Art School graduate and former web designer Clay Jannon finds his next job at Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore. It's an unusual bookstore. There's not much business, especially during the late shift. Most of the customers who come in don't buy books at all -- they borrow a series of volumes that contain nothing but numbers. Jannon's curiosity gets the best of him and he recruits a few friends to investigate. They discover a secret society that's been around for 500 years.
While this book has received several good reviews, my review is much more ambivalent. I loved the premise -- a bookstore acting as a front for a secret society. I loved the strangeness of the bookstore itself. There are interesting moments and Sloan writes humor incredibly well. The book glows in the dark, which is super cool.
Aside of the trip to New York however, there wasn't much urgency to the story. There's a lot of convenience involved -- Clay happens to have friends with the needed resources to solve this mystery. Money is not a concern, nor is access to resources. Even finding long-lost items happens relatively easily. And, I have to admit, the final reveal was a disappointment for me.
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