Matthew Sullivan - Midnight At The Bright Ideas Bookstore

Rating: 3/5

Review:
Not as good as I'd hoped

I should have loved this book.  I'm a sucker for a story set in a bookshop, its central character is engaging and there's a mystery to be solved, but something about Midnight At The Bright Ideas Bookstore just didn’t do it for me.

The story is set in the 80s, I think (certainly pre-internet and mobile phones), and centres around Lydia who is 30 years old and working in the eponymous bookstore in Denver, Colorado.  In the first few pages she finds that a young man, a regular customer who has become almost a friend, has hanged himself in the store.  The events relating to his death and to Lydia's traumatic past emerge as the book progresses.  It's a decent set-up, but thesubsequent development all seemed rather pedestrian to me.

I find it hard to put my finger on why the book didn't engage me properly.  The prose is perfectly readable and Matthew Sullivan can create a good character –  the one time the book came completely alive for me was during the relatively brief appearance of a cynical, reclusive retired cop whom I found a vividly real and gripping character.  The rest, though…well, it felt a little obviously constructed, somehow, as if I could see the Creative Writing Manual showing through without really being convinced by much of it.  There are some coincidences which are central to the plot which really stretch credibility, for example, and I found the journey of Lydia's heart completely unconvincing.

I don't want to carp too much.  It's OK.  I did finish it (albeit with some judicious skimming) but I'd hoped for much better.  Plainly, other reviewers have enjoyed this far more than I did, but I can only give it a qualified recommendation.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)