Book Review
The Bookshop of Yesterdays
by Amy Meyerson
Park Row Books © 2018
Summary:
Miranda Brooks is happy. She is a successful history teacher in Philadelphia. She just moved in with her boyfriend, and has just begun a summer break in which she can enjoy co-habitated life with her boyfriend. Strangely, she receives a copy of The Tempest in the mail with a highlighted passage. Later that night at their housewarming party, she receives a call from her mother. Her Uncle Billy, to whom she has not spoken in 16 years, has passed away.
An eccentric seismologist and bookstore owner with a passion for traveling to earthquake zones, Billy was a huge part of Miranda’s life. Until he wasn’t. Miranda’s memory of her last encounter with Uncle Billy is a scar she thought long healed, until the news of his passing brings memories rushing back. Uncle Billy used to teach Miranda through scavenger hunts.
The Tempest is the first clue in a scavenger hunt that will bring Miranda back to California for her uncle’s funeral, claim his bookshop as her inheritance, and help her discover long-buried family secrets.
My Thoughts:
The premise of this book is brilliant. The relationship Miranda once had with her Uncle Billy is endearing and the sudden end of that relationship is heart-breaking and confusing (i.e. the perfect set up for a mysterious adventure to excavate the family secrets which drove them apart). Meyerson’s use of literary references in the scavenger hunt is fun and charming.
Less than 100 pages in, I was really enjoying this story. As I continued to read, I had three problems that kept me from becoming truly engrossed in the story.
The first problem was the obviousness of each character’s intention. Without revealing any spoilers, I can say that Meyerson’s description of Miranda’s interaction with each character made clear the outcome of the big life decisions Miranda would be forced to make at the end of the story. Taking the complexity out of those decisions was somewhat deflating to the overall story.
The second problem I had with the story was the pacing. Though it is interesting and enjoyable to discover pieces of Billy’s life through important people holding the next clue in the scavenger hunt, the story became tedious to me in places.
My third problem was Miranda. She is a self-absorbed and difficult-to-love heroine. I appreciated the circumstances that formed her baggage, but … I will just say she was not likeable for a good part of the book.
Overall, I felt that the premise of this story is innovative and engaging. I would recommend this book to mystery lovers. It will not find a place on my favorites shelf, however, but I am not sorry to have picked it up.