As with others, I found the occult theme a bit off putting, but I can only assume that this too, along with the insights into police and justice procedures, and the seamier side of the book trade, may be a lesser known aspect of the time that Farmer had personal experience of. I felt Alice’s exploration of grief, and depression and mental health is an excellent piece of writing. Sensitive but raw. It’s almost as bad as making a cereal pouring the milk first then the cereal but instead of the milk it’s just water. I don’t think I’ve disliked a book more, and felt so passionately against it. This is such a fantastic book, dripping with malice and tension. It is a dark journey into obsession. The pop culture references and dark humour throughout make this an engrossing and enjoyable read. The story will get under your skin and make you itch. Told in alternating POV between the two characters in short snappy chapters. They both work in a neglected dilapidated bookshop.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. When Sergeant Wigan stops to escort a swaying reveler home at the end of his late shift, he is spun a tale of the ups and downs of a life spent collecting and selling rare books. His new companion, Michael Fisk, has been celebrating the acquisition of a signed copy of Keats’ Endymion, and a trip into Fisk’s library is enough to convince Wigan to begin his own collection. After developing a love for antiquarian books and a friendship with Fisk, Wigan is called upon by the C.I.D. when tragedy strikes and Fisk is found murdered in his library.

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The story revolves around Sergeant Wigan, a policeman by vocation but also a bibliophile who is discovering the joys of tracing and buying first editions. When one of his book selling friends is found murdered with a very costly first edition missing from his shelves, Wigan is temporarily attached to the team investigating the murder. 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. Oh my god…THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD!! If you’re like me and have a bit of a thing for true crime then this book will absolutely 100% be for you! Everything that happens in this story is set off by booze, booze and more booze. It seems none of the people who work in Spines is having one original thought without getting very drunk first. Which is a pity because there is a lot going on here. We get to know Roach and Laura pretty well and although they are both not very nice persons, you cannot help but feel for them sometimes. While this is no Agatha Christie, like the Christie mysteries, it offers several possible suspects right up to the end. I admit this was not an especially exciting read, but it wasn’t all bad either.

I liked Roach at first, I think it really affected her, the way Laura treated her. It became an obsession to show Laura that they could become friends, that they shared a common interest although at two different polars of the same spectrum. Some of her decisions were extremely ill advised and she took on a different identity, someone more than Roach, more confidence, more outspoken, a person she wanted to be. It didn’t really work for her though, she should’ve given Laura the two-finger sign and moved on. You should always be yourself. But Laura (our other POV) and the object of Roach’s obsession has no interest in being friends with her. Having suffered from the trauma of losing her mother at the hands of a serial killer, Laura is physically repulsed by Roach’s fascination with serial killers and avoids all overtures of friendship. A dark masterpiece of grief and obsession. It will work its way under your skin like a splinter and stay there.” 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?” a psychopathic person who often tries to kill his brother and who hides sadomasochistic books, but then in the end after having hosted an old lady, she burns all those horrendous books.. has she suddenly become normal and sane? Come on !I feel like she's circling me. She's always there, always watching me, always trying to get my attention." she says. Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer team up to exonerate a woman who’s already served five years for killing her ex-husband.

The ending was also really good and I enjoyed the open-endedness which allows us to come up with our own interpretations. Though if you prefer your thrillers with more finality and closure then you may come away a little disappointed. I love how uncomfortable this book made me. Roach's obsession with serial killers. When looked at it through Laura's eyes, it's unsettling. Even though I do like True Crime, I'm more in the vein of using as an educational guide to stay alive, not the fascination with the murderer themselves. I'm much more drawn to missing - but I loved the uncomfortable struggle of Roach's POV and her spiraling.Is there a more anticipated 2023 book in literary circles than this one? And it’s a debut! A powerful debut at that.