Wasn't sure about this book at all, but very glad I requested it. Very nicely written and with a series of sympathetic characters, especially Lydia. There were no great surprises, but the plot ticked along well and you were kept waiting to see if your guesses at what happened were correct. Recommended.

I had a wonderful time reading debut novel - Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan. Surprisingly I managed to read it in one day as I had the solve the mystery that is at the heart of this novel. It opens with the suicide of Joey - a regular 'Bookfrog' at the Bright Ideas Bookstore. The main character Lydia, is bequeathed his possessions and as she goes through them she discovers that Joey left her a secret message. To uncover this message, she starts to shake up other parts of her life. Ultimately solving this mystery leads to solving something very dark which happened to Lydia when she was still a young girl, leading her to reunite with her father and old childhood friend. The novel was frighteningly complex and I am in awe of Sullivans talents to map the various characters arcs in the story. I look forward to reading more books by Matthew Sullivan in the future.

Lydia works at the Bright Ideas Bookshop which acts as a home from home for various lost souls both within the staff and the customers. Late one night, Joey her favourite customer or BookFrog as they are known, hangs himself in the Western History section. The novel focuses on discovering why Joey committed suicide but also on Lydia’s backstory from her childhood.

Joey has left Lydia a number of books within which she begins to discover clues to his past and the reasons for his desperation. Her investigations lead her to reconnect with her estranged father and a friend, Raj, from her childhood.

This is a well written novel with very human characters. It has themes of survivor guilt, betrayal, loyalty, love and loss. I really enjoyed it and the ending was a surprise to me: be prepared to be immersed in the story and impatient to find out what happens next. Highly recommended. I hope the author writes more.

ARC received from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

A poetically beautiful piece. Some of his paragraphs are so well composed they could work as stand alone pieces.
The plot is a nice variation on childhood trauma fiction, not too over-worked and with an original approach that does not dwell too much on history, but sets it all into context with events of today.
The bookshop of the title is somewhere we will all spend our lives looking for; a fascinating place that exists just to satisfy itself and its inhabitants. I would travel anywhere for a chance to spend a day there.
On the down side, some of the plotting is a little too clever for its own good, and there are a couple of threads that peter out in a rather unsatisfying manner.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is fresh and original, written in a natural and engaging tone, and well constructed.

This is the story of Little Lydia, who is learning to live with life after something truly awful happens to her. And not your normal, oh this is so awful, I mean inexcusable and unescapbale. It is how her life got turned upside down and all the repercussions as a result.

I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting with this book (mainly because all I really knew about it was it was about a bookstore that had a name that I love), but I got a lot out of it. I felt we grew and learnt with Lydia and the intrigue that was imbued within the pages made it a delight to do so. This is the story of how life changes, and how things that you don't even realise are related have the possibility to change everything. No man, after all, is an island.

A very wonderfully written book, that was clever and funny, engaging and intriguing. I will definitely be looking out for this author again.

If this is a debut novel, we have lots to look forward to. It may be essentially a murder mystery but the context is clever and riveting. The setting in the quirky bookstore is interesting in itself and the characters are well drawn and believable. There is so much more to this story than the solving of a murder and as the tale unravels, you'll wonder how you didn't guess the outcome earlier on. I can't wait for the next book from this author!

This book is like peeling an onion, it has so many different layers.

In the opening pages we meet Lydia who works at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, she spends some of her time looking out for the bookfrogs, some are homeless, some lonely, some just like being with books. One of Lydia's favourites is Joey, who she finds hanging from a rafter, during the aftermath of this she finds a photograph of herself in Joey's pockets, this is worrying for Lydia as she had changed her name after being involved in a horrendous crime many years before.

The story is then told in part fllashbacks, part real time of what happened to Lydia, how Joey is involved, and also about how relationships from when she was a young child at school, impacted and changed not only her life but the lives of others.

If you had asked me straight afterwards, I would have said 10/10 I loved it, but after ruminating for a couple of days some things bugged me.

