A great and unusual story - a true crime addict and a woman on the verge of a breakdown are strangely intertwined, almost at times seeming to become each other. It’s an interesting bit of social commentary on the fact that the post-war United Kingdom was not prospering financially in the same way as the United States.

In fact, the 1956 novel is not just notable for the insights it offers into the world of bibliophiles, it is also an unusual mashup of a detailed police procedural and an outlandish gothic horror story. Despite having left the trade quite some time ago, I felt as if it was just yesterday that I’d been behind the till. Then a chance event gives Roach the perfect opportunity to get closer to Laura, in ways Laura could never have imagined. The development of both of the characters was great, the story is a thriller told through a joint POV.I loved the writing but sometimes I got a bit nauseous from readin With the police unsure how to proceed due to the lack of evidence and suspects, Wigan is seconded to CID to help with the case, the hope being that his knowledge of book collecting will allow him to ferret out the murderer.

Unfortunately, there’s also a far more unpalatable moment of social commentary involving Dand when one of the other characters refers to him using racist language. Personal hygiene is a must and it looks as though Roach (one of the main characters) doesn’t which is grim. It’s a bit controversial to admit you are interested in them, but given the amount of books, movies and TV shows inspired about them, there are clearly more of us with a fascination than we might admit. She's heavily into true crime, both books and podcasts, and once followed "school shooters like rock stars.

stars - I cannot get into too many details because of spoilers, but this ended up not being my kind of trope combo. You have a typical antagonist and protagonist on the surface, but the mystery, secrets and true-crime touches really make this one more fun for me than anything. While it’s pretty dark it’s also full of nods to books and book selling which made for a great combination. My literary recipe for Death of a Bookseller would involve: the razor-sharp character studies and themes of obsession and envy in Looker and Kiss Me First; the heady atmosphere of The Poison Tree; the deliciously nasty underbelly of Boy Parts and Eileen; and the spiralling, unstable mood of Animals or Problems – especially as the story reaches its climax and the protagonists seem bound for disaster. 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.