OK, I admit it. I read this book because of the cover. And because a bookstore was the setting. Actually, when I read the description I did not want to read the book. But the cover image kept showing up on various literary websites. So, I gave in...After all, I love debut fiction and am a fan of mysteries.

The time the author has spent working in bookstores comes across and lends an extra layer to the texture of his story. The quality of the writing reflects the skill justifying the various forms of recognition he has achieved.

All that aside, was it worth the risk of judging a book by its cover?

Yes! It was a richly wrought and intriguing story. Easily meriting five stars.

The Bright Ideas Bookstore, located in a rather unsavory section of 1990’s Denver, seems to double as the public library for many of its unconventional patrons. One of these patrons is Joey Molina, a young ex-con, has chosen the bookstore as the scene of his suicide. Front and center in the story is bookseller Lydia Smith who, as a young girl, survived a murderous attack by a perpetrator known as the Hammerman. Joeys suicide presents the reader with a profusion of questions to be answered - - why the bookstore, why was there a picture of Lydia taken at her 10th birthday party in his pocket when he died, why did he leave Lydia all of his meager collection of worldly goods and finally what really happened to Lydia all those years ago. Most of the narrative jumps back and forth in time and is told in the past tense by a third person.

Author Matthew Sullivan demonstrates his ability to mine deep, rich avenues of homelessness, suicide, the resurrection of memories, failed relationships, loneliness and survival presenting the reader with a tale that is a rare combination of depressing and hopeful.

Well this wasn't what I was expecting. I mean, I will always read a story set in a bookstore without hesitation. It's like the best fairy tale to me. But I wasn't prepared for the dark subject matter found in this one. It's not gory. The plot is actually kinda interesting. A bookseller finds a frequent customer dead, hanging in the History section with a childhood photo of her in his pocket. She then finds out he has left all his belongings to her. What she finds are books with cut out ciphers in them, the keys for them hidden in the bookstore. As she's trying to figure out the meaning behind all of it, a friend from her past walks back into her life and brings back traumatic memories of a past she's tried to bury. As she is grieving for the lost man and trying to figure out what led him to take his own life she also has her own emerging demons to deal with.

The book contains more than just a mystery. We see the dynamics of an arranged Indian marriage, single parenting, homelessness, and the aftermath of failed foster care and adoption. All that combined with the fascinating addition of a cipher made with books. I was engaged from start to finish. It's one of those stories that, if the content weren't so dark, I'd want to live in real life. Who hasn't dreamed of being a code breaker? No? Just me? Oh well. It was entertaining anyway.

This book is difficult to categorize ... it has elements of so many things - thriller, suspense and even literary fiction. It has it all and yet its not exactly any of those things. It was dark and depressing and yet hopeful and uplifting ... all at the same time. AND IT TAKES PLACE IN A BOOKSTORE (well, partly in a bookstore)! I really enjoyed this one! Overall, this was quite a clever novel. It's nuanced and layered. Well written and interesting. It's so much more than I expected going in. I honestly cannot believe that it is a debut novel. It's just fantastic! And it's a really effective mystery - I didn't figure everything out long before it was revealed which was nice! It is well plotted and had just the right level of suspense. The characters are well drawn and the story itself is strong. It kept me turning the pages despite being tired. It's all around a good read! Really good book - I highly recommend it!

I received this ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

From the book description, "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. "

A pretty good mystery.

3☆

MIDNIGHT AT THE BRIGHT IDEAS BOOKSTORE by Matthew Sullivan is about Lydia, a bookshop clerk, who is rocked by the suicide of a frequent patron, Joey, who commits suicide in the book store. As Lydia tries to cope with Joey's demise, she quick stumbles upon coded messages that Joey leaves that leadsLydia to understand Joey's life and how Lydia's past connects to it.
Matthew Sullivan crafts a touching and heartfelt story about family, love, and forgiveness. Every person we meet is either not quite what they seem or knows more than they let on and therefore that elusiveness helps to make this mystery novel a compelling adventure. There is subtle humor throughout the book that doesn't detract from the story, and in fact keeps the story grounded and real and gives it a humanity that mysteries sometimes forget to do. There is also a passion that the main character, Lydia, carries to not just find out the layers of events that led up to Joey's suicide, but that if she finds out who Joey is, she will somehow find a greater peace within herself. It as if she has a mystical pull to find out these truths.
MIDNIGHT AT THE BRIGHT IDEAS BOOKSTORE starts out slow and seemingly unfocused, but really its just setting the groundwork and making the reader comfortable in Lydia's world. By the end of the book, I felt so connected to Lydia and those dear to her that I just wanted to keep reading about her and cheering her on into the next chapter in her life. A unique mystery novel unlike any mystery I have read before.

