Death of a Bookseller

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. Dark, unsettling, thrilling with a great humour throughout, you can't help but be engulfed in the story and turn the pages with increased fervour to see where it ends. Will be recommending far and wide. Brilliant read.

An enjoyable book, by an author new to me.

I was intrigued and gripped throughout, and really liked the book.

Thank you, NetGalley.

I loved it.

A great and unusual story - a true crime addict and a woman on the verge of a breakdown are strangely intertwined, almost at times seeming to become each other.

Dark, a bit creepy (not in the looking over your shoulder way though) and totally addictive. Full of magnificent characters - none wholly likeable but fascinating all the same. These people smoke and drink so much I don't know how they manage to get up for work in the bookshop the next day. But they do - in all their stubbled, sweaty-underarmed, greasy-fingered glory.

And that ending!

It's like meeting a bunch of new friends - well, the type of friends I have, anyway.

Did I say how much I loved it?

Completely engrossing, Death of a Bookseller was a perfect dark story of obsession. Tense and addictive I could not put this down.

We follow two booksellers Roach and Laura as Roach’s true crime obsession spirals in to an obsession with Laura and her life. While it’s pretty dark it’s also full of nods to books and book selling which made for a great combination.

Death of a book seller by Alice Slater

Oh this was dark and I loved it.. it’s a slow burn that has you shouting at both main characters be careful!

Roach and Laura are both booksellers in the same book shop but they are completely oppostite.. Roach loves true crime especially with serial killers (maybe a little too much) and Laura is the daughter of a victim of a serial killer so you can imagine that Roach is invested in Laura, where Laura is repulsed by Roach.

The story creeps along at an unsettling pace and you become more invested in the ladies.. the book goes from Roach to Laura and building the tension between them.. it’s a great story and a its sinister and dark and really quiet delicious.. I loved it


#DeathofaBookseller #NetGalley #creepy #dark #females

One of the best books I have EVER read. This is 2023’s answer to How To Murder Your Family. Utterly brilliant. Roach is an utterly loatheable character and Laura was complicated- fantastically written supporting characters and set in a bookshop, what more could you want. My only tiny gripe is how many times Dark Fruits was mentioned!

Brogan Roach (referred to as Roach), is a bookseller working in a shop in Walthamstow. 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.
On the run up to Christmas, the bookshop brings in some more staff, including Laura, a well-put together, cheerful and chatty ‘perfect’ bookseller who Roach instantly dislikes. But soon, Roach feels a connection with Laura and is constantly trying to pursue some sort of friendship. As Laura begins to reveal parts of a truly shocking and dark secret about her life, Roach’s obsession only deepens, which makes Laura sick to her stomach.

Oh my god…THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD!! If you’re like me and have a bit of a thing for true crime then this book will absolutely 100% be for you!
Alice Slater, you are a little genius! This book has everything, it’s dark, it’s gory and grimy, it’s fast paced, and it’s also got that quintessential British humour and relatable-ness which I adore.
Surprisingly, for a book with such a high rating, neither Laura nor Roach are particularly likeable characters in the novel. I feel like you get such mixed feelings for both characters, feeling sorry for them whilst also disliking them for their actions. I also think that the ensemble of other characters really enhance the book, such as the rest of the bookselling team, Roach’s mum Jackie, and Roach’s love intrest Sam. The split POV’s are also such a good element, I think the story works so well from two perspectives.

Overall a truly fabulous book. I can definitely see myself coming back and reading this plenty more times. It was absolutely amazing and I loved every single second of it!

Brogan is quite happy to spend her time scuttling around in the dark, working as a bookseller and avoiding the sun - much like her moniker, Roach. And until now, Roach hasn't wanted anything more than her life in the shadows with her pet snail and murder stories but now Laura has changed everything.

When she arrives in Roaches failing bookstore, tasked with bringing life into the dying business, she brings a sense of light with her that's unfamiliar but intriguing. But in that light, Roach sees a little glimmer of dark - something she can connect with and soon she is obsessed with finding the broken parts of Laura, making her realise they'd be best friends ... If only Laura would look at her.

"There's a lot to fear in this world, but when something goes bump in the night, it isn't ghosts that haunt me."

Sickeningly dark and twisted, this is a thrilling story about obsession, desperation and desire.

