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.
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.
The Beresford by Will Carver was published digitally by Orenda Books on 22 May 2021, the paperback edition was published on 22 July. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review for this Blog Tour.
Anyone who has read anything by Will Carver before will know that you should always expect the unexpected. Those of you who have yet to experience the delights of this author ... be afraid, be very afraid. This is an author who makes his readers work hard. He taxes the brain with his vivid imaginary and I believe that every reader will take something different away from this book.
At times grotesque, often darkly funny and always compelling, The Beresford is a stand alone novel that pushes the reader to their boundary. Populated with characters who will shock and surprise and a setting that is as much a character as the humans, it's a book that is so hard to write about.
Mrs May has owned The Beresford forever. It could be fifty years, it could be one hundred years. It doesn't matter really. What matters is that she's there, with her strict rota for every day. A bath, cold coffee, gardening, wine ... and making sure she knows everything about her tenants. She does know everything .... or does she?
The Beresford is a house for loners and people who want to escape. No questions asked, cheap rent, one tenant out, one tenant in. No crossover. Simple. People die at The Beresford, quite a few people actually, but there's always someone to take their place. Mrs May doesn't ask questions, nobody asks questions.
I'd talk about the plot ... if I had the words, but I don't. I'll talk about the reading experience and how I was left feeling when I turned the final page. I had a million questions in my head, I laid in bed thinking about the answers that I wanted, coming to all sorts of conclusions, not really knowing if I was right or wrong.
Will Carver does this. He does this every single time. His absolute precision with words and character building are extraordinary, yet I still feel as though I don't really know Abe, and Mrs May and Blair, and Gail. I'm not sure they know themselves, I think they know who they'd like to be, but I think their actions have surprised themselves as much as they've shocked me.
Carver tells his readers, in every book, that nothing important happened here today. He lies, something really important happened; this book happened and it's important and valuable. It's unique and genre busting; a mix of crime, horror and precise, sometimes angry, but always perfect, social commentary.
There's an underlying anger that rises through the pages, about the world and what people are doing to it, and to each other. It's incredibly clever and thought provoking ... it is like no other story that I've read.
I apologise if you are no closer to knowing anything about the plot, and what happens at The Beresford. I don't think it's my place to tell you. I'd urge you to #ringthedoorbell yourself, and if you do, #leaveyoursoulatthedoor
Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series and the critically
acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series that includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were ebook bestsellers and selected as books of the year in the mainstream international press.
Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for both the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2020 and the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.
Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for Guardian‘s Not the Booker Prize.
He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off.
acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series that includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were ebook bestsellers and selected as books of the year in the mainstream international press.
Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for both the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2020 and the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award.
Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for Guardian‘s Not the Booker Prize.
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 children.
Twitter @will_carver
Instagram @will_carver
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