By Alice Slater https://alicemjslater.com/ @alicemjslater
Narrated by Emma Noakes (as Roach) @emmanoakes1 and Victoria Blunt (as Laura) @IamVicBlunt
Published by Hodder & Stoughton Audio, Hodder & Stoughton
384 pages (11 hours 59 minutes) ISBN 9781529385366
Publication date 27 April 2023
I was allowed access to an audio review copy on Net Galley in exchange for a fair review. Thanks to the Author and Publisher for organising this.
The cover
Well, the colour is effective as its eye catching, but a bit jarring for me. Books, blood and a snail cover a fair bit of the plot and hint at what is instore.
From the blurb
Roach – bookseller, loner and true crime obsessive – 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.
Smelling of roses, with her cute literary tote bags and beautiful poetry, she’s everyone’s new favourite bookseller. But beneath the shiny veneer, Roach senses a darkness within Laura, the same darkness Roach possesses.
As Roach’s curiosity blooms into morbid obsession, it becomes clear that she is prepared to infiltrate Laura’s life at any cost.
The narration
Usually a double hander is male/female to cover the different sexed roles. Here it is two women who cover the two principal roles that are narrate in the first person. It works brilliantly as they are two very different character’s; Roach is grungy and sullen whereas Laura is bright and breezy, very much the modern urban young woman. Here they are given to chance to take on a role which is more akin to acting.
My thoughts
Well, this is a rather bold novel, as it takes a sharp (metaphorical) stick and gives a satirical poke at professional book sellers and the type of earnest young woman drawn to the poorly paid jobs in publishing. So the middle class to posh, those can help from the bank of Mummy and Daddy, the pretentious deep thinking chin strokers, all publishers tote bags and gushing review cards on how this book influenced my life. I hope that these folks possess a sense of humour as these caricatures are gunned down by an expert sniper. Not the best of ideas when these are the very people the author needs to promote this her debut novel. As you will see from the profile, she has worked in the business, which gives her this cutting insight, so I think she’ll be forgiven.
The novel starts bright and breezy as we get to know Roach and Laura and the early put downs are delivered. Roach is an oddball, partly due to her upbringing, who loves true crime and detests PSGs. PSG being her abbreviation of Pumkin Spice Girls, those young women in love with life and their own self-image, who queue up in Costa for their pumpkin spiced lattes in winter. Of course when Laura is posted to the shop Roach immediately has her down as a PSG, a very gregarious one and a poet as well. Laura also has a troubled past, a secret she is hiding, one that grabs hold of Roach’s psyche and burns a hole through it. So, light moves through to shade and then darkness, with a story bordering on disturbing and uncomfortable at times for the reader.
The storyline centres on the relationship between Roach and Laura. Initially Roach wants to be liked and accepted by Laura, who seems to get on with everyone else but regards Roach with distain (on a good day). Roach’s interest in the true crime genre disgusts Laura, with good reason as her mother was a victim of the ‘Stow Strangler a low key but local British serial killer. Poetry is her outlet for her feelings as she writes about victims. Our true crime fan, of course, distastefully tries to deduce who the murderers were. When she discovers that Laura’s mother was murdered, obsession takes over as Roach is desperate to know who the killer was and tries to insert herself into Laura’s life. Alarm bells ring as behaviour get more outrageous and disturbing. Important questions are raised, is true crime gratuitous entertainment and can exposure to too much of it lead to modified behaviour much in the way of video nasties and violent video games?
The characters are wonderfully drawn and the author manages to change this readers view of them as the novel progresses. I was very much in the Roach camp then switch allegiance when she became obsessed, only desert them both before the finale. Pretty good writing to create such vacillation in me.
Being character based means the story ambles along more than dashes and regularly switches viewpoints. It works by building up the psychological pressure as behaviours escalate. Perhaps a little over stretched in the middle by a few pages, but that’s me being a bit picky, it certainly never becomes boring. If you’ve ever wondered what it will be like working in a book shop, a dream job for many readers (if only the pay was better…) , then would get a good feel here. The awkward customers, the staff rivalries, internal competition, and the pride in their own sections. Oh, the disappointment for poor Roach as her true crime section is broken up, all the books she ordered using fake names that of course were never collected, but read and loved by her, are place on the general shelves, you can almost feel her pain.
What humour there is subtle and quite dark, or of the makes you cringe variety from situations and pot shots that strike home. That includes all of us obsessive readers who can’t stop buying. A great example is when Roach has a makeover and asks boyfriend Sam’s opinion and he replies that it makes her look like Myra Hindley it takes a second or two to dawn on you that its meant as a compliment.
The story is set before the 2020 Covid lock downs but concludes after, in 2022, with a satisfying two-part epilogue. Only then does it become apparent that all that has gone on before is a catalyst for change. Both women end up going on personal journeys, making discoveries about themselves along the way and end up in very different places.
After reading Death of a Book Seller you are going to see the person serving you in a different light. Now can you direct me to your true crime section…
Death of a Book Seller can be purchased via the publisher’s website here
The author
Alice Slater spent six years working as a bookseller with Waterstones. She started as a Christmas temp in Manchester Deansgate and worked her way up to bookshop manager of Romford, then Gower Street’s fiction section, and eventually Notting Hill Gate, lending a hand in 20 different branches across the UK on the way. Now a London-based writer, she is a co-host of literary podcast “What Page Are You On?” and writes about short stories for Mslexia.
Source: Publisher’s website
Peter turns the page 