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REVIEW: Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater


Genre: Thriller | Mystery | Crime

Release Date: Expected 27th April 2023

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

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. 

An indulgently intense, disturbingly dark tale that gripped me and refused to let go. Now, I' off to double check all my doors are locked. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review.

cw: drinking, smoking, loss of parents, death, serial killers, stalking, sex, swearing, violence. 


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