The Beresford – Will Carver

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…

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Review: This is a very weird book, unlike anything I have read before. It completely subverts expectations and looks at human nature in a really twisted way.

I did at times find it confusing. A lot happens in a short space of time and things at The Beresford change so quickly that you don’t really get the chance to know the different characters. But this allows them instead to become symbolic.  The short chapters help maintain a fast pace which, along with the continuous changes, makes this an exciting read.

My favourite thing about this book is that the writer does not hold back. Descriptions are blunt and harsh, humorous yet dark. Considering the premise of the book rests on the cyclical nature of life at The Beresford, Carver does a good job ensuring things don’t feel repetitive. Instead, the similarities between each iteration of tenants at The Beresford creates an ever-growing sense of foreboding. Part of me was expecting it to be scarier, but it is actually the normalness of events that makes it so creepy. There are no murderers hiding behind dark corners, stalking their prey. The evil is much less obvious. Normal people chopping up dead bodies in their bathrooms. Seeing how far they would go to get the things they want.

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Recommend: This is not a book for the faint-hearted, the descriptions of death are brutal in their bluntness, but is perfect for those interested in stories that are unexpectedly twisted and dark.   

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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.