The Beresford by Will Carver
Published by Orenda Books
Publication Date: 22nd July 2021
Genre: Horror Thriller
Book Description:
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, Sythe, 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…
My Thoughts:
This is my first read from author Will Carver and I'd heard such good things that I thought I'd give it a try. To say it was a step away from my regular reading genre is quite the understatement! Despite this it is probably the book that has had me turning the pages fastest so far this year.
The story is based around an old, large, rather foreboding building called The Beresford. The lower two floors have been broken down into spacious apartments by the owner, Mrs May. A mysterious, ageing yet ageless lady who somehow seems to know all that goes on in the building yet never appears to witness any of it herself. So how does she have her finger on the pulse (or lack of it!) so well?
The affordable rent Mrs May charges for each apartment makes The Beresford an attractive option for many people whose circumstances mean their choices are limited. This also explains why there is such a high turnover of different residents passing through, until you find out exactly what goes on behind closed doors, which will give you a totally different outlook altogether.
The chapters are very short yet extremely punchy meaning that you quickly become engrossed in the shocking world of Mrs May and her tenants. Time passed in a flash while I was reading this book and I had numerous late nights that stretched out even later as my mind returned to the plot while I lay in bed trying (and failing) to get to sleep in preparation for work the next morning.
The description of the book given at the start of this page is literally all the plotline you need to have going into this book. To say any more would spoil your experience. All I will say is that for such short chapters in each character's life we get to know so much about them; they are all so well described that you feel like these are people you actually know - until you realise that The Beresford will have them questioning just how well they even know themselves! My jaw was left hanging open on multiple occasions owing to the macabre goings on. Due to the regular kind of murder/mystery/crime novels I tend to read, I was waiting for the appearance of detectives and forensics and all the usual stuff. Will Carver however takes this novel in a completely different, quirky yet shocking direction which, had I known more about before I started, I probably wouldn't have entertained reading. But oh am I glad I did! This book rocked me out of my comfort zone to the extreme and if you want an author who will have you over-thinking in the most chilling, disturbing and mind blowing way then Will Carver fits the description perfectly.
Be prepared to be taken into the world of probably the weirdest but most compelling novel you will read this year!
May I also give a huge shout out to my daughter Jess who has very kindly helped prepare this review for me at short notice. I spent a whole weekend suffering from a migraine unfortunately, which left me struggling to get my thoughts down "on paper". She has very kindly given up her own personal time to ensure that what you are reading today actually makes sense!
About the Author:
Will Carver is the bestselling author of the January Series – Girl 4 (2011), The Two (2012), The Killer Inside (2013), Dead Set (2013) – and the critically acclaimed Detective Pace series, which includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were selected as books of the year in mainstream international press. The books in this series have also been longlisted/shortlisted for the Amazon Readers Independent Voice Award, Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, Not The Booker Prize and the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award. Will spent his early years living in Germany, but returned at age eleven. He studied theatre and television at King Alfred’s Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition business and lives in Reading with his children
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