I tend to stray away from books that make me feel squishy feelings. I like gross stuff, and ghosts, and scary things that tickle my feet at night. “Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore” jumped out at me from the mystery aisle and I tossed it in my bag without another thought. I’m glad I did but at what cost.

From the start, the characters are the real plot carriers as the mystery is tossed to the wayside and if I’m being terribly honest, pretty easy to figure out. But, I stayed for the players. Sometimes you hazard to make your characters TOO interesting, and tiptoe into cringe territory, but I didn’t find that here: these are weird people, as book people often are (they’re also from Denver but that’s beside the point.) They’re tangible, WHOLE characters. I bet if you asked the author ten interesting facts about every character he wrote, he wouldn’t hesitate to tell you: you get the feeling he took the time to care about them. This book is human, even in its unbelievable nature, and the humans in it are flawed in a realistic, aggravating way.

This book will not be for everyone that is looking for a simple mystery. It’s a multifaceted, complexly emotional, but sad book. It shows us the squishy, gross stuff of being human. As layered as it was, I think the main aspects of grief, longing, belonging, and resilience overwhelmed the mystery itself, which isn’t a bad thing at all. But, certainly not what I expected.

3.5/5 this mystery thriller could have been a little more mysteriously thrilling but I did enjoy it nonetheless.