Our two characters are the catalysts, the driving force of this tale - both described so viscerally, total opposites but sides of the same coin; the victim and the murderer, the good and the bad, the blurry grey between the black and white. Laura is a model bookseller - efficient, warm, kind, creative - she smells like flowers and writes evocative poetry. Whereas Roach takes her name seriously, invoking a deep sense of discomfort, even revulsion at times. She made me feel watched, sent a sharp chill down my spine and we followed through her disturbing trains of thoughts. But despite her unhinged, unnerving behaviour, there was something undeniably curious and compelling about her - like a feral cat, you know she'll scratch your eyes out but you still want to reach out a hand regardless - and of course, much like the murderers and villains she can't get enough of.

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. Slater incisively picks apart the differences between speaking out abut our bloody histories and remembering the victims and glorifying murderers and violence and blurring the line between innocent curiosity and compulsion; between a dark speculative fiction like this, and the way we turn peoples dark reality into our own fiction.

The London setting was masterful - capturing the bustle and dazzling lights of the big city, but also the dark and lonely corners that make everything feel suffocating and claustrophobic. This story is slow, anxious - there are no shock reveals and dramatic turns but instead a disquiet horror that ebbs and flows, letting the truth slowly seep through the pages exactly when they wanted it to. The intense, terrifying behaviour keeps increasing through every chapter until we reach a cinematic climax I didn't see coming.

I loved this read!! I really enjoyed how the two main characters stories were portrayed and intertwined. It was just the right pace and I did not expect what unfolded! A brilliant read!

I LOVED this book. The tension in the writing was so perfectly pitched and compulsive that at times I had to remind myself to slow down to enjoy the wicked humour and beautiful prose as well as the action. 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. Roach is a brilliantly drawn, slimy character, totally believable. Cognratulations to Alice Slater on an amazing debut, will be recommending it widely.

Thank you for letting me read!

Loved this. Fell comfortably into the narrative straightaway as so much of the terminology was familiar. Didn't particular like either Laura or Roach and really couldn't decide who I was rooting for! Thought the ending was great, not salacious or unnecessarily shocking but perfect for the story arc.

Based on two main characters: Laura and Roach, both booksellers in the same book store.

What's the biggest difference between the two?
Roach loves serial killers, homicides, horror movies and everything that has to do with macabre and blood.
Laura had a very traumatic experience as a teenager when her mom was killed by one of them.

Roach will do anything to be friends with Laura, but for the wrongest reasons in this world. She will even go far enough to stealing her poems and changing her words, and when their shifts will be changed she will decide to take her house keys so that she is always "free to come and go as she pleases".

All of this? Only to find out which of her wacky "heroes" killed Laura's mother.

She will find out, and to do so she will do the most absurd things.

The end? Heart-pounding.

Thanks again to #netgallery for asking me to read and review this book. I really enjoyed reading it, but I have to admit that now people in general scare me even more.😳😂

Death of a Bookseller is an engrossing, well-written, well-plotted tale of obsession, loneliness, and trauma, played out in the lives of a group of twenty-something booksellers whose existence revolves around books during the day and booze at night. At the start of the book I wasn't sure it would be for me, in part because "dark" thrillers can sometimes be too dark for my taste, but I quickly found myself drawn into the story, fascinated by the two main characters, and needing to know where the narrative would take them. I wasn't disappointed. This book has all the twists and turns a crime thriller needs and is well paced and consistently good throughout. Having started out wondering if I'd get into it, I found myself setting aside everything else in order to finish it. A really impressive debut. I rarely give five stars, but this debut is definitely deserving of every one of them.

This is so so good , absorbing and peopled by interesting characters. 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./ I read this in one sitting was totally invested

The development of both of the characters was great, the story is a thriller told through a joint POV. Roach the main character grew on towards the end but being in Roach's head kind of freaked me out and at times made me feel uncomfortable. But towards the end her character started to grow on me, overall though i love a dislikable character (she was written so well). Laura on the other hand is her opposite a more comforting character. The book was a slow burn but well worth it and i read this quickly as i enjoyed it so much. I liked that the ending was not predictable.

Is there a more anticipated 2023 book in literary circles than this one? And it’s a debut! A powerful debut at that.

The development of the two main characters - Roach and Laura - was fabulous. Roach is obviously meant to be the weird one, the one we should be wary of. But at first, I didn’t see her like that. Yes she was odd and weird and obsessive and creepy, but I was finding myself liking her. Whereas I didn’t like Laura at first. I felt she was this Miss know-it-all and instantly rated. However, as it went along Roach became more uncomfortable and Laura became familiar. Roach began to cross many lines and you’re conflicted as to whether you can root for her or not. But in the end, I felt I couldn’t support her. Whilst I still enjoyed her uniqueness, I found it hard to justify what she was doing. Excellent development on both parts.

