Death Of A Bookseller by Alice Slater

 

Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater.

Published 27th April 2023 by Hodder Books.

From the cover of the book:

Roach - bookseller, loner and true crime fanatic- is not interested in making friends. She has all the company she needs in her serial killer books, murder podcasts and her pet snail, Bleep.

That is, until Laura joins the bookshop.

With her cute literary tote bags and sunny smile, she's everyone's favourite bookseller. But beneath the shiny veneer, Roach senses a darkness within Laura, the same darkness Roach possesses.

And as curiosity blooms into morbid obsession, Roach becomes determined to be a part of Laura's story - whether Laura wants her in it or not.

***********

Awkward loner Roach has been a bookseller at Spines in Walthamstow since she was sixteen. It is the perfect place for her to indulge her fascination with serial killers, and she loves curating the true crime section of the bookshop - making it into her personal library of horrors. She has little need for friends, and is content to fill her non-working hours with murder podcasts, caring for her pet snail Bleep, and drinking copious amounts of her poison of choice, Strongbow dark fruits cider.

But things are afoot at this failing branch of Spines. A new management team has been brought in to turn the shop around, and with them comes bouncy, shiny Laura, everyone's favourite bookseller. On the surface, Laura is the antithesis of Roach, but beneath the glossy exterior Roach senses a darkness that intrigues her - one which Laura unwittingly exposes to the world through her poetry.

Roach becomes obsessed with Laura, caught in a love-hate infatuation that begins to consume her. She is determined to become part of Laura's story, whether Laura wants anything to do with her or not - and she obviously does not. Roach will not rest until she has uncovered Laura's secrets and made them her own...

Death of a Bookseller is a delicious tale of obsession, secrets, and serial killer fanaticism. Slater weaves insidious magic by pitting two characters against each other, who become locked in a deadly slow-burn dance of power dynamics - chaotic serial killer fan-girl Roach, who is front and centre about her fascination with murderers, while hiding her twisted vulnerabilities under a goth-like hide; and apparently bright and breezy Laura, who secretly carries within her the pain of an association with the kind of tragedy that Roach salivates over. Both are broken in their own way, with shifting contradictions and similarities that make for a story that gets uncomfortably under your skin.

Slater delves into gritty themes around the fascination that surrounds serial killers in this story, and the way their fame overshadows the victims of their crimes, using Roach to explore uncomfortable facts about the people who become enamoured with them, and there is much here to be disturbed by - especially around the things Roach is driven to in pursuit of her desperate need to feel a connection with another human being. It is easy to find her abhorrent, and she certainly gave me the creeps, but Slater does paint her in shades of grey to muddy the waters - even if they are mostly at the darker end of the spectrum. In contrast Laura begins the tale as the lightness to Roach's pitch-black, but she becomes mired in the unresolved trauma that haunts her as a war of wills plays out in Spines - until Roach's need to both be her, and destroy her, brings about a heart-stopping climax to their story.

It is fair to say that this book strays into darkness in a way that is highly disturbing, but it is also filled with gallows humour and oodles of lovely detail about life behind the scenes in a bookshop. The combination is highly addictive, and I found this book impossible to put down - despite being freaked out by almost the entire final section of the story. As a debut, this is seriously impressive. I cannot wait to see what comes from Alice Slater next!

Death of a Bookseller is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats. 

Thank you to Hodder Books for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Alice Slater is a writer, podcaster and ex-bookseller from London. She studied creative writing at MMU and UEA. She lives in London with her husband and a lot of books. Death of a Bookseller is her first novel.