Midnight At The Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan
Brent Jones
Lydia Smith really loves her job at the Bright Ideas Bookstore in Denver. She grew up in a library-based- home in this town about 20 years ago.
She had only two friends. Raj was a boy her age and Carol was her other friend. At a sleep over at Carol’s house, Carol and her parents were brutally murdered by the Hammerman. Lydia hid but it seemed like she was spared? The mystery of who the Hammerman was is still not solved, but things that happen at the bookstore and in Lydia’s life take her back to that mystery.
The bookstore is a second home to many of the area street people and Lydia feels a connection to them. She sees them as dreamers and refers to them as BookFrogs. One of the dreamers, Joey Molina, is a real mystery but it eventually becomes clear that he is part of a bigger picture that includes the mystery of her youth. Joey is in his early twenties. He loves books and he considers Lydia his only friend.
She is disconnected from her father and their relationship is an interesting part of the plot. Her childhood friend Raj comes back into her life and they try hard to understand the events they both shared growing up and what is happening now. They both become obsessed with who Joey really is.
It is a dark story with a twisted plot. The reviews I found on this book offer a lot of details that seem to be spoilers. The twisted plot is a delightful part of this book, so I have been hesitant to mention more of the events here. The book will pull you in and you will not want to put it down
Matthew Sullivan grew up in a family of eight children in suburban Denver, Colorado. He received his B.A. from the University of San Francisco, his M.F.A. from the University of Idaho, and has been a resident writer at Yaddo, Centrum, and the Vermont Studio Center. His writing has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and other awards, and has won the Florida Review Editor's Prize and the Robert Olen Butler Fiction Prize. In addition to working for years at Tattered Cover Book Store in Denver and at Brookline Booksmith in Boston, he has taught writing and literature at colleges in Boston, Idaho, and Poland, and currently teaches writing, literature, and film at Big Bend Community College in the high desert of Washington State. He is married to a librarian, Libby, and has two children and a scruffy dog named Ernie.