It was interesting to have someone dislikeable as the main character. Protagonists are usually nice and likeable and familiar, but Roach was none of those things. She’s unashamedly wrong. But yet we still root for her. You’ll find yourself rooting both for her and against her.

I found the whole serial killer obsession fascinating. It’s a bit controversial to admit you are interested in them, but given the amount of books, movies and TV shows inspired about them, there are clearly more of us with a fascination than we might admit.

I loved the setting of an independent bookshop. Any book that talks about books and stories is a winner for me. It’s like a love letter to the magic of reading with this backdrop of murder.

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 could have so easily strayed into the unbelievable, the fantasy, the spoof, the caricature. But it just sits on the right side. It’s never too much. Completely believable.

You won’t want to put it down once you start so make sure you have a free day. If you’re like me, it’ll stay with you even after you’ve finished.

I would probably advise not to read it before bed. I did, and then dreamt about serial killers. But if that’s your thing, then I won’t stop you.

There’s no need for a sequel, but I kind of want one. I want to see what happened next and what the future held for our characters.

I felt Alice’s exploration of grief, and depression and mental health is an excellent piece of writing. Sensitive but raw.

I can’t think of anything particularly bad to say about it. I’ve read the odd review that say it’s a bit slow in places but I don’t know where. In my view, it is perfectly paced. Slow enough to get to know the characters, but quick enough to get stuck into the action. The two leads are mesmerising, the concept and plot were unique and fascinating, and the ending was gold.

This will definitely be recommended time and time again. And whilst it’s due out in the UK spring (April), I think it would make the perfect dark autumn night read, when the wind is howling and the shadows grow around you.

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.
Well paced with plenty of twist and turns to keep you guessing. The ending was unexpected and satisfying. Overall a must read for booksellers and book lovers alike.

Thanks to the author, Hodder and Stoughton and
Hodder and Stoughton audio as well as NetGalley for the opportunity to read and listen to this unmissable book.

Wow. Wow. Wow. I didn’t see that twist coming!
I was hooked on this from the very first page.
Both Laura and Roach were so well roundly written and I loved reading from both of their perspectives.
Alice Slater has penned a brilliant book, I hope it’s wildly successful. It’s definitely an obsession. I hope the author has more books planned.

With the hugest of thanks to the publishers and the author for allowing me to read such a fantastic book.

Roach is a true crime obsessive, friendless except for her pet snail and works in a bookshop.

Laura is a sparkling shiny person with her cute outfits and effortless style she is the most popular bookseller.

Roach feels Laura is as interested in the morbid and macabre as she is even though Laura’s contempt for Roach is obvious but she is determined to know everything about her life regardless of the consequences.

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.

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.

Death of a Bookseller is released on 27th April 2023. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Oh my gosh! This book definitely lives up to the hype I’ve been hearing about it. It has me hooked from the first chapter. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an advance copy, I will definitely be recommending.

What a gloriously sinister, triumph of a book!
So unique with two protagonists on the opposite ends of the spectrum. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know both of them and I’m still not sure who is my favourite… Alice or Roach. They both have their own demons which adds depth to the storyline. I will be recommending as an unusual page-turner.

Loved everything about this- the setting, the pace, the dual point of view, the incredibly vivid characters, and I could go on and on! Truly a deliciously disgusting little book that I will push into the hands of everyone I know, and I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up on a lot of people's list of 'best of 2023'!

When I say this is the book I have been most anticipating in recent memory it’s no exaggeration.

I know Alice and love her podcast What Page are You On? so I’ve known about her debut novel for a while, and everything I’ve heard about it has made me more and more excited about it. I was absolutely over the moon to be approved for it!

Death of a Bookseller is going to be absolutely huge next year. It’s dark story of obsession and messy female relationships, set to a backdrop of book selling.

The characters are so well-realised that I find myself thinking about them as though they are real people, and Alice’s background as a bookseller makes the perfect setting.

As someone who is hesitant around true crime, this book perfectly addresses why I find it uncomfortable whilst also understanding its popularity. It also manages to be a perfectly twisty thriller at the same time.

This is an absolute masterclass in storytelling and I know I’ll be reading it again when it comes out.

