Miranda Brooks spent her childhood in frequent visits to her Uncle Billy's bookshop, Prospero Books, learning a love of reading and literature, and solving the scavenger hunts he set for her. She also spent time wondering if he would show up for expected visits, or be suddenly called away by his real job, as a seismologist responding to major earthquakes all over the world.
Then, when she was twelve, her mother and Billy had a major falling-out, and Billy disappeared from her life. Miranda didn't hear from him again for sixteen years. She was by then living on the east coast, in Philadelphia, teaching eighth grade history, and living with her boyfriend, Jay.
Billy has died, and had arranged for a book to be mailed to her. It contains the first clue in the last scavenger hunt he set up for her.
He has also left his bookstore, Prospero's Books, to her. Unfortunately, it's in serious danger of bankruptcy.
Soon Miranda is back in Los Angeles, attending Billy's funeral, and following his clues, as each clue leads her to a person who has both information about Billy, and another clue.
She's also staying with her parents, at least initially. This gets tense, because her mother--who has never been willing to say what she and Billy argued about--is determined to "protect" Miranda from whatever she might learn by looking into Billy's past. Miranda, naturally, doesn't at all like the idea of being "protected" by being kept ignorant.
While this is going on, she's also getting to know the bookstore again, and its current staff, and finding, perhaps, a new "found family."
I was really drawn into the story. Miranda, the staff at Prospero Books, and what she gradually learns about her family's past are absorbing.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
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