Coming September 1, 2026
MAIN STREET FRINGE
Award-winning political operative Matthew Lavoie’s debut, MAIN STREET FRINGE, plunges into today’s embedded conspiracy and paranoia and turns the undercover agent genre upside down.
A government vendetta obliterates the life and career of a Virginia State Police Detective, turning him to pariah in nearly all circles but one. He’s become the accidental hero of conspiracy theorists who have placed him on a pedestal as a fellow victim of the Deep State.
The FBI demands he exploit his status and go undercover, as himself, to destroy an increasingly violent conspiracy cabal and its sinister agenda from the inside—but without a cover identity, failure means death to everything that makes life worth living.
Coming September 1, 2026
MAIN STREET FRINGE
Award-winning political operative Matthew Lavoie’s debut, MAIN STREET FRINGE, plunges into today’s embedded conspiracy and paranoia and turns the undercover agent genre upside down.
A government vendetta obliterates the life and career of a Virginia State Police Detective, turning him to pariah in nearly all circles but one. He’s become the accidental hero of conspiracy theorists who have placed him on a pedestal as a fellow victim of the Deep State.
The FBI demands he exploit his status and go undercover, as himself, to destroy an increasingly violent conspiracy cabal and its sinister agenda from the inside—but without a cover identity, failure means death to everything that makes life worth living.
Advance Praise
—Martha Grimes, NYT bestseller and Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster
Diving Deeper…
Detective Theo Barnes built a good life for his family, striving to do the next right thing, even though he’s always believed the world’s a fixed game. When his latest sting snares a powerful state Senator, he’s seemingly proven right. Standing firm against corruption triggers a government conspiracy very publicly destroys his career and reputation.
In the wake of this devastation he’s unwittingly celebrated by Deep State conspiracy fanatics, especially a radical cabal attacking American life. The FBI’s failure to infiltrate these zealots leads them to Barnes’ door. Desperate for answers and redemption in his own struggle, he takes on the mission to wipe out the cabal. But going undercover as himself places his family directly in the crosshairs.
Lines blur between life and investigation while an ugly family legacy looms over everything. The conspiracy that demolished his life wants to finish the job, colliding with the cabal’s bloody, grand finale. Salvation from everything that terrorizes us rests on the shoulders of a man who owes nothing more than saving his own family.
About
Matthew Lavoie was raised in Hopkinton, MA by loving parents who bear much of the credit for success and little blame for his missteps. Early on his mother instilled a deep love of reading and language. So much so, that he won multiple book reading competitions (they changed the rules so he couldn’t win again). This inevitably set him on a course for irresistible popularity.
Hopkinton is the starting point for the Boston Marathon and after spending a childhood watching tens of thousands of lunatics run away from his hometown, he vowed to only run when being chased. A Massachusetts upbringing also resulted in a chronic condition where he became a diehard, and on occasion, psychotic supporter of all Boston sports.
He graduated Ithaca College with a History degree and little clue on what to do next. He liked competition and since the Red Sox would never let him play for them, what better place for an ambitious young man with no direction than politics. He found himself fascinated by the evolutionary changes in of culture in political expression, what drives us, or to put it more simply, what makes the herd move?
Twenty-years as a policy expert and political operative for some of Washington’s more influential power brokers gave him a front row seat to some of the most seismic shifts in American and geopolitical history. He’s been in the room where it happens with plenty of stories from a career evaluating the how and why of American political and cultural movements.
He began writing fiction in the early pandemic as a way to ensure he wouldn’t start hearing his dog, Sherlock, talk back to him. The cliché is “write what you know,” but he firmly believes in also writing what you like—and Matthew likes gritty thrillers and crime fiction that have a distinct undercurrent. While he would say his stuff is politically adjacent, he has no plans to write a tale centered in the Oval Office. Instead his work centers what’s captivated him for decades—what drives us and the limitations, potential, and entanglements those motives deliver.
He’s a member of International Thriller Writers and the Mystery Writers of America. And he plans on having many more books after this one.
Contact
Email Matthew at matthew@matthewlavoie.com or by using the button below.
Media
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