I enjoyed Death of a Bookseller so I was very much looking forward to Let the Bad Times Roll and I was not disappointed. This is clever book -the descriptions are lush and exotic, the characterisations are excellent and the plot intriguing.

None of the characters is particularly pleasant but I found Selina to be the most sympathetic. The Selina and Daniel sections are especially deliciously descriptive. New Orleans is portrayed so well that I felt I was there and my liver ached just reading about the amount of booze they put away.

Very enjoyable.

I loved Alice Slater's debut, 'Death of a Bookseller,' so when I had the opportunity to read a review copy through NetGalley, I was delighted. That second novel is said to be difficult, but Alice Slater has, in my opinion, written something even better than her first book.

This novel is set partly in London and partly in New Orleans. Siblings Caroline and Daniel have always done everything together, with Caroline acting as the parent since their parents died. Now Caroline is hosting a dinner party as she has been informed that Daniel is missing in New Orleans. Present is Richard, whom Caroline and Daniel knew at university. Also present are Sage and Max, who knew Daniel from his time in a band, and Selina, who met Daniel in New Orleans and has been asked by Caroline to provide any information she knows about what happened.

Gradually, as the evening wears on, we hear the stories of those at the dinner party and their relationship with Daniel. Selina reads tarot cards and believes herself something of a psychic. She travelled to New Orleans alone, where she met Daniel - handsome, funny, charming, believable...

If you enjoyed Bookseller, you will devour this, oh-so-dark tale of how Daniel weaved his way through the world and the lives of these characters. Slater takes the reader deftly through a novel of manipulation and obsession. She is a confident tour guide, her places presented realistically, her characters well-rounded. I loved this and will happily buy anything else Alice Slater cares to write. I hope she has a long and successful career ahead of her.

This is a really well written and cleverly constructed novel about a bunch of horrible people using each other to reach their own ends. All the characters felt really original and memorable, the settings in turn evocative and claustrophobic. I'd give it five stars except that reading it was kind of bleak, too many horrible people, no glimmer of redemption. It's a great book but I'm not sure how much I actually enjoyed it. I'm sure it will be one of those that sticks in my mind for a long time though.

Loved this book. I found myself laughing out loud a lot of times. Will definitely recommend to others and will be picking up other books!

As you know, I'm a big fan of Alice Slater's debut Death of a Bookseller and podcast #whatpageareyouonpod, so I was sure to request this and read as soon as I could. Let the Bad Times Roll is out on 10th July, a really vibey mystery, set in large part in New Orleans, where a charismatic young man called Daniel goes missing. His overbearing older sister Caroline hosts a dinner party with his close friends and a psychic (!) he met while travelling to attempt to find some answers, and the novel is structured in the courses that she so meticulously puts together.

With each course, another person tells their side of the story to the group, as well as telling the audience the full truth of their relationship with Daniel, who was never really known by any of them. I didn't like any of the characters at all, though I don't think you're supposed to, so I wasn't really rooting for anyone and that meant I wasn't too concerned with the mystery element - but I was deeply interested in the ✨vibes✨

It's brilliant on New Orleans, first of all, where I've never been but if I ever go ill just follow this itinerary. The food all sounded amazing, but especially the cocktails, and the way she conjured up the vibe of the venue or the scene or the feeling the characters tried to chase with that kind of food writing was 🤌🤌🤌.

I was also interested in the use of the occult and mysticism in this novel, and at first I thought the psychic functioned more as a device in the book or to show that kind of association with New Orleans, but later I was interested in how some characters could turn on or off that interest depending on what benefited them. I was intrigued by the mention of The Murder Girls podcast which appears in her first book, and the various types of tourists in the novel who are interested in death and violence "recreationally", as well as who profits off this - an interesting thread in both novels that made me even more inclined to read another by Slater.

A dark, addictive thriller full of horrible but compelling characters.

A New Orleans-inspired dinner party. A group of friends connected by dark pasts. A missing person and a search for the truth. As the evening unfurls, so do histories and truths that keep us guessing about the real motives of these people until the very end.

All the good and the bad of New Orleans comes alive in these pages, making me wistful for every fancy cocktail in dark bars, cup of gumbo and even drinks in plastic cups in stick-floored tourist places. While we didn't get to spend loads of time with some characters, and there are lots of perspectives, their voices feel distinctive and the story is still clear and races on in a way that many that is not the case for many similarly structured books.

