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. 

Praise for St. Ulphia's Dead

"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

"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

“'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 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

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

–Molly Giles, author of Life Span

"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

"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."

–Robert Epstein, author of the New York Times Bestseller The Parliament of Mice: A Fable

"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

"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