REVIEW: The Upstairs Apartment

REVIEW: The Upstairs Apartment - Lesley Kara

Genre: Psychological Thriller | Crime |

Release Date: 23rd June 2022

Publisher: Random House UK

The apartment upstairs was referred to as the ‘bedroom bloodbath’ by the tabloids. It’s where her aunt Rebecca lived. Lived being the key word here, because it’s also where she was brutally murdered by her fiancé who then cowardly killed himself. Scarlett is trying to heal and move on, to claw back the comfort in her own home just a few feet below a crime scene.

So when it’s time to try and say goodbye, she goes to Dee to organise the funeral - but Dee has enough going on, managing her job as a funeral director, trying to plan a memorial for her own missing best friend and the recent anonymous abuse she’s been receiving. But in their grief they find something else - hope. Hope that they might just uncover secrets that have laid buried for a long time. But secrets are buried for a reason, and if they’re not careful they could end up in the dirt with Rebecca.

'"Maybe having this service will be like drawing a line under the past."

"Not like a line exactly, more like the asterix you sometimes get in books, to signify the end of a scene."'

It's already clear that Lesley Kara is the Queen of suspense, and this is no exception.

Weaving in complex, deep relationships and family dynamics from the first few pages, immediately setting the stage and key players and making it feel like we've known the characters for ages. The relationship between Scarlett and Rebecca was cemented right away, the connection and love between them was clear and heart-warming even when they were distant.

The beauty of this mystery is - there wasn't a mystery. Not to start. There was a murder, it was solved. The reader is left wondering what could possibly be hiding in the shadows, what links these two seemingly random women and why there is a creeping chill growing from the first chapter that I couldn't quite explain.

Another compelling, captivating read with a horrifying realistic tale that will make you double check the doors are locked.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy in return for an honest review.

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