Joined in 2023 
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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. 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. Overall, a very self-aware novel with vivid characters and an interesting take on true crime as a genre - I would highly recommend getting this on your 'to be read' list for next year! 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. This is a strange tale, something in between a police procedural and a gothic story. It starts with a humble police sergeant developing an interest in rare books after striking up an unlikely friendship with a book dealer. When Sergeant Wigan's friend is found murdered, he is asked to help with the investigation. He meets several strange characters from the fringes of the rare book dealing world and begins to appreciate how ruthless book collectors can be. When the police arrest a suspect, St Wigan feels that they caught the wrong man. So he continues his own investigation among the bookdealers of London.
I don't know what to say about this book. I have so many conflicting thoughts. For starters, I wonder why anyone would give it more than 1 star.Alice Slater also does such an incredible job at balancing the serious and imperative with the humorous commentary. The book in its entirety is both unsettling, focusing on true crime, real cases, statistics and conversations on Roach's fascination with serial killers, as-well as hilarious and full of bookselling jokes and knowledge. It made for both a deeply humorous yet deeply compelling read! The PERFECT amount of fun!
It could have so easily strayed into the unbelievable, the fantasy, the spoof, the caricature. But it just sits on the right side. It’s never too much. Completely believable. 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. But when did I ever agree with the majority on books? It’s an oddity, certainly – not the greatest prose and the plot is rather loose and rambly, and there’s a weird thread running through it where sensible and rational people all seem to find the idea of raising the devil and demons not just possible, but quite likely. But for all that, I found that once I got used to the rather plain writing style I enjoyed it, and as it progressed towards the end, I got fully caught up in the story and found the tension building nicely.This was a deliciously dark crime novel intertwining true crime with bookselling. I personally think that this executed bookselling PERFECTLY and it was such a joy to read a book that spoke about it so well and accurately, as well as hilariously. Along side this, the discussions of true crime and the obsessiveness of some that consume it was incredibly fascinating and seeing how it completely took a tole on Roach and every aspect of her career and life, was something I had never read before and would now, be intrigued to branch more into. Alice Slater’s compelling debut is a brooding tale of obsession told from the alternating perspectives of two women, Roach and Laura thrown together through their jobs at a struggling bookshop in Walthamstow, an up-and-coming area of London. Both are drawn to true crime but for vastly different reasons. Roach is a veteran fan of true crime, much of her spare time taken up by podcasts, shows and books that delve into the practices and processes of serial killers from Ted Bundy to the Manson family. Laura’s drawn to similar narratives but for her it’s all about the victims, something that’s rooted in a traumatic incident from her childhood. Isolated and socially awkward, Roach outwardly despises the normies all around her but something about Laura makes her yearn for connection, while Laura’s repelled by Roach and her associations with the seamy and the salacious, as well as her shabby, down-at-heel appearance. Then a chance event gives Roach the perfect opportunity to get closer to Laura, in ways Laura could never have imagined. 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 appreciated the incisive introduction by Martin Edwards. He places the book in its time and explains its place in the genre of classic crime. Roach feels Laura is as interested in the morbid and macabre as she is even though Laura’s contempt for Roach is obvious but she is determined to know everything about her life regardless of the consequences. Is there a more anticipated 2023 book in literary circles than this one? And it’s a debut! A powerful debut at that. 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. I loved as the story took us through the exhausting period of Christmas in retail, anyone who has lived through a Christmas working in a London store knows the slog of the pre Christmas run up, all the staff becoming more and more run down with pallid faces and bags under their eyes existing on Berocca and cheap red wine, reaching for the eucalyptus shower gel each day in a vain attempt to wake up. It's all so familiar to anyone who has done it.a collaborator of the detective, suddenly disappears and Wigan doesn't care too much about what might have happened to him ... not seeing him, he thinks he will wait a few more days to look for him, even though he knows that the situation could be dangerous ... and then in reality he doesn't even look for the man! Though the title implies this is a grab-a-cup-of-tea-and-plunk-a-cat-on-your-lap cozy mystery . . . there's nothing cozy, or even mysterious about this book. 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! 😂
There’s no need for a sequel, but I kind of want one. I want to see what happened next and what the future held for our characters. The fact that Wigan is tasked with infiltrating London’s rare and second-hand book industry allows Farmer to work his bountiful knowledge of the trade into the story. For instance, Wigan spends a great deal of time pounding the pavement on Tottenham Court Road as he trails from one book dealer to the next, looking for people who knew and might have had reason to kill Fisk. When she arrives in Roaches failing bookstore, tasked with bringing life into the dying business, she brings a sense of light with her that's unfamiliar but intriguing. But in that light, Roach sees a little glimmer of dark - something she can connect with and soon she is obsessed with finding the broken parts of Laura, making her realise they'd be best friends ... If only Laura would look at her.
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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 villain who confesses to a murder because if he doesn't confess the devil will be summoned and the devil will turn his mother into a rat ... hey come on ! The book is set in the 50's and not in the middle ages, who can believe such threats? Eventually someone is accused, tried, and found guilty of the murder, but Wigan is sure they have got the wrong man. Since the penalty for murder was then death by hanging he only has a limited time to find the real murderer. There are many suspects and much intrigue. The world of buying and selling books was apparently fraught with danger as large sums of cash traded hands. 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. I think Slater's execution of Brodie as a character is so well done. Again, I don't want to give too many details here so I don't ruin the book, but she is terrifying and pitiful, a brilliant antagonist force. Character work in general here is very fine.
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