When a bookshop patron dies by suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this "shocking, charming, thrilling" (Associated Press) and award-winning debut novel. Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she leads a meticulously ordered existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs--the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day browsing the overwhelmed stacks. But when a young BookFrog, Joey Molina, hangs himself in one of the upper rooms of the store, Lydia's life comes unglued. Inside one of Joey's pockets is a photograph of Lydia as a little girl. And when she flips through some of his books, she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man on the verge of an emotional reckoning. The more she puzzles over them, the more they seem to contain a hidden message for her about his final days. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia? With "oddball characters and a] layered plot" (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review), Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is "a smart, twisty crime novel set in a world that booklovers will adore" (Jess Walter, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins).
Published by Ashly Moore Sheldon • December 05, 2021
If you're a puzzle lover, you may have noticed the recent surge of interest in Cain's Jawbone. The fiendishly difficult literary puzzle, first published in 1934, has only ever been solved by four people. The book has been trending since a popular TikTok user began posting about her attempts to solve the confounding whodunnit case. Here are some similar titles to consider for those who love a puzzle.
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