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 hate that her name will forever be associated with the man who killed her, and I hate that the world only remembers her as a chapter in the story of his life. In this and “utterly unforgettable and ” debut (Catherine Ryan Howard), a disaffected, true crime-obsessed bookseller develops a dangerous obsession with a colleague. 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. Roach’s initial derision makes it seem they are polar opposites but as we dig deeper the realisation grows that there are similarities.

You feel impatience and sympathy and revulsion and a weird affection for this ticking time bomb all at once—and slowly, you start to realize that the pleasant, professional bookseller she desperately wants to befriend isn’t perfect, either. It is one of the very few novels I've read set in the publishing / publishing adjacent world that don't feel to inside-focussed and I loved all the sections about the booksellers at work, as well as the major themes. Undeterred, Roach learns everything she can about her new colleague, eventually uncovering Laura’s traumatic family history. It becomes a nightmarish scenario driven by obsession with boundaries distinctly crossed, becoming a twisted fearful tale frequently backlit by the true crime element. Very dark, character-driven, slow-burn suspense … Slater explores the ethics surrounding our obsession with true crime and questions how we should handle other people’s stories.stars - I cannot get into too many details because of spoilers, but this ended up not being my kind of trope combo. We delve into the unsettling underbelly of society that's hidden behind the natural curiosity of the morbid - the people who take their obsessions with death, serial killers and monsters to the extremes - immortalising and idolising the worst parts of humanity. From the moment I started reading Death of a Bookseller, I was absolutely lost to the story – sucked down into it so completely I couldn’t think about anything else.

It’s all very smartly done, and I loved its clever ending, but there’s a serious message here about our obsession with crime, both true and fiction, and in particular violence against women. With the police unsure how to proceed due to the lack of evidence and suspects, Wigan is seconded to CID to help with the case, the hope being that his knowledge of book collecting will allow him to ferret out the murderer. She’s seen as a bit of an odd ball, with her gothic type looks, lack of friends, and her infatuation with all things true crime.This book was not it, it was repetitive, it was creepy to a stalker level giving me ‘You’ vibes (Netflix Joe Goldberg vibes, but it didn’t have the edge to it at all). I was so pleased to read an Arc of this book as I listen to Alice Slater's excellent podcast What page are you on? An original story that will get you turning the pages until the very end, I was sad when I finished it , think I am in a book slump now on this occasion you can believe the hype. Her poetry, which Roach is bowled over by, focuses on honoring the victims rather than glorifying the crime or the criminal behind it. You gotta give credit to who ever is running the marketing for this book, because they for sure know how to scam and sell literal bollocks.

Little believing Fisk’s warning, Wigan is nevertheless intrigued by the idea of collecting books as a way to unwind and the two strike up a friendship, with Wigan visiting Fisk’s home a few times a week to discuss books and have his latest finds assessed by an expert. The true crime references were really well done and you can tell the author has worked in bookselling, it was all too true! My literary recipe for Death of a Bookseller would involve: the razor-sharp character studies and themes of obsession and envy in Looker and Kiss Me First; the heady atmosphere of The Poison Tree; the deliciously nasty underbelly of Boy Parts and Eileen; and the spiralling, unstable mood of Animals or Problems – especially as the story reaches its climax and the protagonists seem bound for disaster.

Her story is character rather than plot driven, leisurely paced, it could benefit from a little trimming. Both are damaged in very different ways: Roach deals with her negligent upbringing and her desperate neediness with a snarky contempt for ‘normies’ while Laura’s carefully curated wardrobe, small treats and sunny exterior is a strategy for controlling the sharp pain of grief. But there are so many positive reviews on Goodreads that I felt like I needed to make sure people understood, THIS IS A BAD BOOK. While the evidence gathered doesn’t convince Wigan of Hampton’s guilt, it is enough for the police and prosecuting service to bring him to trial, which adds an extra level of tension to Wigan’s investigation.

Death of a Bookseller is an exceptional book that gets to the heart of true crime obsession - from those who love it and those who have lived it. The split POV’s are also such a good element, I think the story works so well from two perspectives. There’s plenty of fruitless legwork involved and a lot of hope is pinned on members of the public responding to notices placed in magazines.A highly original story about a creep you'll easily let into your heart - but beware: once she's there, she might just blow it up .