Death of a Bookseller (Hardback)
  • Death of a Bookseller (Hardback)
zoom

Death of a Bookseller (Hardback)

(author)
£14.99
Hardback 384 Pages
Published: 27/04/2023
Free UK delivery on orders over £25, otherwise £2.99
  • 10+ in stock

Usually dispatched within 1-2 days

Free UK delivery on orders over £25, otherwise £2.99
  • This item has been added to your basket
Waterstones Says

Delightfully dark and perfectly plotted, Slater's macabre crime debut finds two booksellers drawn towards each other in a sinister game of obsession.

A bookshop. A true crime case. A deadly friendship.

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.

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 9781529385328
Number of pages: 384
Weight: 608 g
Dimensions: 238 x 162 x 36 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

Snickering, devil emoji, this-Alice-Slater-is-too-witty LOL brilliance that will make you smile every time you step into a bookshop. A confident, sassy, pitch-black debut by someone who really knows her way around a bookshop, as well as our death-obsessed culture. - Caroline Kepnes, internationally bestselling author of Netflix sensation, YOU

Fiercely original and deeply disturbing, Death of a Bookseller is a dark masterpiece of grief and obsession - it will work its way under your skin like a splinter and stay there. This is a book you simply can't put down - Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street

Alice Slater triumphs in Death of a Bookseller, the story of two frenemies who share an antagonistic obsession with true crime. I love a book that features messy women making very bad choices, and this novel delivers the delicious juice in a surprising, twisty narrative that has you guessing until its unpredictable end. - Chelsea G. Summers, author of A Certain Hunger

Relentlessly, terrifically creepy and deeply compulsive; each point of view was so remarkably strong. This novel blew me away with its incredible characterisation - a one-sitting read for sure - Heather Darwent, author of The Things We Do To Our Friends

For avid readers, thrill-seekers and disgruntled employees alike; Death of a Bookseller is tense, arch and impossible to put down. - Eliza Clark, author of Boy Parts

Beautifully written and dark as Satan's basement, Death of a Bookseller will have you looking over your shoulder long after the last page is turned. Its characters creep into your subconscious and the plot grips the reader like a sticky pub floor. If you like Caroline Kepnes, then welcome to Alice Slater, your new obsession. - Erin Kelly, author of The Skeleton Key

Tense, addictive and sticky underfoot, Death of a Bookseller lends a tangible throb of menace to its seemingly cosy world, overturning every preconception and delving deep into its characters' damaged psyches. I couldn't put it down. - Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea

Add this to your list. A London-set story about true crime, city life, bookshops and friendship. I was sucked in deep. Utterly engrossing, atmospheric and deliciously dark. Hugely compelling. - Will Dean, author of The Last Thing to Burn

I absolutely loved Death of a Bookseller. It felt so fresh and sharp, expertly plotted and also emotionally charged, comic but also pitch-black dark. Roach and Laura are utterly unforgettable. The dread I felt as I turned the pages was not just because of the inevitable collision course I feared these characters were on, but also the threat of the pages running out, of this dazzlingly good read ending. - Catherine Ryan Howard, author of Run Time

A stunning debut; a shrewdly observed insight into life behind the bookshop tills and what happens when two very different booksellers clash. Clever, funny, beautifully written and as dark as a goth's shadow, this is the book I will be recommending to everyone this year. - Jane Casey, Irish Times bestselling author of The Killing Kind

Written with dark wit and verve, this mischievous novel is clever, entertaining, and unsettling, with a gasp-inducing climax that beautifully (and wickedly) intertwines the two unforgettable anti-heroines. Each sentence is a dagger, sharpened to perfection; Slater's deliciously morbid debut will haunt you - Caitlin Brasach, author of A Novel Obsession

I absolutely DEVOURED this! A highly original story about a creep you'll easily let into your heart - but beware: once she's there, she might just blow it up. Fresh, funny, and brilliantly dissecting modern-day book culture, this dream debut is twisted in all the right ways. - Hanna Bervoets, author of We Had To Remove This Post

