When I first requested an advanced readers copy of The Resident, I was very excited! There has been so much hype on book-twitter and a lot of blogger friends loved it. I am very weary of getting involved in hyped books because I really don’t want to be disappointed. I expected a strong psychological thriller but boy…this beast packed a spine shattering punch! Imagine my delight when from chapter one onwards – I knew this was going to be the kind of dark and depraved that I live for in a crime novel.

The title and that mind-blowing cover set my imagination crazy. Imagine a serial killer actually living in your attic…watching your every move, eating your food, going through your possessions and using your shower. Yikes! The Resident was a slow of burn of mystery and intrigue, a dialogue between himself and his inner voice (truth be told, I wasn’t fully convinced that he didn’t have schizophrenia). The back story was indeed heart-breaking and points I did feel bad for our antagonist, but again, lots of people have traumatising childhoods and don’t go around killing people!

Thomas Brogan is on the run. The police are finally on to him after his latest kill. There’s police helicopters trying to hunt him down – he literally has nowhere left to hide. That is until he finds an abandoned house. He goes on to discover that the houses attic leads into the neighbour’s attic spaces. He can’t believe his luck. Access to food and the even more enticing aspect; access to victims. He gets to know Elsie, the sweet old lady that is still grieving for her long-departed son, the couple who never stop bickering and the fairbrights. The fairbrights are the perfect set of victims for Brogan, they aren’t long married, and they appear to be deeply in love, right? The mind games and plotting begin.

For me, The Resident is at its core a story about pain and suffering and what happens when a mind breaks down. Brogan has had a terrible upbringing. We learn more of that as the story progresses. We learn the truth of what snapped him into starting his killing spree, his awkwardness and difficult times as a child, of the things that brought him happiness. You are given that snippet of life, so you get an inkling into just how far he has fallen from the humanity tree.

David Jackson for me has written a story that is naturally flowing. The characterisation isn’t forced, but it just flows organically. A lot of it will resonate with the readers. It’s a dark and terrifying story, it gives a behind the scenes on newspaper stories, It’s like a rotten apple…it soon spreads to the rest.

The Resident has a lot going on. Secrets are revealed, personalities and behaviours change. I was certainly taken on a whirlwind of a read. The author treaded the line between crime thriller and psychological thriller and had me aching for more more more. Man, this was some book!

Psychological thriller

It’s evident from the first few pages that Brogan is a killer and is on the run from the police. Just how many murders he has committed isn’t apparent until towards the end of the story.

Brogan has nearly been caught and finds a derelict terraced house to hide out in. He then discovers that the attic connects to three other houses, so he decides to spy on the occupants before deciding whether to continue his killing spree.

For such a gruesome plot, the atmosphere throughout is relatively calm and tranquil. There is no frenzied attack or pace change. Most of the book is somewhat like a monologue or in fact a duologue as Brogan argues and debates with his inner self. It’s an intriguing way of allowing the reader to know what thoughts are going through his mind and very useful in establishing “feel” of the story. Humour also plays a big part and lightens the scene on occasions despite most of it being black.

In a way, it’s also much like a comment on life in general; you always get hurt by the ones you care about, and nothing could be truer in this case. Although there were 3 separate household units, the author focusses mainly on two. It’s a bit of a disappointment as there are a few loose ends as a result, but the relationships which develop between Brogan and the other two are fascinating.

It’s a disturbing book in many ways, but compulsive reading and can be thoroughly recommended.

mr zorg

Elite Reviewing group received a copy of the book to review.

What a rollacoaster thrilling ride, from start to finish, edge of the seat stuff. Split personality and inner turmoil at its best. Great job #DavidJackson. Thank you Netgalley for my ARC highly recommend.

There’s no perfect time to read a thriller about a serial killer trapped in a house. I read David Jackson’s The Resident during the first lockdown in Ireland and it captures the claustrophobia and fear that has become all too prevalent this year. Jackson may be most well known for his books featuring DS Nathan Cody, and, like those books, The Resident, which is a standalone, is superbly written. As readers have become accustomed to in Jackson’s books, his short chapters keep the tension going throughout.

