Death of a Bookseller: the instant Sunday Times bestseller! The debut suspense thriller of 2023 that you don't want to miss!

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I feel like she's circling me. She's always there, always watching me, always trying to get my attention." she says.

This is an absolute masterclass in storytelling and I know I’ll be reading it again when it comes out. Purple haired and fascinated by virtually anything macabre, serial-killer fanatic Roach is quite possibly one of the (very few) characters to ever make me feel soo uncomfortable.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. According to Martin Edwards in the Introduction to this reprint, original copies of the novel are much sought after and the story has cult status among book lovers. Surely that can only be because of the huge amounts of information on book collecting, bookselling and arcane books which it contains, since it could hardly be said to have appeal for lovers of stylish writing, tight plotting and solid detective investigation. But one day Mike Fisk, the collector, is found dead and despite the arrest of a person, Sergeant Wigan wants to find out who, according to him, is the real killer.

This book got 3-stars from me for several different reasons not necessarily because of the story, but I learned some things of interest. And the unease with which they circle one another coupled with their conflicting opinions on True Crime really injected a sinister layer of tension that had me on edge wondering what would happen next. 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.A persistent Middlesex police officer plunges into the surprisingly cutthroat world of bookselling in this savory reprint first published in 1956. Laura was equally not my favorite character. She was hard to like. Her life was spiraling, too, and she did take some of the parts of her life for granted, how easy they were, even though her life wasn't easy. Partly I just didn't enjoy being in Roach's head. She's a great creation in the spirit of The Wasp Factory, The Magus etc--a really unpleasant person made up of whining, unjustified smugness, and self justification--but I think I prefer looking at horrible people rather than inhabiting them, at least over long stretches. And also, by 30% we hadn't really got anywhere in plot terms: Roach is becoming more stalky and Laura doesn't like her, repeat. I DNFd because I just didn't want to spend time in this world without a propulsive plot. /shrugs./ YMMV and probably will.