Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
Midnight at the Bright Ideas
Bookstore by
Matthew Sullivan
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Scribner;(January 9, 2018)
ISBN-10: 150111685
When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this “intriguingly dark, twisty” (Kirkus Reviews) debut novel from an award-winning short story writer.
Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs—the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves.
But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s upper room, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Always Joey’s favorite bookseller, Lydia has been bequeathed his meager worldly possessions. Trinkets and books; the detritus of a lonely, uncared for man. But when Lydia flips through his books she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man on the verge of an emotional reckoning. And they seem to contain a hidden message. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia?
As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long buried memory from her own violent childhood. Details from that one bloody night begin to circle back. Her distant father returns to the fold, along with an obsessive local cop, and the Hammerman, a murderer who came into Lydia’s life long ago and, as she soon discovers, never completely left. “Both charming and challenging” (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review), Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a “multi-generational tale of abandonment, desperation, and betrayal…inventive and intricately plotted”
I was excited about this book since the review sounded so good to me.
The first half of the book was slow and although it was setting things up I almost let it go. But I am glad I did not! The second half of the book flew by! It was very good! (Albeit somewhat sad) Some small parts reminded me of myself.. not knowing my father etc. Sort of a sad ending, but it did tie up all the loose ends. It's hard for me to say if you would like it or not.
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Scribner;(January 9, 2018)
ISBN-10: 150111685
When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this “intriguingly dark, twisty” (Kirkus Reviews) debut novel from an award-winning short story writer.
Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs—the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves.
But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s upper room, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Always Joey’s favorite bookseller, Lydia has been bequeathed his meager worldly possessions. Trinkets and books; the detritus of a lonely, uncared for man. But when Lydia flips through his books she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man on the verge of an emotional reckoning. And they seem to contain a hidden message. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia?
As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long buried memory from her own violent childhood. Details from that one bloody night begin to circle back. Her distant father returns to the fold, along with an obsessive local cop, and the Hammerman, a murderer who came into Lydia’s life long ago and, as she soon discovers, never completely left. “Both charming and challenging” (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review), Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a “multi-generational tale of abandonment, desperation, and betrayal…inventive and intricately plotted”
I was excited about this book since the review sounded so good to me.
The first half of the book was slow and although it was setting things up I almost let it go. But I am glad I did not! The second half of the book flew by! It was very good! (Albeit somewhat sad) Some small parts reminded me of myself.. not knowing my father etc. Sort of a sad ending, but it did tie up all the loose ends. It's hard for me to say if you would like it or not.
posted by DesLily | 10:29 AM
1 Comments:
At first I thought this sounded like a light, cozy murder mystery but am not sure now... it sounds darker than a cozy. Glad you enjoyed it though. It's difficult sometimes to read books that remind us of sadness in our lives.
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