Craving a squelchy treat of a dark tale? Let yourself be torn between Laura and Roach. Each bigger than life and stickly real, they'll vie for your shadowy heart til the end. Slater's debut is cultish, smart and distinctive. A book that'll linger in your mind long after you've followed the slimy trail to the end... - Kiare Ladner, author of Nightshift

Savage, witty and all-consuming, it's both a love letter to bookselling and a thriller of the most unsettling variety. - Abigail Dean, internationally bestselling author of GIRL A

A dark and delicious treat - C S Green, author of The Whisper House

The best kind of horrible little book! Had me turning the pages late into the night. Brilliant. - Caroline Corcoran, author of Through the Wall

Fresh, funny, chilling and disturbing. The story crackles with killer prose and the characters slay you with their read-through-your-fingers desire and desperation. Searingly good. - Chris Whitaker, award-winning author of We Begin At The End

Fresh, funny, frightening and dark as hell. A stunning debut - Jane Shemilt, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Patient

Slater is adept at keeping the reader glued to the page - Woman's Way

A darkly fun crime debut - i Paper, Best New Books

An original take on the serial killer thriller - Literary Review

Uncomfortable, claustrophobic, and you won't take your eyes off the pages - Belfast Telegraph

A sinister and tense debut that will chill you to the core - Platinum magazine

Dark and atmospheric - Wiltshire Life Magazine

Delightfully dark - Cosmopolitan, Best New Books

You can't help but race through the pages. This will have huge commercial appeal - Glamour, Best New Books

Dark and unsettling, with references to more serial killers than you ever knew existed - The Gloss Magazine

Fans of the psychological thriller get plenty to chew on in an irony-drenched crime novel that sets two women on a potentially lethal collision course while simultaneously asking hard questions about the exploitative nature of true crime writing. - Irish Times

A spectacularly creepy debut ... Both bookselling and society's true crime are filleted mercilessly in a tense and disturbing read - Guardian

The really terrific thing about the book is how the writer conjures that slightly mysterious quality that people working in bookshops always have. - Daily Mail

Original and obsessively good ... as near perfect a thriller on paper as you can get. Alice Slater is a name to watch. - On Magazine

A sharp and creepy debut thriller - Daily Mail

Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater is the book that fills me with hope. Inhaling fresh, excellent, quotable, entertaining fiction from a debut novelist is a guaranteed way to breathe a little easier in our world. - Elle, Shelf Life: Caroline Kepnes

You may also be interested in...

Butter
Added to basket
Paperback
£14.99
We Solve Murders
Added to basket
Hardback
£22.00 £11.00
The List of Suspicious Things
Added to basket
The Wizard of the Kremlin
Added to basket
In Too Deep
Added to basket
Hardback
£22.00 £11.00
The Wrong Sister
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99 £7.99
The Hotel Avocado
Added to basket
Hardback
£22.00 £11.00
How To Solve Your Own Murder
Added to basket
Murder on Lake Garda
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99 £7.99
The Last Devil To Die
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99 £7.99
Murder Under the Mistletoe
Added to basket
Hardback
£12.99 £6.49
The Thursday Murder Club
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99 £7.99
Midnight and Blue
Added to basket
Hardback
£25.00 £12.50
Close to Death
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99 £7.99
The Housemaid Is Watching
Added to basket
Paperback
£8.99 £7.49
Homecoming
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99 £8.49
The Secret
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99 £7.99
Think Twice
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99 £8.49

“Chilling story!”

Very readable book. We are all familiar with the clique and the outsider and the author frames the narrative between the two expertly. The book poses the question who is the victim here with two troubled and... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 61

“Something WICKEDLY Obsessive This Way Comes!”

As rich as dark chocolate and as sinister as a lurking shadow, there is something highly addictive and totally intoxicating about this wonderful debut by Alice Slater and I for one was on the edge of my seat.
A dark... More

Hardback edition
3 similar books recommended
Helpful? Upvote 57

“The kind of pitch black fiction that makes it hard to sleep at night”

Slated as one of Hodder’s lead debuts for 2023, I was very excited to snag an early proof for this book, and let me tell you; roll on 2023. This is huge.

This is the kind of pitch black fiction that makes it hard... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 39

Please sign in to write a review

Your review has been submitted successfully.