by Will Carver
SYNOPSIS
Just outside the city – any city, every city – is a grand, spacious but affordable apartment building called The Beresford.
There’s a routine at The Beresford.
For Mrs May, every day’s the same: a cup of cold, black coffee in the morning, pruning roses, checking on her tenants, wine, prayer and an afternoon nap. She never leaves the building. Abe Schwartz also lives at The Beresford. His housemate Smythe no longer does. Because Abe just killed him. In exactly sixty seconds, Blair Conroy will ring the doorbell to her new home and Abe will answer the door. They will become friends. Perhaps lovers.
And, when the time comes for one of them to die, as is always the case at The Beresford, there will be sixty seconds to move the body before the next unknowing soul arrives at the door. Because nothing changes at The Beresford, until the doorbell rings...
REVIEW
At The Beresford the rent is cheap, the residents keep to themselves, and the landlady, Mrs May, doesn't ask too many questions. It's the perfect place to stay when you need to make a new start or run away from something in your life. There's just one problem - the tenants keep dying and without fail, exactly sixty seconds later, an unsuspecting new resident arrives and rings the doorbell...
This is the first book that I've read by Will Carver but after reading the synopsis I thought it sounded like such a fresh and unusual idea for the horror genre that I decided to give it a try. It's a story that is almost impossible for me to categorise or explain but it felt like a macabre take on Groundhog Day, mixed with elements of the classic 1970s TV shows Thriller and The Twilight Zone.
Maybe I should be concerned - I think I enjoyed this book too much and the dark part of me was secretly thrilled every time a new resident pulled up to the house with their bags and no idea what they were letting themselves in for!
I have no idea how to properly describe what I've just read and after finishing it I have more questions than answers; Is The Beresford a classic horror story? Is it a story about the devil stealing people's souls? Is it a story about grief, loss and abuse, and the lengths people will go to to survive? I honestly don't know the answer to these, but what I know for sure is that The Beresford was dark, twisted and completely bizarre...and I loved every second of it!
Highly recommended as long as you're not too squeamish!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Will’s latest title published by Orenda Books, Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize, while Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year and for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell. Good Samaritans was a book of the year in Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Express, and hit number one on the eBook charts.
Thanks to Anne Cater - @RandomTTours, Will Carver - @Will_Carver and Orenda Books - @OrendaBooks for the opportunity to read and review.
Fiction: Contemporary Horror / Horror Thriller
Publisher: Orenda Books
ISBN: 978-1913193812
Pages: 276pp
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