Not only a 5 star book, and not only one of my favourites of the year, but added to my all-time favourites list.

So, this WILDLY exceeded my (already high) expectations!! 📖🔪

📚 'Death of a Bookseller' by Alice Slater is about two women - Laura and Roach - who both work in the same chain bookshop (sounded a bit like a Waterstones). Roach has an obsession with serial killers & Laura disagrees with 'true crime' as a literary genre, which creates tensions which escalate the longer they work together.

🚔 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.

⚡ Alice Slater absolutely NAILS the pacing in this. Not so fast that you lose out on the detail & feeling of suspense, but gripping enough that I binge-read the whole thing in a couple of days.

✍️ 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.

✨ Overall, a very self-aware novel with vivid characters and an interesting take on true crime as a genre - I would highly recommend getting this on your 'to be read' list for next year!

🗓️ Comes out 27th April 2023

- Katie

Review to be posted on Instagram (@katiespencebooks) today and Twitter (@katiespencey) on Friday

What a horrible little book!

Death of a Bookseller is told from the perspectives of two colleagues at Spines, a chain bookstore in Walthamstow. Roach, an unwashed true crime fanatic, is obsessed with Laura, who is fragrant and popular, but troubled by the murder of her mother at the hands of a serial killer.

If you're looking for likeable characters, you won't find them here, but you will find a well-written, tense and suspenseful story with plenty to say about the ethics of the way we consume true crime. (There's also loads to enjoy if you have ever worked as a bookseller - I couldn't help picturing Spines as "my" old branch of Waterstones, which was very fun indeed.)

Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton and #Netgalley for a proof copy of #DeathofaBookseller. This is one I was super excited to read in 2023, and it didn't disappoint.

A deliciously horrible thriller about the dark little obsessions lurking within the people we see everyday. This book pushed so many buttons for me - obsessive girls, sticky Camden pubs, messy nights out and the nauseous regrets of the morning after, a bookshop that will be very familiar to alumni of a certain black and white high street chain. It had me cackling and grimacing in equal measure. A creepy delight.

Set during the run up to Christmas, Alice Slater’s hugely enjoyable novel follows Roach who’s worked in the dingy Walthamstow branch of Spines for nine years, and Laura, one of three seasoned booksellers parachuted in with the aim of saving it from closure.
Roach runs the true crime section and is fascinated by serial killers. Laura is the opposite, writing poetry which seeks to honour murdered woman not their murderers. Both women grew up in Walthamstow while the Stow Strangler was on the loose and after Laura gives a poetry reading which the shop team attend, Roach becomes convinced she's hiding something. Over the next three months, Roach’s stalking becomes ever more obsessive, and Laura begins to unravel.
Roach’s behaviour provides much of the tension as Laura’s careful control begins to crumble. 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. 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. I raced through Slater’s novel which is steeped in the sort of detail any bookseller, past or present, will recognise. Despite having left the trade quite some time ago, I felt as if it was just yesterday that I’d been behind the till.

Wow, what a fantastic debut! Death Of A Bookseller follows two booksellers, gloomy Roach and effervescent Laura, as the former becomes increasingly obsessed with the latter over the course of one fateful winter. Both characters are developed wonderfully and the plot was so gripping I simply could not put the book down. It also captures all the details of bookselling so well - both the wonderful bits and the absolutely horrible bits! Alice Slater is an author to watch and I'll be recommending this to readers who enjoyed books like Boy Parts and Night Shift,

I knew from the first page that Alice Slater's debut was going to be brilliant. It's a brutally sharp dissection of obsessive true crime fans and the damage caused by sticking our noses into other people's tragedies. But it's also a love song to books, booksellers and readers, set against the familiar backdrop of failing high streets and Amazon's retail monopoly. Smart, pacy and well written - I can't recommend it enough.

OMG, I have never read a book like this!

This is now in my top 5 reads of 2022. A story like no other I've come across, exploring the obsessive and dark nature of true crime, set against the backdrop of the bookselling community, with fantastically nuanced and dark characters.

I loved the way the book is written from the two main characters perspectives, a brilliant way to get to know them both which really added a layer of nuance to the story. Complicated, broken women for different reasons who are both desperate for love and friendship.

The story explores the danger of our fascination with true crime and as a person who only really reads thrillers and listens to true crime Podcasts, it made me take a pause and think about whether I am too drawn to these areas and whether I need to explore other areas of interest.