And while some of the grimy fates and happenings felt inevitable, the last question of 'what happened' kept me guessing until the end.

I haven't been these addicted to a book in ages, and I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting a twisted thriller, especially one full of wanderlust.

I absolutely adored Death of a Bookseller, and was on the lookout for Let the Bad Times Roll, which I approached with a little concern, could it live up to my extremely high expectations after the superb first novel, or would it suffer the curse of the second book? I needn't have worried, Let the Bad Times Roll is as wonderful and as memorable as Death of a Bookseller (I also actually squealed when I saw the wee crossover!)
It follows a motley crew of characters, most of whom are unlikeable, but as with her first novel, Alice manages to create people who are engaging, and storylines which are riveting and need to be followed until the very end. I whipped through this book very quickly and it is one which I will return again.
Don't hesitate, buy and read it now!
Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publishers for a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed Alice’s debut novel, Death of a Bookseller, so I was thrilled when her second book was announced and even more thrilled to receive an ARC!

Alice’s writing in DOAB was great, but it is absolutely sublime in Let the Bad Times Roll! She has really honed her craft and the writing was so rich and evocative, especially when describing the sights, sounds and tastes of New Orleans.

I loved the different perspectives of each of the characters - this added so much to the story, and each character was very well fleshed out and developed. I honestly think the book could have been longer and given us even more of each character.

I loved the twists and turns in the story, and the reveals were so good, I couldn’t put this down. My only tiny gripe was that the ending felt a little rushed, and I’d have liked a touch more focus on the final event of the story.

Overall an excellent read, and I can’t wait to read what Alice writes next.

Finished this a couple of days ago now but it's had very good staying power in my head and I keep thinking about it and wanting to go back to these characters.

Slater brought New Orleans to life in an amazing way for an "unreliable narrator"-type thriller, creating a dizzying whirlwind of a week filled with oysters, tarot cards, and cocktails. However, there was a repetitiveness in the language that got distracting for me: a few too many references to drinks "spiked with absinthe" and what at times felt like a race to name-drop as many beverages as possible. It was a vibe though!

The plot was deliciously twisty and I loved how she built up her character dynamics. None of them were particularly likeable, but they all felt real. Her writing craft has had a full glow up since Death of a Bookseller (which I enjoyed, don't get me wrong!) and I was on the edge of my seat the entire way through.

What fun I had with this! I devoured it in a day. It's a novel about a scammer, of course, my generation's favourite type of crime. Charismatic Daniel is missing in New Orleans; his sister Caroline throws a dinner in London and invites three of his friends, plus a psychic who claims to have spent the past two weeks with Daniel in Louisiana. Between them all, surely, they'll get to the truth of the matter. And they do, although not in the way Caroline expects. This is just so great on detail: the smells, sounds, tastes and emotions of a city that relies on marketing its history to survive; the strange combination of euphoria and creeping inauthenticity that produces. Every character is convincing, though we get much more time with Selina, the psychic, than most of the others, and I'd have liked a more even spread. (That's rare; usually in novels with five point-of-view characters I think at least three are superfluous or badly done.) The third quarter of this book is hard to read if you have traumatic financial experiences in your past, I'll warn you now. On the other hand, 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.

Alice Slater is a strong voice in the domestic, twisted thriller genre. Death of a Bookseller was a runaway hit and Let The Bad Times Roll is equally as exciting.

Absolutely loved this thrilling read - full of twists and turns!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early reading copy.

What a book. A love letter to New Orleans, and proof that Alice Slater doesn’t have to worry about the dreaded “2nd album” nerves that plagues so many writers and artists alike.
I inhaled this over a weekend, immediately drawn in by her excellent prose and storytelling, this novel is the right mix of funny and tense, with people that you may not love, but do want to read about.
You can tell how much Alice Slater loves New Orleans, and that she’s clearly done her research while writing the book. I can’t wait to buy a physical copy when it’s out, and convince my friends to do the same!
4.5 stars, rounded up to 5!

WOW, Slater has dialed it up to 11 with Let the Bad Times Roll. Where her debut was dark and decadent but with a sprinkling of fun and humour, LTBTR is like the cooler older cousin - it draws you in and doesn't let you go, shocks you, engulfs you, and leaves you reeling after finishing the final page.

