555 Norma, a minor asteroid
* Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy
Geography
*Norma, Lazi ...
and
Hank Jennings are revealed in extracts from a book on notable local families by Dr. Lawrence Jacoby's brother Robert. The Archivist is revealed to be Major
Garland Briggs
The following is a list of characters from the television series ''Twin Peaks'', the film '' Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me'', and the 2017 revival.
Overview
Concepts
Bob
Frank Silva was a set decorator who worked on the pilot episode ...
, whose final entry in the dossier notes that "something's wrong" with
Dale Cooper
Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Dale Bartholomew Cooper, portrayed by Kyle MacLachlan, is a fictional character who is the protagonist of ABC's and Showtime's television series ''Twin Peaks''. He also plays a supporting role in ...
and ends with the word "
*M*A*Y*D*A*Y*". The FBI analyst notes that Briggs subsequently disappeared, and Cooper's whereabouts are also unknown, with files on them at the
USAF
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
and FBI classified well above top secret. She signs off her investigation notes as Special Agent Tamara Preston.
Reception
''Twin Peaks'' co-creator, writer and director
David Lynch, when asked what he thought of the book, stated that he hadn't read it and that it was "''his''
rost'shistory of Twin Peaks".
Devan Coggan of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'' wrote "More than 25 years after Laura Palmer was found wrapped in plastic, Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost returns to the Pacific Northwest with a new novel structured as a secret dossier. Assembled by a mysterious “archivist” and annotated by an FBI agent known only as TP, this enigmatic collection includes undiscovered Lewis and Clark diary entries, UFO sightings, and personal journals of Twin Peaks residents. Plus, Frost (finally!) tackles unanswered questions from the show’s finale".
Eric Diaz of ''
Nerdist
Nerdist Industries, LLC is part of the digital division of Legendary Entertainment. Nerdist Industries was founded as a sole podcast (The Nerdist Podcast) created by Chris Hardwick but later spread to include a network of podcasts, a premium conte ...
'' commented "If you love ''Twin Peaks'', there is no way I can’t recommend this book to you, although it really is made for the hardcore fan. And if you were looking for answers to mysteries laid out by the series finale, except for a few (Audrey lives!) you’ll probably be disappointed. But hey, we have a whole new season of the show coming for all that. Taken together with the excellent audio version, this is a multimedia experience no ''Twin Peaks'' fan can afford to ignore".
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Secret History of Twin Peaks, The
Books based on Twin Peaks
Epistolary novels
2016 American novels
Novels based on television series
Novels set in Washington (state)
American speculative fiction novels
Novels by Mark Frost
Flatiron Books books