Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore

By Matthew Sullivan

I've read my share of idiot plots—stories where a single adult conversation would solve everything. Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore suffers from that affliction.

And yet, the mystery is a fun ride. The twists are clever, and if you squint, they almost hold together. But the whole thing is built on the silent, willful refusal of two people to simply talk to each other until crisis draws them together again. 

Murder on the Orient Express

By Agatha Christie

I’ve already seen the movie so why read the book? To see how Christy expertly spins a narrative that cleverly weaves in the clues. The book allows you to mull things over as the mystery unfolds. Movies keep their own time and you miss things if you blink. 

Tourist Season – Carl Hiaasen

In Florida, a trash private detective chases trashy murderers, killing trashy victims in trashy ways for trashy reasons.

Fantastic low-brow fun. Occasionally gruesome, but never enough to spoil the ride.

Station Eleven – Emily St. John MandeL

A great bit of post-apocalyptic speculative fiction. Most post-apocalyptic stories pick up many years after the collapse of society. Not Station Eleven. Its touching narrative tunnels through the hours, days, months, and years before and after a lethal flu wipes out most of humanity.