Novels
Let the Bad Times Roll (Hodder, 2025)
Author endorsements:
“A veritable feast of secret passions and hidden betrayals. Alice Slater is the queen of the dark and delectable thriller.”
Heather Parry, author of Carrion Crow
“Alice Slater serves up dark and twisty thrillers like a smoked Sazerac: intoxicating, sharp-edged and burning with obsession.”
Kirsty Logan, author of Now She Is Witch
“You’ll love this if: you find grifters, frauds and liars fascinating. [A] propulsive and twisted storyline. I devoured this book in a day.”
Chris Bridges, author of Sick to Death
Pre-order Let the Bad Times Roll:
Bookseller reviews:
“Alice Slater has created an absolute gift of a thriller and a wonderful slice of epic storytelling, grievous manipulation, dark seduction and terrible betrayal.”
“The Secret-Historyesque backstory of the friends who met at university, the dark academia of a boozy Ouija Board experiment. The rock and roll, the shared trauma, that bitchy closeness of old mates. I could have real a whole book on each character.”
“When the bad times start rolling—when the violence begins—I gulped it down with pure glee. Which is a morally dubious reaction, I know, but man does Slater do catharsis! This is a dream of a summer read, and deserves to be huge.”
Reader reviews:
“This definitely reminded of The Talented Mr Ripley and Saltburn in tone”
“This was, quite simply, deliciously and perfectly evil“
“It’s sharp, lush, and perfect for a summer binge”
“Another incredibly gripping novel that I devoured in under 24 hours“
Death of a Bookseller (Hodder, 2023)
Instant Sunday Times bestseller
Debut Crime Book of the Year at Capital Crime’s Fingerprint Awards 2024
Longlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 2024
Shortlisted for CrimeFest’s Specsavers Best Debut Crime Novel 2023
Author endorsements:
“Snickering, devil emoji, this-Alice-Slater-is-too-witty LOL brilliance that will make you smile every time you step into a bookshop. A confident, sassy, pitch-black debut by someone who really knows her way around a bookshop, as well as our death-obsessed culture.”
Caroline Kepnes, internationally bestselling author of Netflix sensation, You
“Fiercely original and deeply disturbing, Death of a Bookseller is a dark masterpiece of grief and obsession – it will work its way under your skin like a splinter and stay there. This is a book you simply can’t put down.”
Catriona Ward, author of The Last House on Needless Street
“Alice Slater triumphs in Death of a Bookseller, the story of two frenemies who share an antagonistic obsession with true crime. I love a book that features messy women making very bad choices, and this novel delivers the delicious juice in a surprising, twisty narrative that has you guessing until its unpredictable end.”
Chelsea G. Summers, author of A Certain Hunger
“For avid readers, thrill-seekers and disgruntled employees alike; Death of a Bookseller is tense, arch and impossible to put down.”
Eliza Clark, author of Boy Parts
“Beautifully written and dark as Satan’s basement, Death of a Bookseller will have you looking over your shoulder long after the last page is turned. Its characters creep into your subconscious and the plot grips the reader like a sticky pub floor. If you like Caroline Kepnes, then welcome to Alice Slater, your new obsession.”
Erin Kelly, author of The Skeleton Key
“Tense, addictive and sticky underfoot, Death of a Bookseller lends a tangible throb of menace to its seemingly cosy world, overturning every preconception and delving deep into its characters’ damaged psyches. I couldn’t put it down.”
Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea
“Add this to your list. A London-set story about true crime, city life, bookshops and friendship. I was sucked in deep. Utterly engrossing, atmospheric and deliciously dark. Hugely compelling.”
Will Dean, author of The Last Thing to Burn
“I absolutely loved Death of a Bookseller. It felt so fresh and sharp, expertly plotted and also emotionally charged, comic but also pitch-black dark. Roach and Laura are utterly unforgettable. 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.”
Catherine Ryan Howard, author of Run Time
“A stunning debut; a shrewdly observed insight into life behind the bookshop tills and what happens when two very different booksellers clash. Clever, funny, beautifully written and as dark as a goth’s shadow, this is the book I will be recommending to everyone this year.”
Jane Casey, Irish Times bestselling author of The Killing Kind
“Written with dark wit and verve, this mischievous novel is clever, entertaining, and unsettling, with a gasp-inducing climax that beautifully (and wickedly) intertwines the two unforgettable anti-heroines. Each sentence is a dagger, sharpened to perfection; Slater’s deliciously morbid debut will haunt you.”