I received this as an ARC from Netgalley. Firstly, as a librarian, I am a sucker for anything with books or a bookstore mentioned in the title. I wasn't sure how much I would like this, but to be honest, I couldn't put it down (which is perfectly evidenced with my hectic life and yet I read it in less than a week). Other than having trouble with some of the graphic nature, I can think of little I disliked. Lydia was well characterized and a strong lead character. Her interactions with the characters and her world helped this book in so many ways. It was heartbreaking to watch the story of her young book loving misfit's, Joey (was he really a misfit though?), story unfold. I loved the bookstore and really wish it were real! The suspense and story building in this book was the best part though. It was very who dunnit in some ways, but also just masterfully woven suspense more than anything. One of the best books I have read this year (and I totally got my library to buy it!).

When one of the regular customers of the Bright Ideas Bookstore hangs himself as she is closing the store one night, Lydia is shocked to find a picture of her ten-year-old self sticking out of his pants pocket. Joey had been one of their regulars, part of a scruffy and mostly harmless group fondly nicknamed the BookFrogs, who spent most days reading or sleeping at the bookstore. Lydia had taken a special interest in young Joey and his shocking death threatens to bring back the dark past she’d carefully hidden from everyone for over a decade. Lydia soon discovers that Joey had left her encrypted messages which draw her further into the mysteries of his sad past and may finally force her to revisit her own childhood nightmare.

I raced through this book in just a couple of days and loved everything about it! The bookstore setting in Denver and its quirky employees and customers first attracted my attention. Then I got caught up in Lydia’s intense and personal need to find out why Joey, whose future had seemed brighter than most of the other BookFrogs, took his own life. The ending of the book was both satisfying and shocking and left me looking forward to the next book by this promising debut author.

Review: MIDNIGHT AT THE BRIGHT IDEAS BOOKSTORE by Matthew Sullivan

An exceptional debut novel from an accomplished author of short stories, MIDNIGHT AT THE BRIGHT IDEAS BOOKSTORE celebrates bookselling, libraries, personality, individualism, compassion, family, friendship, and the persistence of the human spirit. All that in one novel? Absolutely.

Lydia Smith finds a new family in her employment at Denver's Bright Ideas Bookstore, an independent, and in her relationship with adorable geek David, a gentle soul. But Lydia's past remains always with her: her mother died in childbirth. Raised by a devoted single dad, a branch librarian, Lydia was instilled with a love for books, and a friendship with schoolmate Raj, child of dysfunction. In fourth grade, a wild classmate inserts herself, and her friendship (and events spinning out from that like pond ripples) changes everything forever.

MIDNIGHT AT THE BRIGHT IDEAS BOOKSTORE is simultaneously literary fiction, mystery, even thriller. It takes an established and welcome spot on my "reread" shelf.

4 Stars.

Lydia Smith loves books, she always has. She also loves her job at the Bright Ideas Bookstore in Denver. The BookFrogs who patron the store everyday make her job that much more special. You know who they are... the down and out men and women who love to hang out at the store, to sit amongst the books, and talk to the clerks and other patrons and just chill.

One of her favorite BookFrogs is Joey. During the time that she has worked at Bright Ideas, she has gotten to know him quite well - or so she thought. One night around midnight, as she is getting ready to close up, Lydia hears a noise from the second floor of the shop. As it turns out, its Joey making the noise. Unfortunately, Lydia discovers that he’s not sitting upstairs reading,… or talking to his friend Lyle or another BookFrog. Instead, he’s doing something unimaginable. Killing himself .. and Lydia gets there a few seconds too late and is devastated. Strangely enough, at that exact moment, Joey has a picture in his pocket of Lydia and her friend Raj as children, which perplexes Lydia.. and in a desperate act she grabs it before the police arrive. You see, Lydia and Joey did not know each other as children, thus she has no idea how he would have gotten that photograph. She can’t help but wonder how Joey seemed to know about her past – a past that she has done her absolute best to keep hidden from everyone. Including her boyfriend David and all of her co-workers. She has tried her best to forget about that tragic day.. to wipe the slate clean. But that picture proves the opposite – for you cannot escape the past. It always comes back. Upon discovering Joey’s body at the bookstore, the newspapers take photographs of Lydia, which her old children friend Raj recognizes. And thereafter, he does his best to find her.