David was supposed to be the love of her life, but I'm not sure Lydia treated him very well at all, Raj, for me, became quite stalker like in his fixation on Lydia. which I found a bit creepy and very off putting. I found I didn't actually like or empathise with either of their characters, especially towards the end.,

I think once the big surprise is uncovered, the rest falls into place so it doesn't seem so much of a mystery, more a picture of families who have fallen apart.

I did like the story and the way it evolved, and enjoyed 95% of the book, I felt the epilogue let the book down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for giving me the chance to review this book.

This book is by a new author Matthew Sullivan, when this book was suggested I wasn't sure what to expect but I was intrigued by the description so I thought I'd give it ago, thanks to net galley, it focuses on a young girl called Lydia who works at a bookshop, frequented by waifs and strays, one of whom called Joey who,commits suicide in the store, but why does he have a picture of Lydia as a child in his pocket?
Can Lydia solve the mystery of Joey and find herself in the process.
I did enjoy the story, it isn't one full of action and adventure but it does build up steadily to a satisfying conclusion, I look forward tormenting some more from this author.

When i saw the description for this book i knew i had to read it. A book shop, murder, mystery, those are all of my favorite things. This had an intriguing main character and was beautifully written. I encourage everyone to read this.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher. I was not sure about this book but the word Bookseller had me sold. This is a beautifully written book. It drew me in from the first few pages. I really liked Lydia Smith as well as the rest of the characters in the book

This was such a gripping story; I cannot recommend it highly enough. The writing was so atmospheric I felt transported to the Denver Bookstore and could smell the books through my kindle! The strong plot(s) that began with the shocking opening immediately led to a further niggling mystery, when Lydia (even though obviously traumatised) deliberately chose to withhold a significant picture from long-term boyfriend Dave - what was that about? (read-on to find out!) The mysteries and threads that developed were unexpected and utterly absorbing. This is such an original book and I look forward to reading more by Matthew Sullivan.

This book is the debut novel of Matthew J Sullivan. It was an interesting read with a good plot and I look forward to reading more by this author.

I felt that I was stuck on the surface for most of this novel: especially in terms of characterisation, I felt that the age-old writing advice to 'show, don't tell' was reversed - we were told various facts about Lydia and the other characters but we were not really *shown* much more about them. One character in particular was unsatisfying because no plausible reason was given for their keeping silent on a hugely important part of the story, or how they lived with that silence. Hopefully future characters will be more fully drawn. However, some of the writing about childhood and childhood friendships was written beautifully and authentically.

This book was a competent mystery/thriller but, for me, it was less successful where it read as more general or 'literary' fiction dealing with a bookstore milieu, perhaps because of patchy characterisation.

Having made these criticisms, I did enjoy this novel and I felt it showed promise.

I received this book free from NetGalley and Cornerstone (Random House UK).

Brilliant! If it was possible I would give this book six stars out of five.
Haven't read a better crafted book in decades - what a debut!

This was such a great page-turner that I found it really hard to put down. Luckily I had a few trips into the West End so I was able to read it in a few days. There aren't many characters in this book but I loved the way that they were all linked. I tried to guess what was going to happen as I read but I couldn't - this is a very clever book. As a fan of book shops I loved the setting and loved the use of books as the plot unfolds. A great page turner!

The title of this book caught my eye when it was emailed over as a recommended read and it did not disappoint.

Based around the night 10 year old Lydia's world was turned upside down by witnessing a truly horrific event. The story then fast forwards to her current life and how she is trying to live out of the spotlight, when a turn of events sends everything spiralling and hidden thoughts and feelings begin to resurface.
She is then found by a childhood friend who she hasnt seen since that fateful night and things slowly start to slot together and the truth is finally discovered. A fantastic story of mystery, that has you second guessing yourself to work out what really happened

I always enjoy stories that are set in bookstores. I loved how books were being used to send coded messages from the dead. A very unique and intelligent suspense novel. I had no idea who the killer was right up to the end. The only reason this book does not get more than three stars as that some happenings just felt a bit too coincidental. If you enjoyed Mr Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore, then this is for you.
The Story: The book opens with Lydia Smith, a sales clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, an independent store staffed by eccentric individuals and populated by a stream of regular book buyers as well as the BookFrogs. Lydia discovers the body of Joey Molina, a young BookFrog who seemed especially vulnerable. He has hanged himself in the store. In Joey’s pocket, Lydia finds a photo of herself as a child.

