Kirkus Reviews calls SASQ’ET “
…historical mystery with elements of speculative fiction, the novel explores human identity and our relationship with nature…
Langstaff’s rich worldbuilding creates an exceptional sense of place…
Langstaff successfully bridges several disparate themes, including conservation, natural history, cryptozoological mysteries, and the novel’s historical setting…
a mystery that leads not to a mythical creature but into the heart.”
Fiction
20th Century Historical Fiction
Historical Fiction
Mystery & Thriller
Myths & Legends
Settings & Atmosphere
Wilderness & Frontier
Conservation
Folklore
Magical Realism
Mystery Action & Adventure
Nature & Ecology
Press Play & Scroll
Sometimes the truth is best left unknown…
“Maxim Langstaff’s brilliant novel SASQ’ET is an astounding piece of work. It is a love story between two people and their quest for answers about the origin of humans. Its poetic prose stirred my soul and caused me to weep for the ignorance and egotistical arrogance of mankind that believes we are superior to nature and all other creatures—a way of thinking that will ultimately lead to our own demise. It is a profound piece of work thatrequired tremendous research. It informs, inspires, and imparts so much wisdom, laying out the beauty and precious interconnectedness of all life. It is 600 pages, and yet I was speechless and sad when it ended. I had to sit quietly and ponder and digest the effect it had on me. It is perhaps the most intelligent book I have ever read, while still being highly entertaining. The book mixes fact with fiction, takes place in locations around the world, and has lots of danger and adventure that would make for a gripping television series. Bravo Maxim. I am in aweof your writing.
Marsala Rypka – Celebrity Journalist/Feature Writer
Finds out she is not who she thought she was
and is forced to confront a secret that has haunted
her family for generations
She uncovers will upend her entire life,
challenging everything she thought she knew
Her destiny is the journey…
Sometimes the truth is best left unknown
In 1939, a deadly confrontation in the Canadian wilderness shatters young Albert Pingree’s life and leaves him the keeper of a truth so staggering it could tear apart mankind’s understanding of itself. Sixty years later, his granddaughter Mallory — a small-town veterinarian in rural New Hampshire, inherits more than his fortune; she inherits his secret. When Albert is found dead behind his remote British Columbia cabin, Mallory is drawn into a world of deception, lost identity, and scientific obsession. Inside a locked candle box, she uncovers a horrific relic — a severed hand too large to be human — and a note that beckons her toward the impossible.
Mallory recruits Dr. George Avery, the world’s leading field zoologist, to help her identify what she has found. At first, he is reluctant, unaware of the magnitude of what she has brought to him. As the puzzle begins to take shape, he is confronted by what the answers they find reveal.
Exploring deeper, their growing affection ignites a sense of purpose, even as they face the shadows of the past and the dangers of their pursuit. In the haunting wilds of the Pacific Northwest, nature’s grandeur and brutality are ever-present. Tangled forests and untamed rivers, bears, wolves, and the ancient reverence of Indigenous traditions surround them, blurring the lines between myth and reality. Their quest becomes a journey not only to solve a mystery, but to reconcile love, loneliness, and the immortal question of our place in a world still ruled by secrets.
Daniel Hays New York Times Best-Selling Author, "My Old Man and the Sea"
The adventure, passion, and romance on these pages are wrapped inside a haunting scientific mystery.
The unhurried build is deceptive. I was eager for the answers revealed. This is not just a good read, it’s an important one that challenges our most fundamental conceit.
Angie Staheli
Writer, Producer, Award-Winning “Finding Patience”
Amazing! I was on the edge of my seat. Pure gold. A phenomenal writer!
I’m obsessed with this book. This needs to be made into a movie! I can’t remember the last time I’ve enjoyed a book so much.
Michael FitzpatrickRecipient of The Prince Charles Award
In the wilds of out of the way places lives a long-fabled creature. A cinema-verite for the mind still open to the inexplicable. Sasq’et pulls you through the train to the conductor’s car and barrels ahead to its totemic finish.
A masterfully crafted lexicon of the primal and the pristine, from dust to dust, sex in the woods, maurading bears, what more could one ask for?
“The best creative endeavor tells a story that becomes another’s experience, and in so doing, reveals the universal through the particular. This experience can move, provoke, and inspire in ways that strengthen our most fundamental connections to each other and ourselves – to that most true and wild nature of our hearts.”
Maxim Langstaff
Angie Staheli is an award-winning writer, director, and professional actress. A Duke University TED talk alumnus, she is the writer and director of the acclaimed, multi-award-winning music play and film Finding Patience.
Storyteller and Grammy/Emmy-nominated writer-producer Maxim Langstaff discusses his decades behind the scenes with music legends including John Denver and Beatles producer George Martin.
He reflects on the changing, overwhelmed modern media landscape and how artists are shaped by myth versus truth. Langstaff connects his conservation roots and time in New England wilderness to his debut novel “Sasq’et,” a cinematic, women-centered adventure using Sasquatch as a device to explore identity, nature, and unanswered questions.