After his death, Lydia finds that Joey left all of his worldly possessions to her, including his books and a new suit. What Lydia finds upon examining them astounds her. The books have letters cut out of them and she realizes that the cut outs appears to be a puzzle, which she slowly unravels. Joey, as she discovers, left Lydia a message. Lydia needs helping un-coding the message and finding out what Joey wanted from her and that is where Joey’s friend Lyle and her old friend Raj come in. For Lyle knew Joey like the back of his hand, and Lydia trusts Raj more than she has ever trusted anyone (even her boyfriend, David) for Raj knows everything there is to know about her. He knows her secrets, though apparently, so did Joey.

Together, the three of them find out what Joey wanted from Lydia. It is not an easy path for Lydia, nor was it an easy life for Joey. This is a story about learning to let go and trust and the immense power of friendship. Though it has elements of a mystery/suspense, it truly is a character driven novel. <b>And the characters in this novel WOW you. This book steals little pieces of you and it doesn’t let them go.</b> I think it will hold on to me forever.

<b>"Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore" is a very unique and beautifully written novel that is unlike anything I've ever read before. Though the story is sad, it is rich and amazing and I can't stop thinking about it. The characters are lovely and oh so quirky. Every character (from the main characters to the supporting characters) were so well fleshed out and added a lot to the story.. I basically fell in love with all of them (or well, almost all of them). I can't say enough good things about this novel and would recommend it to anyone who loves to read about books, loves puzzles and loves character studies. </b>

Thank you to NetGalley, Scribner and Matthew J. Sullivan for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley, Goodreads and Amazon on 6.19.17.

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore was a nifty mystery, set against the backdrop of a quirky bookstore, and I quite enjoyed it. The story follows Lydia, a bookseller with a dark and secretive past. She works at the titular Bright Ideas Bookstore, where she enjoys interacting with the shop's regulars, whom she has deemed the BookFrogs. An eclectic bunch, the BookFrogs are mainly men (young and old) who have nowhere else to go and seek refuge in the bookstore from all life has thrown at them. One night, Lydia discovers the body of one of the BookFrogs, Joey, who has hung himself in the bookstore. A young, troubled 20-something, Joey had only a best friend and Lydia as his connection to the world. He leaves Lydia all of his belongings, and among those belongings, he leaves a mystery of his final days for her to uncover. As she delves deeper into Joey's life, she realizes it may have unsettling connections to her own hidden past. (This is a spoiler-free review. I never share anything that you can't find in the book's description.)

This book was a straightforward mystery for the most part, and not my typical read. Lydia is an interesting character, and the walls she has built up around herself make a lot of sense as you discover more and more about her past. What I really loved about this book was the central focus of books to the narrative. I'm a sucker for books about the love of books, and that love runs deeply throughout these pages. From the setting of a bookstore that sounds fairly amazing, to the use of books to convey Joey's message to Lydia, and in countless other ways, the author shows that books are important and necessary to our lives, and can sometimes even save them.

The mystery was good, and it kept me guessing until the end, and then I guessed it a little before the book got there, but that's okay. The aura of mystery is enhanced by the lack of deep character development of characters surrounding Laura. While I usually look for in depth character development of intriguing people, we are mostly reading from Lydia's (third-person) perspective and her closed-offness is likely the reason for this lack of depth and perception at times. There are also random chapters that are from others' points of view, but they only serve to enhance the mystery (and occasionally help enlighten the reader). As I kept reading the book, I found it increasingly harder to put down (and finished the last 70% or so in about 2 hours).

Overall, if you're looking for an interesting mystery (I wouldn't necessarily go all out into thriller to classify this one), I recommend this book. I especially recommend it if you like novels that help you articulate your passion for books, and remind you of why books are so important in the first place (as if you needed the reminder). If you're intrigued, Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is out today (06/13) from Scribner.

Note: I received this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Rating: 3.75 out of 4 stars

More Information: Goodreads, Amazon, Author Website

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore follows Lydia, a bookseller who finds one of the store's customers has hung himself in the store. She then embarks on the mystery of why he did it and things start to unravel in her personal life as the customer had a picture of her as a child in his pocket.

This book I give 4.5 stars, it kept my attention and left me wanting to know more about the story. The characters were very unique and I loved their chemistry. I do wish there was more substance to the father -daughter relationship. But all in all a great book. I can't wait to read more from this author.

Though other rated this book highly, I did not like it. I found myself putting it down, picking up other books, and then only begrudgingly picking it back up to finish. For me, it read as if the author had no idea what his ending point should be and continued to throw ideas out there in hopes that something would reignite him.

