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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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I think Slater's execution of Brodie as a character is so well done. Again, I don't want to give too many details here so I don't ruin the book, but she is terrifying and pitiful, a brilliant antagonist force. Character work in general here is very fine. I admit, it was nothing like I was expecting. I was expecting it to be a murder mystery, or crime novel. But it’s not really. It was so layered. It’s got this power about it, but also this humour, it’s creepy and unsettling and beautiful to read. It is a bit of a slow-burn, but the creeping uncertainty that pervades every inch of both Laura and Roach’s POV really brought a sense of depth and realism to their characters, and the cat and mouse game that unfolds between them. For a while there I wasn’t sure how things would end but I couldn’t look away from the cringey disaster that began hurtling towards us as both their lives (and obsessions) began spiralling out of control.

When I first saw this book, I was excited. I was so thankful I got the arc from Netgalley! Like WOW, this book sounded so good. And the cover? Chefs kiss. Truly pulled me in. The synopsis explains that there is a girl named Roach (interesting name) who is into true crime (love a good mystery) and meets a girl named Laura and she feels intrigued by her. She soon realizes there is more to Laura than meets the eye... DUN DUN DUNNNNN But when did I ever agree with the majority on books? It’s an oddity, certainly – not the greatest prose and the plot is rather loose and rambly, and there’s a weird thread running through it where sensible and rational people all seem to find the idea of raising the devil and demons not just possible, but quite likely. But for all that, I found that once I got used to the rather plain writing style I enjoyed it, and as it progressed towards the end, I got fully caught up in the story and found the tension building nicely.

This is a study of crossing boundaries into obsession with a deliciously dark seam of true crime and snappy dialogue. The cover is incredible and I think sums up this thriller so well. An excellent read.

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. Sometimes Roach sounds like such an insufferable not-like-other-girls, sometimes Laura sounds like a tryhard London literary type – there are points where both of them will make you roll your eyes. Yet as dark as Roach’s story gets, it’s hard not to extend compassion to her, because the narrative is always extending compassion to her too. It’s the same thing with Laura: she’s often an absolute mess, and we see how her behaviour parallels Roach’s in ways she’d no doubt be reluctant to admit – but we get why. If at first it seems clear that Roach is the dark and Laura the light, somewhere along the line both characters are painted such similar shades of grey that they blend and bleed into each other. This was a deliciously dark crime novel intertwining true crime with bookselling. I personally think that this executed bookselling PERFECTLY and it was such a joy to read a book that spoke about it so well and accurately, as well as hilariously. Along side this, the discussions of true crime and the obsessiveness of some that consume it was incredibly fascinating and seeing how it completely took a tole on Roach and every aspect of her career and life, was something I had never read before and would now, be intrigued to branch more into. a collaborator of the detective, suddenly disappears and Wigan doesn't care too much about what might have happened to him ... not seeing him, he thinks he will wait a few more days to look for him, even though he knows that the situation could be dangerous ... and then in reality he doesn't even look for the man!When Sergeant Wigan stops to escort a swaying reveler home at the end of his late shift, he is spun a tale of the ups and downs of a life spent collecting and selling rare books. His new companion, Michael Fisk, has been celebrating the acquisition of a signed copy of Keats’ Endymion, and a trip into Fisk’s library is enough to convince Wigan to begin his own collection. After developing a love for antiquarian books and a friendship with Fisk, Wigan is called upon by the C.I.D. when tragedy strikes and Fisk is found murdered in his library. It's a creepy story in places and the end is fitting. I loved the writing but sometimes I got a bit nauseous from reading about the huge amounts of alcohol that’s consumed.

Slater gave the reader a real power here in diving deep into each character's thought process and showing how they felt about each other. This was such a clever writing style because it alienated us further from Roach and began to do the same for Laura as we saw her character shift and change until she and Roach didn't feel so different after all. I felt physically uncomfortable at times reading from Roach's perspective whereas I just gradually started to dislike Laura. Also, though it is nice that the detective in question finds external collaborators...well, there are some chapters where the protagonist does nothing or almost nothing and it is the others who carry out the real detective work. Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer team up to exonerate a woman who’s already served five years for killing her ex-husband. 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.This book got 3-stars from me for several different reasons not necessarily because of the story, but I learned some things of interest. The first half of the book flowed well, but it wasn't totally engaging for me, I didn't feel the unbridled desire to resume reading every time I had to interrupt. Slater’s darkly comic debut follows the increasingly uneasy relations between two co-workers who have very different investments in true crime. This is a strange tale, something in between a police procedural and a gothic story. It starts with a humble police sergeant developing an interest in rare books after striking up an unlikely friendship with a book dealer. When Sergeant Wigan's friend is found murdered, he is asked to help with the investigation. He meets several strange characters from the fringes of the rare book dealing world and begins to appreciate how ruthless book collectors can be. When the police arrest a suspect, St Wigan feels that they caught the wrong man. So he continues his own investigation among the bookdealers of London. But one day Mike Fisk, the collector, is found dead and despite the arrest of a person, Sergeant Wigan wants to find out who, according to him, is the real killer.

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