For lovers of an intricate plot and a compelling story with complex and deeply scarred characters, you have come to the right book. Despite some quibbles with the mystery-solving process, this well-written book is one you can’t put down until you know the terrible truth about what happened.

The protagonist is Lydia, a smart, pretty bookseller at the titular Bright Ideas bookshop in pre-2000 Denver. She is the friend and protector of the “bookfrogs,” the friendless and often homeless folks who spend their days reading and seeking human companionship in the store. One of them is Joey, ten years younger than Lydia, who keeps to himself except for one bookfrog friend. When Joey hangs himself on the upper level at midnight, Lydia finds the body. Her search for some meaning in Joey’s death leads Lydia into her own dark past in a series of coincidences that bring closure twenty years later to the horror that has defined Lydia’s life.

As a ten-year-old, Lydia was at a sleepover with her best friend, Carol, on the night when a hammer-wielding maniac burst into the house and slaughtered Carol and her parents. Lydia escaped death by hiding under the kitchen sink. One can only imagine the scars that leaves. Yet, Lydia has a job she loves, a long-term lover she lives with, and she seems as level-headed as anyone.

Lydia searches for secret messages Joey left behind, hidden in his books. This literary device is entertaining, but it never makes sense why Joey would not have simply left Lydia a suicide note. The treasure hunt for Joey’s cryptic messages never really illuminates the mystery. Instead, having her photo in the paper reunites her with a childhood friend, Raj, who was also a friend of the murdered Carol. Together, Raj and Lydia try to make sense of Joey’s story, which intersects with the long-ago murder.

The pieces of the puzzle are mostly explained through flashback chapters set twenty years earlier. Along the way, Lydia is reunited with her estranged father, who fled his librarian job after the massacre and took Lydia away to a mountain cabin. Characters spill their long-held secrets to Lydia easily (too easily) and a helpful government official intercedes to provide a key link well beyond standard procedures.

No spoilers here, but the plot twists in multiple directions before landing on the real truth. One of those truths is a total red herring designed to heighten Lydia’s angst and drive the reader in the wrong direction. It leaves a huge plot hole in the story, but it’s easy to overlook. The connections and coincidences are all plausible, if sometimes stretched near the breaking point. The ending is sufficiently satisfying, if a bit trite.

As a mystery, there are not enough clues for the reader to have any hope of solving it before Lydia. But the story is so compelling that the ultimate reveal is well worth the journey. This is a well-constructed psychological thriller that is definitely recommended reading.