Bookworm In Your Ear: Does Murder Sleep?

To use a line from Macbeth, here are two novels that will keep you up all night as they're that well written - one the second novel from Sloan who gifted us with Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, and the debut novel of Sullivan.

Sourdough by Robin Sloan (available at Fully Booked)

After taking on the world of books and bibliophiles in his first novel, here Sloan takes on the world of Food and food entrepreneurs. Lois is a software programmer in a San Francisco robotics company. Practically every night, she orders from two brothers a soup and bread combo that she swears by. Turns out the brothers are TNT with visa issues and before being deported, they gift Lois with the living culture, their sourdough starter. Starting with homemade bread that's a hit at her place of work, Lois is soon immersed in the very territorial Farmer's Markets that dot the Bay Area. Eventually, she finds herself in a secret food market that fuses technology with organic produce - a world where eccentrics, OC foodies, and imperious organizers mingle and interfere with everyone's lives. Entertaining, elucidating, and compassionate; Sloan does it again with Sourdough.

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan (available on Amazon.com)

Full of delicious twists and turns, here's a Crime novel that has the milieu of bookstores and the people who inhabit them as the story's backdrop. Lydia is a clerk at the BI Bookstore and when Joey, a young vagrant who loves books, commits suicide during her 'watch', things begin to unravel. Found in Joey's pocket is a Polaroid from years back, Lois surrounded by friends blowing out the candles of her birthday cake. Why is that photo in Joey's pocket? Why are there a bunch of defaced pages in Joey's apartment? From beyond the grave, Joey seems to be sending messages to Lois. Complicating things is the fact that Lois has her own peculiar history - Lois is the lone survivor of a home massacre when her best friend and her friend's parents were brutally murdered. Are these facts all connected? Totally engrossing read!