Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan

Reviewer: Barbara Scott Emmett (http://barbarascottemmett.blogspot.co.uk/) author of Delirium: The Rimbaud Delusion, The Man with the Horn, The Land Beyond Goodbye, and Don’t Look Down.

What We Thought: Lydia enjoys working at the Bright Ideas Bookstore in Denver, Colorado. She lives a quiet life and is a willing listener when any customer needs a friendly ear.

When she makes a shocking discovery on the top floor of the bookshop, however, her world is turned upside down. She is led to investigate the life of a vulnerable young man called Joey, who has hanged himself. Joey is one of the BookFrogs – the name given to those regulars who come in as much to find a place to shelter from life's hardships, as to buy books. Following a series of strange clues cut out of, or rather into, books, Lydia finds out more about Joey and his traumatic childhood.

This is not the first time Lydia has had to deal with trauma. As a child she witnessed a series of brutal murders, while on a sleepover at a friend's house. The perpetrator, nicknamed the Hammerman, has never been caught. While digging into Joey's story, she finds connections that lead her to attempt to discover the identity of the Hammerman.

Though she has a boyfriend, David who works in IT, Lydia reconnects with an old childhood friend, Raj Patel. Raj's parents run the gas and doughnut store where she and her friend Carol used to hang out as ten-year-olds. She also reluctantly reconnects with her estranged father who lives a reclusive life up in the mountains.

Filled with quirky characters, Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a gripping read. We dip in and out of the past, steadily learning the secrets of Lydia's early life. As the mysteries unravel, Lydia begins to suspect someone close to her of being the Hammerman. And though the reader, too, begins to have suspicions, the answer is unexpected and shocking.

This is a novel about the love of books, the nature of friendship, and the way childhood experiences shape us. While on some levels it is a murder mystery, it is also much more than that, and though it features more than one terrible tragedy, it is told with verve and sympathy.

I received an ebook of this novel from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

You’ll enjoy this if you like: The Shadow of the Wind, The Little Paris Bookshop.

Avoid if you dislike: Books about books and bookshops.

Ideal accompaniments: A cup of hot chocolate and a cosy blanket.

Genre: Psychological Crime / Literary / Mystery

Available on Amazon