Death of a Bookseller: the instant Sunday Times bestseller! The debut suspense thriller of 2023 that you don't want to miss!

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This is such a fantastic book, dripping with malice and tension. It is a dark journey into obsession. The pop culture references and dark humour throughout make this an engrossing and enjoyable read. The story will get under your skin and make you itch. Told in alternating POV between the two characters in short snappy chapters. They both work in a neglected dilapidated bookshop. I wonder if serial killers think about me as much as I think about them.” I didn’t realize the actual shirt exists. Go to Etsy. It does! 😂 It's told through a dual point of view, which worked extremely well - it highlighted the contrasting motivations & attitudes of the two narrators, and I felt like I was really inside the characters' heads. With such a wonderful novel, I truly hope that publisher Poisoned Pen Press will publish the entire series. Please, please, please!

I really like the symmetry of the ending and overall this is an immersive, dark and well written novel which the excellent cover really captures. This group is for For Books' Sake readers to come together to talk about books they love (or hate), air their views and share their recommendations. A dark masterpiece of grief and obsession. It will work its way under your skin like a splinter and stay there.” Purple haired and fascinated by virtually anything macabre, serial-killer fanatic Roach is quite possibly one of the (very few) characters to ever make me feel soo uncomfortable.Almost everyone comes under suspicion and almost anyone could have committed the crime. By the time I reached the end, I really did not much care who the murderer was. a villain who confesses to a murder because if he doesn't confess the devil will be summoned and the devil will turn his mother into a rat ... hey come on ! The book is set in the 50's and not in the middle ages, who can believe such threats? The really terrific thing about the book is how the writer conjures that slightly mysterious quality that people working in bookshops always have." Daily Mail a good and nice man who however wants to summon the devil... well, for me it is a contradiction that is not acceptable.

Originally published in 1956 this book has been issued again as part of the British Library Crime Classics series. I loved the idea of this book, a mystery set amongst rare book dealers, but it wasn't as engaging as I had hoped. Meet Roach (real name Brogan), she works in Spines, a bookshop in Walthamstow. She’s a Goth, a loner, dark if not morbid and obsessed with true crime. Oh, let’s not forget the pet snail, yes, that’s right a pet snail! Roach is quite happy (as much as she can be that is) working in the bookshop until Laura joins the staff. Laura seems bright, breezy, as sweet as the roses she smells of and the poetry she writes and looking so perky in her well considered outfits. Is her shiny exterior a veneer? Is she just a bit too well put together? At first Roach thinks she’s a ‘normie’ or a Pumpkin Spice Girl but she grows curious about her, sensing something that intrigues her which then develops into something distinctly uncomfortable. The story is told in short, sharp chapters and alternates between the two of them. A dark masterpiece. It will work its way under your skin like a splinter and stay there' CATRIONA WARD This is a very enjoyable debut thriller. The story is told through dual POV. While both characters are inherently unlikeable, they are well written and impossible to forget.Partly I just didn't enjoy being in Roach's head. She's a great creation in the spirit of The Wasp Factory, The Magus etc--a really unpleasant person made up of whining, unjustified smugness, and self justification--but I think I prefer looking at horrible people rather than inhabiting them, at least over long stretches. And also, by 30% we hadn't really got anywhere in plot terms: Roach is becoming more stalky and Laura doesn't like her, repeat. I DNFd because I just didn't want to spend time in this world without a propulsive plot. /shrugs./ YMMV and probably will. I felt Alice’s exploration of grief, and depression and mental health is an excellent piece of writing. Sensitive but raw. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a classic mystery, especially if you are happy to accept that in 1956 people viewed many major issues differently than we do today. There's a lot to fear in this world, but when something goes bump in the night, it isn't ghosts that haunt me." I love how uncomfortable this book made me. Roach's obsession with serial killers. When looked at it through Laura's eyes, it's unsettling. Even though I do like True Crime, I'm more in the vein of using as an educational guide to stay alive, not the fascination with the murderer themselves. I'm much more drawn to missing - but I loved the uncomfortable struggle of Roach's POV and her spiraling.

This is an extremely male-dominated book with female characters essentially restricted to minor roles with only one exception who was in all honesty rather pitiful. While this book was mainly about the complex relationship between Laura & Roach, it also explores the implications of true crime books & podcasts on real life victims & survivors. I'm quite partial to a true crime podcast & this really made me rethink how I consume this type of media. This theme added depth to the story & made this book really stand out as something a bit different. Morbidly atmospheric yet thoroughly mesmerising, Alice Slater’s debut cleverly delves into the world of True Crime, and the problematic exploitation of real crime (and the deaths of real people) for entertainment.The story revolves around Sergeant Wigan, a policeman by vocation but also a bibliophile who is discovering the joys of tracing and buying first editions. When one of his book selling friends is found murdered with a very costly first edition missing from his shelves, Wigan is temporarily attached to the team investigating the murder.