Caitlin Brasach, author of A Novel Obsession
“I absolutely DEVOURED this! A highly original story about a creep you’ll easily let into your heart – but beware: once she’s there, she might just blow it up. Fresh, funny, and brilliantly dissecting modern-day book culture, this dream debut is twisted in all the right ways.”
Hanna Bervoets, author of We Had To Remove This Post
“Craving a squelchy treat of a dark tale? Let yourself be torn between Laura and Roach. Each bigger than life and stickly real, they’ll vie for your shadowy heart til the end. Slater’s debut is cultish, smart and distinctive. A book that’ll linger in your mind long after you’ve followed the slimy trail to the end…”
Kiare Ladner, author of Nightshift
“Savage, witty and all-consuming, it’s both a love letter to bookselling and a thriller of the most unsettling variety.”
Abigail Dean, internationally bestselling author of GIRL A
In the media:
“Slater is adept at keeping the reader glued to the page” ― Woman’s Way
“A darkly fun crime debut” ― i Paper, Best New Books
“An original take on the serial killer thriller” ― Literary Review
“Uncomfortable, claustrophobic, and you won’t take your eyes off the pages” ― Belfast Telegraph
“A sinister and tense debut that will chill you to the core” ― Platinum magazine
“Dark and atmospheric” ― Wiltshire Life Magazine
“Delightfully dark” ― Cosmopolitan, Best New Books
“You can’t help but race through the pages. This will have huge commercial appeal” ― Glamour, Best New Books
“Dark and unsettling, with references to more serial killers than you ever knew existed” ― The Gloss Magazine
“Fans of the psychological thriller get plenty to chew on in an irony-drenched crime novel that sets two women on a potentially lethal collision course while simultaneously asking hard questions about the exploitative nature of true crime writing.” ― Irish Times
“A spectacularly creepy debut … Both bookselling and society’s true crime are filleted mercilessly in a tense and disturbing read” ― Guardian
“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
“Original and obsessively good … as near perfect a thriller on paper as you can get. Alice Slater is a name to watch.” ― On Magazine
“Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater is the book that fills me with hope. Inhaling fresh, excellent, quotable, entertaining fiction from a debut novelist is a guaranteed way to breathe a little easier in our world.” ― Elle, Shelf Life: Caroline Kepnes
Short stories
blueberry fig lemon etc.
Published in Extra Teeth Issue 3 (May 2021).
Available here.
“Poppy seed. A speck, smaller than a tick. Small enough to get caught under your fingernail, or unnoticed between your teeth. We brewed poppy seed tea once, just to see what would happen.”
Of Blood and Blooming Flowers
Published in What She’s Having (Dear Damsels, 2021). Available here.
“It started with mince. Spongey and pink, marbled
with fat, prim in a plastic tray.”
He Just Finds It Comforting
Published by Cunning Folk (2020). Available here.
“He savours each mouthful, alternating between the sour ale and the sweet crunch of cashews. When the glass is nearly finished, the sides marbled with dried froth, the girl seems to finish her book.”
How to Eat a Grilled Cheese Sandwich
First published on the 3 of Cups patreon (2020).
“A different day, a different waitress, a different name tag on a different coloured pastel uniform, but the same small pad, the same clicky pens, the same pickle garnishes and grilled cheese sandwiches.”
The Way You Smelled of Pineapples
First published in Dear Damsels (2019).
Also published: Dear Damsels Annual (2020), available here.
“The fruit shed is cold and silent. The other fruit slicers work quickly in little Christmas hats, topping strawberries and skinning pineapples and slicing bananas into coins, to be threaded onto kebab sticks and dipped into liquid chocolate.”
The Alligator
First published in On Anxiety (3 of Cups Press, 2018).
“Finally, I suppose more prominently, my alligator came back. It felt like a flashback or a dream or a flashback of a dream but I’m pretty sure I was awake the whole time. I was making a cup of peppermint tea and, quite out of nowhere, I felt that it was behind me, stretched out across the sink and draining board with its avocado-skinned tail grazing the lino floor.”
and i will only drink drinks that are red like blood
Published in Smoke: A London Peculiar (2012). Read here.
“I won’t be caught out like this again, I vow. I will buy a crushed velvet minidress and matching black lipstick, and I will only drink drinks that are red like blood. Snakebite and black and watermelon Breezers and vodka cranberry.”
HappyVegetarian.com
Published in London Calling (Pank, 2012). Read here.
“She sat with us during our dessert and told us that she got the restaurant when she divorced her husband – a fact she seemed to find hilarious.”
Alice Slater 