Published 22nd July 2021 by Orenda Books.
From the cover of the book:
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…
Eerie, dark, superbly twisted and majestically plotted, The Beresford is the stunning standalone thriller from one of crime fiction’s most exciting names.
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Welcome to The Beresford, with its now faded grand facade, where you can find yourself a low-rent apartment and no one asks too many questions - very handy if you are escaping from something, as so many of her residents seem to be doing. There is a Beresford just outside every city, and the occupant turnover is high, for reasons we are about to discover.
Our cast of characters is led by one Mrs May, owner and live in landlady, who has a very particular routine and never leaves the building - except to prune her roses. The residents are a motley crew, and change rather frequently, but we are really only concerned with the lower floor apartments, where Mrs May is all seeing, and our focus at the beginning is on the quiet and unobtrusive Abe Schwartz - an all round nice guy, except for the fact that he has somehow just killed his neighbour Sythe.
Death stalks these corridors and when the time comes for a resident to die, there will only be sixty seconds for the murderer to hide the body before opening the door to a Beresford newcomer. In Abe's case, he has just welcomed young Blair Conroy to The Beresford. She is ready to settle into the vacant apartment, and she and Abe are destined to become friends, maybe lovers, but the odds on long term happiness are slim. The routine at The Beresford never alters, until the doorbell rings and a new contestant enters the game.
The Beresford is a creep-fest of a standalone from Will Carver that has him channelling Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk and Ira Levin into a darkly humorous thriller with delicious themes straight out of some of the old school horror classics.
It takes some time to get your head around exactly what is happening here, but when you do the concept will have you settling in to read the whole book in one joyful sitting. I can't give away too much without spoiling the nicely crafted surprises, but this incorporates everything Carver does best - lots of luscious atmosphere and ramped up tension; flawed characters who both appeal and appal; blood-filled macabre scenes that hold nothing back, so you can almost feel yourself stabbing, sawing and dismembering alongside the guilty; and some sharp insight into how easily humans can become monsters.
There are some lovely elements holding this tale together. I particularly enjoyed the chilling fatalistic and circular nature of what happens inside the Beresford, and by extension, the Beresford's the world over, which Carver uses to deftly explore the notions of freedom, escape, desire and ambition, and his disturbing musings on the nature of Hell are more than enough to keep you awake at night.
If you are a fan of the authors I have namedropped above then you will find plenty here to entertain, particularly if you enjoyed the feel of Ira Levin's seminal Rosemary's Baby, because Carver's Beresford pays such an homage to Levin's Bramford - and if you haven't read them yet, then I really recommend a glorious odyssey of discovery that I am sure Carver would sanction.
The Beresford is a lot of fun, with plenty of thrills and spills of the American Horror Story kind, a treasure trove of deeper themes to examine if you care to look, and a corker of an ending too. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Beresford is available to buy now in ebook, paperback and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.
Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me an ecopy of this book n return for an honest review and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
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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