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And as curiosity blooms into morbid obsession, Roach becomes determined to be a part of Laura’s story – whether Laura wants her in it or not. I gave 3 stars because Wigan is a pleasant main role character and the mystery, on the whole, is interesting since there are several suspicious characters and until the end you can't guess who really could be the murderer.
The plot is very sad for much of the time and it is easy to imagine which side of the death penalty debate the author came down. This made for a very credible story for much of the time. Unfortunately there was a rather strange side plot involving the occult which just seemed unnecessarily sensational to me. 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! 😂 Slater gave the reader a real power here in diving deep into each character's thought process and showing how they felt about each other. This was such a clever writing style because it alienated us further from Roach and began to do the same for Laura as we saw her character shift and change until she and Roach didn't feel so different after all. I felt physically uncomfortable at times reading from Roach's perspective whereas I just gradually started to dislike Laura. Meet Roach (real name Brogan), she works in Spines, a bookshop in Walthamstow. She’s a Goth, a loner, dark if not morbid and obsessed with true crime. Oh, let’s not forget the pet snail, yes, that’s right a pet snail! Roach is quite happy (as much as she can be that is) working in the bookshop until Laura joins the staff. Laura seems bright, breezy, as sweet as the roses she smells of and the poetry she writes and looking so perky in her well considered outfits. Is her shiny exterior a veneer? Is she just a bit too well put together? At first Roach thinks she’s a ‘normie’ or a Pumpkin Spice Girl but she grows curious about her, sensing something that intrigues her which then develops into something distinctly uncomfortable. The story is told in short, sharp chapters and alternates between the two of them.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. a good and nice man who however wants to summon the devil... well, for me it is a contradiction that is not acceptable. Michael Fisk is found dead, and when one of his rivals, the bad tempered Fred Hampton, tried to sell a book that has clearly come from his collection, he is arrested and tried for his murder. PC Wigan, who was a friend of Fisk's, and his heir, doesn't think they have the right man and sets out to find the real murderer, which he must do before Hampton is hanged, so it becomes a race against time. This group is for For Books' Sake readers to come together to talk about books they love (or hate), air their views and share their recommendations.
It was interesting to have someone dislikeable as the main character. Protagonists are usually nice and likeable and familiar, but Roach was none of those things. She’s unashamedly wrong. But yet we still root for her. You’ll find yourself rooting both for her and against her.Very dark, character-driven, slow-burn suspense … Slater explores the ethics surrounding our obsession with true crime and questions how we should handle other people’s stories. This highly original, whip-smart first novel will have crime lovers second-guessing their next read.” 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
The world of the antiquarian book trade was fascinating and a complete revelation to me. Being written and set in the 1950s also added to the appeal of this book. The historical details were fascinating and I enjoyed spending a few hours there. The language and behaviour of the characters was of its time and was at once more formal and polite – but also ruthless and cut-throat. The mystery was well written and I found myself unable to decide who to trust. I was hooked. If you think this going to be a cute cozy mystery set in a bookshop ( I’m partial to stories set in libraries and bookshops), just take a look at that cover (which I love, by the way)!It was a high-profile case and . . . I just hate that my trauma is tied to this horrible story, and I can’t talk about one without talking about the other. I hate that her name will forever be associated with the man who killed her, and I hate that the world only remembers her as a chapter in the story of his life.” Roach will do anything to be friends with Laura, but for the wrongest reasons in this world. She will even go far enough to stealing her poems and changing her words, and when their shifts will be changed she will decide to take her house keys so that she is always "free to come and go as she pleases". The rare book business is shown as home to all kinds of skulduggery and disreputable people, some truly loving the books but others simply seeing them as a way to make money from gullible collectors. Farmer shows us all levels, from the man selling books from a barrow, to the large traders selling from shops and catalogues, to the American millionaire, willing to pay any price or break any law so that his library will be better than anyone else’s. Farmer makes a few comments that suggest he may not have been pleased at so many rare British books making their way into American collections, and also hints a little sniffily that some collectors never read the books they display so proudly. It all felt very authentic to me, written by a man who clearly knew what he was talking about. And there’s lots of enjoyable references to specific rare first editions, and an indication of how authors rise and fall in the fashionable stakes of the collectibles market, sometimes on something as simple as a new film or TV adaptation of one of their books. There were times where I actually recoiled slightly in revulsion - Slater brings both her main characters to life so well, and I found both POV’s equally interesting, if horrifying. I found the author really knew how to set a scene too - I felt like I was walking along rain soaked London streets, lit up by a bookshop window, I was in a mildew ridden flat, a bookshops staff room, a grimy unkept bedroom.
A murder mystery that centers around valuable book traders. The victim is murdered and some of his most prized books are missing. A man is convicted of the crime but our protagonist doesn't believe he did it. He starts to poke around and several people appear to have motives if for no other reason then they wanted the expensive books. When Sergeant Wigan stops to escort a swaying reveler home at the end of his later 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's Endymion, and a trip to 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.
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. Roach loves serial killers, homicides, horror movies and everything that has to do with macabre and blood. It wasn't bad, I liked it enough to get to the end, but I wouldn't suggest it to a friend and for certain it will not be among the books I will read a second time. I found this to be a steady, if rather gloomy, plot. The lead character is engaging and well balanced unlike the rather tortured souls who often take the lead in a mystery novel. This is always a plus point for me.
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