Okay, I'm somewhat conflicted about this one. This is more of a cosy mystery than a thriller, with a very predictable story line. Having said that, the suicide and murder scenes are well written and Lydia is a likeable character. If you want an easy to read murder mystery/whodunit then this is probably not a bad choice, but if you are looking for something deeper then maybe give it a miss.

I didn't hate this book, but it isn't one I would re-read. And, sorry, the epilogue really didn't work for me and probably sealed my overall disappointment.

Compelling reading. The plot was refreshingly different, although a little implausible at times. There were a few too coincidences which intertwined the lives of the various characters. I also felt that the identity of the killer was obvious relatively early on, but this did not spoil my enjoyment of the storyline.
As regards the characters, I liked the main protagonist but felt that some of the characters, hers included, could have been developed a little more.
My only real criticism is that I felt towards the end the author raced to the conclusion a little too quickly after a nice slow build-up.
The only loose end was Lyle's fate. I really would have liked to know how he moved on, although he only played a peripheral role in the plot.

On the whole I enjoyed the book. I was confused about the Book Shop as it appeared more like a library to me, but maybe American book shops are different. There seemed to be an awful lot of social misfits in the book, everyone appeared to have some sort of problem. Is this now the way of the world. The plot was good and I must admit that I did not guess who the Hammerman was until revealed in the book. The book did seem to have a happy ending. On the whole a good book to discuss at a book club as the characters were very diverse.

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore Matthew Sullivan

The Bright Ideas Bookstore is more than a book shop. This independent book seller is the home for an eclectic bunch of people, The staff that work there, the customers and the bookfrogs.

Bookfrogs?

It was a new word for me as well, but I think it’s a great name.

What are they? They are the people who populate the store, day-in-day-out, reading books in the comfort of the store, sometimes even buying a book, but only when they’re on special offer. They remind me of the coffee shop Bedouins who populate tables with their laptops making a small coffee last for hours. Some of the Bookfrogs are homeless people looking for shelter, some are lonely singletons who prefer the shop to their empty homes, some are just book lovers.

Each Bookfrog has a story and Joey is no exception. Unfortunately Joey’s story comes to an end when he hangs himself in the store.

But why hang himself there, and why now.

The main protagonist of the book is a 30 year old bookish, bookstore worker Lydia. Lydia is one of the last staff in the store and discovers Joey hanging in a secluded section of the shop just before a late close. Whilst she holds his legs and calls for help she notices a photo sticking out of his pocket. The photo is of Lydia, and her two school friends, at Lydias 10th birthday party.

But Lydia has only known Joey from his visits to the shop, and she has never seen this photo before.

Not many people have known Lydia since she was that 10 year old. In fact there is a very good reason why nobody in her life knows anything about her childhood or her family. Just after the photo was taken Lydia was the only survivor of a gruesome crime and went into hiding with her Dad. The man who committed the crime was never found and has haunted Lydia ever since.

So why has Joey got her picture?

As she starts to look into Joeys life she is astonished to find out that she has “inherited” his belongings. Amongst the belongings are some books which have been cut up. Why would Joey cut up books, they were the only thing that seemed to mean anything to him?

Lydia goes on a journey into her own past and starts to piece together Joeys history. It’s a great journey and makes for a really good story.

I’ve read some of the reviews for this book on Amazon. I have to say they are either neutral or negative. I have to disagree. This is a great book to just pass away the summer afternoon and long evenings.

If you are looking for sex and violence then this book won’t be for you.

If you want to read a book that makes you engage with the characters; that has a slightly socially awkward main protagonist; that has a simple but engaging storyline; this book is for you.