Lydia takes her job as a manager of a community bookstore personally, she has her regular customers and a select few that she calls Bookfrogs that consist mainly of down on their luck, if not homeless, people who spend their days within the stacks.

One evening, around closing time, she hears a banging noise. Turns out that one of her Frogs, Joey Molina, has hung himself. Little did she know that this tragic act would reopen the door into her own tragedy twenty years prior. With his crate of possessions, she discovers messages that he left for her, breadcrumbs really, that not only explains who he really was, but helps her to answer the most troubling questions of her own life.

A dark and twisty story that literally bored me to sleep on numerous occasions. I do not see what all the hype is about, but I am glad that others were able to find in this book what I was not.

Librarian Lydia has a soft spot for Joey, a destitute young man who spends a lot of time in her library and who Lydia enjoyed having around. She called him “haunted but harmless - a dust bunny blowing through the corners of the store.” When Joey hangs himself in the upper floor of the library one night with a 20-year old picture of Lydia and her childhood friend Raj in his pocket, Lydia is perplexed and makes it her mission to find the answer to why he was carrying around this very personal photo, one she didn’t even know existed. Dredging up her past is difficult as Lydia faces her demons and revisits a a horrific event that changed her life forever.

One day Lydia shows up at Joey’s apartment and discovers that he had been expecting her, having ‘willed’ her a bevy of books with cut-up pages. I loved being along for the ride as Lydia tries to solve the puzzle of these books which interrelate and contain cryptic messages to decipher. Brilliant!

The various puzzle pieces of the plot are well done. I loved the many references to books and the twists leading up to the final conclusion of this clever novel.

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Mathew Sullivan combines two of my favorite things, books that are about books or take places in bookshops, pretty much anything bibliophile related, and mystery.

The main character, Lydia is a bookseller at Bright Ideas and has a traumatic past she prefers to conceal from everyone she knows. We are introduced to Joey, a troubled youth with a past of his own. When Lydia finds Joey after he committed suicide in the upper floor of the bookstore, having left her heir to his few belongings, she is left to uncover the secrets of Joey's past, through clues he's left in books, as well as some of her own.

I couldn't put this book down. It had me guessing until the very end. If you love books that have to do with books or mystery, or both you should defininatly read this book. I highly recommend it.

I acknowledge that I received this book free of charge from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest and unbiased review of it.

What a terrific debut! On the face if it, you might think it's a cozy- it's definitely not. Try this one if you like intelligent mysteries with strong characters and a fun setting in a bookstore. Lydia's back story (no spoilers) forms the basis for her effort to discover what propelled Joey to hang himself. It's a very entertaining and interesting read, with little twists and turns that will keep you guessing (they kept me guessing!). Lydia is fascinating; the book frogs are people we can all recognize. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Two thumbs up!

Bookstore setting? Librarian dad? A mystery based on BOOKS? Ummm, YES. Put these all together into a deliciously dark and quirky literary themed package and I didn't even get as squeamish as I normally do about gruesome murder between the pages. I believe I highlighted about half of the book, as so many book and reading related thoughts just jumped off the page at me - one of my favorites being: "Libraries were havens for everyone, he might've told her, not just the clean and productive". And while that was said by Lydia's father about his library, it would be the same if Lydia had said it about bookstores and her BookFrogs. The Denver setting was made dark and seedy and my heart just ached for little Lydia and her solitary childhood.

Highly recommend this one - it will burrow into your book-loving heart.

Alternately shocking and lyrical, this is both a mystery and a glimpse into a world of introverted, solitary, yet connected people whose lives center on a bookstore in Colorado. Beautiful prose, puzzling motives, and several truly startling events alternate with acts of pure humanity toward those who might otherwise be overlooked. Truly, truly excellent. Recommended for mystery readers and those of us who know how books enrich our souls.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J Sullivan was a very interesting read. I found myself both drawn and repelled by the characters and fascinated by the intrigue of the murder mystery. When the reveal happens - I was both horrified and contented by what happened. The story twisted and twisted around Lydia Smith and an incident that happened when she was young. The incident changed everything in her world, which then caused her to change as well.

Lydia worked for the Bright Ideas Bookstore. She is a friend to all including the Book Frogs, the regulars who spend all day at the bookstore. She manages to often seek them out and knew parts about their lives. One of her favorites committed suicide one night and she found him. Interestingly he had a picture of her and her two friends on her tenth birthday. From this beginning, we are brought on a journey that allows us to see how one incident can change someone’s world.

I found myself worrying about Lydia and her choices. I wondered how others perceived her and wanted to help her. Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J Sullivan was a great read, however it is important to note that there is a murder and suicide that are integral parts of the story.