Book Review: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan

I kept bumping into this book, and when I saw it was available on the audiobook service I use, I had to listen to it despite not being a great mystery buff. Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a great mystery novel those who love books and enjoy low-moderate violence. I’m not sure what I thought about the book and its plot and characters. They were okay, but not distinguishable anyway. The book felt like an old comfortable shoe which doesn’t hold any surprises. Which is sometimes a good thing, but if you are looking for something that will challenge you or is an eye-opening experience then maybe this book isn’t right for that.

The book, on a deeper level, handles courage. Courage to face the past. Courage to love. Courage to do the right thing. Courage to admit. Courage to live your life as it should be lived. It’s a very sad, humane story of how life can get all twisted and what can happen if we don’t voice our wants and dare to walk away when we should. I won’t go deeper into the book to spoil the plot, but the whole mystery left this melancholic feeling that this shouldn’t be. Life shouldn’t go this way. Making the book deeper than your garden variety murder and mayhem. But what I hated was the epilogue and if you read or listen to the book, I’m sure most of you’ll agree why. I give you a hint, TV and the conversation what comes after that. I hated that. It ruined the book for me.

How to sum up my feelings? This is a perfect book for that one rainy afternoon when you have nothing to do, and you don’t want to dwell anything too deep but not read anything without substance. But this is not a perfect book or mind-blowing. But I have to say that the story still makes me melancholic when I think about it. There are a lot of destinies in the world which are out of the hands of the actors who play them. Every child, every person should at least have a chance to live a good life, but I know we live far from a perfect world. What a pity.