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. 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.

I wonder if serial killers think about me as much as I think about them.” I didn’t realize the actual shirt exists. Go to Etsy. It does! 😂 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.

We chat with Alice Slater about her fierce, grimy debut Death of a Bookseller and the legacy of true crime in fiction and beyond

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. Laura, even her name exudes sighs of happiness, and sun-drenched blondness - a Pumpkin Spice Girl if there ever was one, now works at the same chain bookstore as Roach. A dark masterpiece of grief and obsession. It will work its way under your skin like a splinter and stay there.” 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 Roach becomes so obsessed with Laura that she steals her poetry, her rapey boyfriend tries to publish it, and then she LIES and pretends she didn't blatantly plagerise. When I tell you that this was the worst book ever written ever... that's an understatement.

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 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.Some dealers and collectors have no conscience whatever. Do you know, Sergeant, there are men and even women who would cheerfully kill me to get what I have found today?” Farmer does a great job of recreating the mania and tension that grips the committed runners and collectors as they elbow each other out of the way while searching through piles of newly arrived books. Aside from his detective novels, Farmer also wrote a biography of GA Henty, so it comes as no surprise that many of the bookish conversations Wigan becomes involved in concern the collecting of Henty’s books.

Despite their common interest in true crime, Laura keeps her distance from Roach, resisting the other woman’s overtures of friendship. Undeterred, Roach learns everything she can about her new colleague, eventually uncovering Laura’s traumatic family history. When Roach realizes that she may have come across her very own true crime story, interest swiftly blooms into a dangerous obsession. Is there a more anticipated 2023 book in literary circles than this one? And it’s a debut! A powerful debut at that.When someone dies, everything becomes sacred. Greetings cards marked with their handwriting, their winter scarf, their half-used cosmetics." 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. 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.