The Upstairs Room

Description

Eleanor, Richard and their two young daughters recently stretched themselves to the limit to buy their dream home, a four-bedroom Victorian townhouse in East London. But the cracks are already starting to show. Eleanor is unnerved by the eerie atmosphere in the house and becomes convinced it is making her ill. Whilst Richard remains preoccupied with Zoe, their mercurial twenty-seven-year-old lodger, Eleanor becomes determined to unravel the mystery of the house's previous owners - including Emily, whose name is written hundreds of times on the walls of the upstairs room.

Kate Murray-Browne was born and lives in London. She studied English at Cambridge University and worked in publishing for ten years, previously at Faber & Faber, before becoming a freelance editor. She is also a visual artist and has exhibited work in a number of different galleries. The Upstairs Room is her first novel.

The Upstairs Room is the real thing. Frightening and clever and full of atmosphere -- Susan Hill, author of The Woman In Black An incredible read. Clever, chilling, I couldn't put it down -- Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble With Goats and Sheep A superior forerunner of the genre -- David Sexton * The Evening Standard * Superbly unsettling . . . Kate Murray-Browne has stuck her pen directly into the throbbing vein of the modern middle-class nightmare * The Times * To be gobbled up feverishly * Scotsman * A very impressive debut. The story is played out in an unsettling narrative that makes you want to read on to the end. -- Michael Frayn Tense and atmospheric * Red * A gripping and impressive story of mounting terror. Spellbinding -- John Carey The best dose of my drug of choice, the psychological thriller, was Kate Murray-Brown's The Upstairs Room. With thrillers as well written as this, who needs 'literary' novels? -- Julie Burchill * Spectator * Compulsively readable * Evening Standard *