I absolutely loved the ending, not expected and whilst following some wonderful twists and turns, it didn't follow a formulaic ending and the book was all the better for it.

I thought this was so clever and a really enjoyable read. Both main characters were fully formed and you felt yourself empathising with both and equally wanting to shake them at times!
It was a great slow burn thriller and I desperately wanted to find out what happened next! The true crime references were really well done and you can tell the author has worked in bookselling, it was all too true! Lovely writing too, more literary than your average thriller. Loved it, can’t wait to see what Alice writes next!

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? Some of the books she has talked about even make it into the book as Laura's favourites.
It did not disappoint a horrible little book indeed with the two protagonists Laura and Roach both booksellers in a back street chain bookstore one a true crime obsessive the other the daughter of a victim of a serial.killer. Roach becomes obsessed with Laura and her story, trying to be her friend and imitate her life.
I loved as the story took us through the exhausting period of Christmas in retail, anyone who has lived through a Christmas working in a London store knows the slog of the pre Christmas run up, all the staff becoming more and more run down with pallid faces and bags under their eyes existing on Berocca and cheap red wine, reaching for the eucalyptus shower gel each day in a vain attempt to wake up. It's all so familiar to anyone who has done it.
I was very sorry to finish the book and say goodbye to Roach our perfect anti hero. Looking forward to whatever Alice writes next.

Oh, this book was horribly, brilliantly, addicting! It’s not often that a book keeps me up until 3am, because I just have to know what happens next, but this book had me in it’s clutches, reading on with mounting horror as the story unravelled.

There were times where I actually recoiled slightly in revulsion - Slater brings both her main characters to life so well, and I found both POV’s equally interesting, if horrifying. I found the author really knew how to set a scene too - I felt like I was walking along rain soaked London streets, lit up by a bookshop window, I was in a mildew ridden flat, a bookshops staff room, a grimy unkept bedroom.

This book is deliciously dark, a tale of crime, and obsession, all wrapped up within a bookshop setting. I loved it.

A much hyped 2023 debut that delivers on the hype and then some, DEATH OF A BOOKSELLER is a must-read. Creepy, tense and page-turning, I quite literally could not put this one down. The dynamic between Roach and Laura left me breathless, I was constantly on-the-edge of my seat as the story hurtled forward. A properly brilliant book, bravo Alice Slater! Can’t wait to read whatever comes next.

I loved this! Imagine Paradise Rot, Nightshift and Boy Parts had a gross little baby. The true crime references didn’t feel forced or disingenuous like I’ve found in other novels that have a true crime element. I never found it predictable and some of the descriptions were so visceral I felt like they were actually happening to me.

I really really enjoyed this. it was super creepy, beautifully written and the POVs were both spectacular. This will be huge I think.

I just CAN'T describe how wonderful this grotty, dank, rancid little story was. Such a gripping and modern story of obsession, work relationships, true crime, bookshops, drinking, problematic attitudes....urgh! I really couldn't put this down.

The characters of Roach and Laura are both unlikable in disparate ways, and their intertwining issues are so dark. The setting and references are so vivid and I found myself able to picture every aspect of this story. I hated how I related so much to both characters, and started worrying that I might have ever been treated like Laura. I can't wait to read more from Alice Slater, she is such a modern and interesting writer.

Deliciously Dark..
Meet Roach - bookseller and true crime aficionado. She also owns a giant snail named Bleep. Roach is settled enough, she has all she needs. When Laura joins the bookshop along with her posse and her secrets, things are about to change and an obsession is about to begin. With a credible and well crafted cast of characters- most of whom are, quite deliberately, wholly unlikeable - and a tantalisingly immersive and compelling narrative, this is quite impossible to put down from the first page onwards. Fabulously and deliciously dark, often bleakly amusing,

A delicious, intense slow-burn of a thriller. Death of a Bookseller alternates between the distinctive, punchy voices of Laura and Roach, both booksellers, one pumpkin-spice Instagram cool and the other a true-crime loving goth kid. Their voices are so clear and precisely drawn that they feel free, referencing pop culture, and particularly the trends of the book world. You can tell Alice Slater is a former bookseller because her depiction of the bookshop world, in all its routine, monotony and enjoyment, is an authentic and vividly drawn backdrop for this growing paranoia and tension between Laura and Roach. A great literary thriller with shades of Nightshift by Kiare Ladner and a very satisfying ending.