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.