The Cafe by the Sea

This novel (also published under the English title, The Summer Seaside Kitchen) will not offer any surprises for those who have read other books by Jenny Colgan (see my post on The Bookshop on the Corner). She continues her love affair with Scotland, this time on a (fictitious) island, Mure, at the northern most point of the country. There will be two men: one who is clearly infatuated with our protagonist, Flora, and one who is cold, aloof, gorgeous, and unattainable--in this case, Joel, Flora's boss at a law firm in London. You will know the predictable outcome by the time you read a couple of chapters, but the journey is still enjoyable.
A few years ago, Flora fled her home island of Mure after her mother's death from cancer...too many memories and too many people who knew her and expected her to step in and fill her mother's shoes looking after her father and her three brothers on the MacKenzie Farm.  Now, through happenstance, a potentially very lucrative client project has come up on the island and Flora is tapped to go back to Mure and suss out the locals' attitudes about moving a proposed wind farm that will spoil the view of the client's posh resort on the north end of the island. Flora goes home to find everyone still mad at her for leaving, her father fading away, her brothers bitter about the slow decline of the farm and the small island population not at all favorably disposed toward the rich American who has bought up "The Rock"for his new resort but not hired any local labor or sourced any of his food locally. He also owns a small building in town that he has left vacant and they are cross about that, as well. As you might guess, Flora is charged with smoothing ruffled community feathers, especially those of the town council, and that includes putting a small cafe into the empty shop in town. Back on the farm, Flora finds that her brother, Fintan, who the rest of the family thinks is a laggard for not helping more with the farm, has secretly been working on making delicious cheese. She also uncovers her mother's old recipe book and quickly re-connects with her love of cooking and with happier memories of her mom. A light and enjoyable read with wonderful, rich descriptions of the island, which Colgan claims is an "amalgam" of several northern Scottish islands. Perfect escape reading!

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore

This very meaty and somewhat grim crime mystery is the first novel from Matthew Sullivan; his previous work focused on award-winning short stories. He has also worked at the famous Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver, and a differently named Denver bookstore, Bright Ideas, is the central setting of this story. Our protagonist, Lydia Smith, is in her late 20's and loves working at Bright Ideas, and is a friend to all the "Book Frogs"--as the staff call them--lonely souls who while away their days in the various sections of the bookstore or the cafe. When Lydia is closing up one night, she finds one of the younger Book Frogs, Joey, hanging from a rafter. Days later, Joey's landlady tracks her down and gives Lydia the message that Joey has left everything he owns, mostly a box of books, to Lydia. When Lydia examines the strange collection of titles, she discover that tiny holes have been cut in some of the pages. Intent on determining why Joey killed himself, Lydia sets out to decipher the clues Joey has left in the books. As Lydia begins to uncover the sad story of Joey's life in foster care and then in prison, we are also gradually introduced to Lydia's past and the terrible secret that keeps her in semi-hiding. While at a sleep-over, Lydia, who hid under the sink, aurally witnessed the murder of her best friend's family by "The Hammerman," murders that remain unsolved. The event changed the trajectory of her life as her father moved them to an isolated cabin in the mountains and basically abandoned Lydia to her night terrors while he took the only job he could find, working as a prison guard. This is a really twisty plot and the solution to both mysteries--murders and suicide--bring Lydia full circle to her childhood and her long-estranged father. The only aspect of the story that was totally unbelievable was how Joey managed to leave the messages in his mutilated books. But get past that, and you will be engrossed in this chilling tale. Decent review from Kirkus, and a short review from Publishers Weekly.