The whole book is set across a dinner being held in London by Caroline, whose brother Daniel has gone missing in New Orleans. At the dinner are Daniel's closest friends and also the last person to see Daniel who happens to be a psychic and tarot reader. As the dinner progresses, secrets are revealed and the tension rises as the mystery comes to it's head.

What I adored about this book is the setting of New Orleans. Having been to the city myself last year, it was easy to get lost in Slater's vivid descriptions of the streets, bars, tastes and smells. The whole experience of the book completely transports you, and it's easy to see Slater has a deep love and passion for the city which comes across in the writing and knowledge of the area. There was also a real appreciation for Southern culture and writing and the entire book really reminded me of a Donna Tartt novel with the way the main characters interacted. The parts where it flashed back to their time at university together had a Secret History edge, and the cast of characters give of a real vibe of exclusivity which made them all the more compelling. The gothic nature of this novel draws from both the atmosphere of New Orleans but also the Southern writers which have honed the craft before Slater, and she pays homage to them beautifully.

I was worried that nothing would beat Death of a Bookseller but I loved this just as much. Slater's storytelling was absolutely amazing and I adored the way this book moved forward. I already can't wait for her next work as her craft is just getting better and better.

I was definitely intrigued by Daniel who is the literal doppelganger for someone I know, even down to the relationship with his sister so the first half of the book rolled along enjoyably.. The descriptions of New Orleans, the food, drink and environment told me the author has spent time there and felt real. For me the story is too repetitive (though I did like the different timelines) and sadly the characters are either irredeemably awful or one-dimensional and boring.. That said I know that it will sell well a perfect summer read. for sure, just not for me sorry.

I liked this better than Death of a Bookseller and plot wise it went down very easily. A little Secret History, a little Interview with a Vampire, a little Gone Girl. Could have lived without the cliche food descriptions personally but I spent a perfectly entertaining and diverting summer afternoon with this and that’s all I ask for from a thriller really.

This is a great book from Alice Slater. It's just so good. Extremely clever writing. I just couldn't put it down and have reccomended it to my book group.

I absolutely loved this! It's very different than Death of a Bookseller but retains the same sense of colour and quirkiness. The characters in this are brilliant. So vivid! They all feel like people we know or can relate to. The settings, particularly New Orleans, are rich and tangible. The plot itself is really engaging and deeply layered. What I loved most is the language - it's gorgeous, alive with descriptions that make the reader pause to savour them. A fast read, only because you will not be able to resist going back to it every moment you can.

After the sharp, rather distinctive debut Death of a Bookseller, I was eager to dive into Alice Slater’s second novel, Let the Bad Times Roll.

With its New Orleans setting, a missing person mystery, and a psychic thrown into the mix, the ingredients are all there for a thriller that blends sultry Southern Gothic with contemporary psychological suspense. Still, the final result didn’t quite land with the same impact as her debut.

Let the Bad Times Roll follows two timelines: the “then,” in which psychic Selina, alone and aimless in New Orleans, is drawn into a strange and intense connection with the charismatic but elusive libertine Daniel, and the “now,” in which Daniel has disappeared, and his sister Caroline gathers his nearest and dearest for a tense dinner party in London, complete with a spicy gumbo of secrets and suspicions and one unexpected guest claiming supernatural insight.

Slater excels at mood and atmosphere. The New Orleans scenes are lush and claustrophobic, full of sticky heat, hangovers, and that uncanny feeling that something isn’t quite right. The London chapters have their own tension, with the dinner party turning slowly but surely into something more sinister. But despite all this setup, the plot sometimes feels like it’s spinning its wheels. The suspense is there but stretches thin in places, and the pacing dips just when you’re hoping for a sharp turn or reveal.

That said, it’s still a satisfying read, just more of a slow simmer than a sharp shock. Perfect for lazy summer afternoons or poolside reading, where the slightly drawn out tension feels more like a feature than a flaw. Just maybe steer clear if you’re packing for The Big Easy anytime soon.

Fans of slow-burn mysteries with a touch of the uncanny will likely find enough here to keep turning the pages. Overall, Let the Bad Times Roll is a moody, slightly meandering thriller with a unique setup. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

3.5 stars (rounded to 4)

Many thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy via NetGalley.

RTC - wrong review added here so it has been removed.

Loved Death of a Bookseller though so think I'll love this too,