Published by Sphere
Guest book review by Janice Lazell-Wood
Synopsis
No. 23 has
a secret. In this bedsit-riddled south London wreck, lorded over by a lecherous
landlord, something waits
to be discovered. Yet all six residents have something to hide.
In the
dead of night, a terrible accident pushes the neighbours into an uneasy
alliance. But one of them is a killer, expertly hiding their pastime, all the
while closing in on their next victim...
No.23 Beulah Grove is a rotten old
house divided into bedsits, and it’s owned by the most revolting of landlords,
Roy Preece, a vile and obese creature with no morals or hygiene. He’s desperate for the sitting tenant of the
house to die, so he can sell up, move away and live comfortably on the rent
proceeds, but she’s not dying nearly quickly enough, so he hatches a plan to
help her on her way, a plan that goes horribly wrong. A plan that leaves the residents unable to go
to the police, for fear of their own secrets being discovered, for they have
many secrets amongst them…
Cher is an underage care home
runaway, living a dangerous day to day existence, Thomas is lonely, boring and
just wants some friends, Hossein is an Iranian asylum seeker, Collette is on
the run from some very nasty men after doing a bunk with lots of their money,
there’s a mysterious man who keeps himself hidden away, playing his music at
all hours and interacting with no-one, and finally, there’s sitting tenant Vesta,
the matriarch of the group, a woman approaching 70, who’s lived in the house
all her life, with nothing to show for it but dusty ornaments and a tea set
that once belonged to her parents.
One of these residents is a
murderer and we are given full access to their modus operandi in all its graphic
and gory detail. If you can stomach the
novels of Mo Hayder and Val McDermid, you’ll be ok reading this, if not, then
be warned, it’s not for the fainthearted.
There are shades of how real life killer Dennis Nilsen disposed of his
victims here, as well as great detail on how the Egyptians took care of their
dead… The fact that the novel is set
during a heatwave, just cranks up the rancid atmosphere of the house!
For me, this was a page turning
psychological thriller, one that was devoured in a day. I have just one gripe, the ending. It left a question unanswered, however, don’t
let this put you off. Read, enjoy, and
treat yourself to a restorative G&T afterwards, you might just need it!
Thanks to Lindsay for the chance
to read and review this novel. I look
forward to reading more by the author, Alex Marwood.
Many thanks to Janice for reading and reviewing this novel for The Little Reader Library!
