Death of a Bookseller

by Alice Slater

[pamela]

There's a reason that the old adage of "write what you know" is poor writing advice. It makes for a lot of detail, but very rarely for a compelling narrative, and oh boy, does Alice Slater know bookselling.

I was a lead bookseller for Waterstones for several years, and Death of a Bookseller was basically a blow-by-blow recap of my time there. Every detail was perfectly rendered, from booking in deliveries, the ageing booksellers who are resistant to change, to the internal management politics — it was like stepping right back into that world. I commend Slater's attention to detail, because she nailed it!

But that didn't make Death of a Bookseller a compelling read. The plot was repetitive, with switching PoVs that seemed to repeat the same narrative beats over and over. There was no movement or development, and I found myself getting bored quite often as I waited for something new to happen.

Brogan Roach, the story's antagonist, is an utterly repulsive character. I don't say this as a criticism. Slater made my skin crawl every time Roach graced the page, which was definitely her intention, so she absolutely nailed that. But it didn't make for an enjoyable read (definitely not something I'd reduce a book's rating for, though — more giving this as a warning for other potential readers who might not like that sort of thing). She seemed to ooze, which made me feel more than a little nauseated at times. And when she meets her boyfriend, Sam, I physically felt the bile rise in my throat. It was tough to get through. She's not the kind of character I enjoy reading about, but definite props to Slater to write her so well!

From the title, where the book was going was obvious, but I still felt like Slater took the safe route. The violence was almost benign and sanitised, which seemed to fly in the face of the interesting message of the novel around True Crime's place in our society. Laura's alcoholism almost seemed to be written in a way that made her complicit in her own victimisation, which I'm not sure was Slater's intention. Without some kind of editorialisation, Death of a Bookseller felt like it was falling into the same trap of the True Crime novels it was trying to denounce.

One thing I'm not sure about however is why snails and slugs were so present in this novel. Bleep, Roach's pet snail, and the slugs invading Laura's apartment seemed to exist only as a very heavy-handed metaphor for Roach's sliminess. I needed more from that (unless I missed something?). Like Chekhov's gun, I kept expecting them to matter in some way, but they just never did, which felt lazy and unfinished in my opinion.

Overall, Death of a Bookseller was a fine read, but it didn't blow me away. A repetitive plot, unlikable characters, and a sanitised ending ultimately made me feel like I wanted more. For a thriller, it simply wasn't very thrilling.