In The Resident, Thomas Brogan, a serial killer on the run, finds himself in an abandoned house on the end of a row of terraced houses. He finds himself with no food or drink and must come up with creative ways to get these, which brings him into contact with some of the residents of the neighbouring houses. Brogan finds a way to move through the row of houses and he becomes a voyeur and is eventually involved with the different individuals including Elsie, an elderly woman, Martyn and Colette, a young couple, and an older couple. Brogan’s sadistic side is soon revealed as he plays mind games with the residents, particularly with Colette who he becomes fascinated with.

The book is unusual because of the inner monologue between Brogan’s different personalities that fight for space within his head. They’re expressed as different voices so, despite much of the book featuring Brogan on his own, his constant conversations with himself means that the pace never lets up. The book also features recollections of his childhood and his younger self which are then discussed and analysed amongst his inner voices.

Jackson’s writing is always evocative and exciting. He writes vividly about confined spaces which is something we’ve all experienced more of this year. I look forward to his next book, The Rule, released in 2021.

Well this was incredibly creepy and I’m suddenly very glad I live in a barn that doesn’t have an attic. There’s a serial killer on the loose. Thomas Brogan has left a trail of bodies behind him and nowhere left to hide. The police are hot on his heels, so he breaks into an abandoned house - an end terrace on a quiet street. When he climbs into the attic, he realises the whole terrace is connected, so he can drop into any of the houses. This is a jackpot to Brogan, because there’s only one thing he likes more than killing and that’s playing games with people. His new neighbours have more than enough secrets to manipulate, so from a lonely old woman down to the very tempting newlywed couple, he’s really looking forward to this game.

I really did enjoy the dark humour of this novel and this is one very twisted serial killer. Obviously he’s the bad guy, but because he’s so well written I found myself enjoying him. We get to understand why he behaves the way he does and, dare I say it, I felt some empathy with him - not that he’d know what it was. At the same time, he really is terrifying. He chats to his alter ego about which neighbour they want to kill and there are scenes that are not for the squeamish. This is a psychological thriller in a confined space, and it plays on the distrust we can even have of those we live with. If there’s a tiny chink of distrust Brogan will find it and exploit it. Although there is one particular resident he starts to develop a relationship with, it might just give him something that’s been missing from his life, or could even prove to be his undoing. His main fascination is young bride Colette and there’s a really disturbing sense of her being a helpless mouse played with by a cat. Terrifying and plausible.

Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley and the Publisher for my copy of this e-book, and blimey what a book it was. This book certainly kept me on the edge of my seat and was undoubtedly one I couldn’t put down.

The story followed Thomas Brogan a seriously deranged serial killer on the run from the law who finds the perfect hiding place for his voyeur fantasies.

Despite the majority of the book being placed in Brogans hiding place this does not stop this amazing plot from being pacey, but certainly makes the incredibly written characters stand out a lot more, being so character focused you get to know these characters on a much deeper level.

Every character in this book was well thought out, they each seemed 100% real and the majority of them were extremely likeable.

You had the lovely, lonely old lady who likes to see the good in everything, she reminded me so much of my nana, she was definitely one of my favourite characters and I also loved how she seemed to soften Brogan’s hard shell.

Then there was the passionate newlyweds, who at first I really took too, but the further and further into the story I got Martyn started to become an annoyance, and a jerk.

But the best character for me was not Brogan per se but the alter ego in his mind, he was evil but very witty with his remarks and I couldn’t help but smirk and chuckle every time he popped up.

If you love a good thriller with an evil minded main character with a soft gooey centre, this this is definitely the book for you.

Wow I live in terraced housing in parts this book was creepy but I did enjoy reading it thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to read this

What a fantastic read. It was a great book to read. It was thrilling. The book was very well written. Easy to read. Once you pick it up you literally cannot put it down

Thomas Brogan is a serial killer, and he has nowhere left to hide. Until... Well, until he finds an excellent place to hide, where the fun (fun being messing with his to be murder victims). Unsettling, dark, funny, scary. What more could you want?

I devoured #TheResident in one afternoon & sent my husband straight up to check our loft!

Thomas Brogan is a serial killer on the run from the police. He hides in an abandoned end terraced house (I do too!) and finds that the lofts are all accessible. As he spies on the different houses & steals food, he sets his sights on a young couple. While he spies and messes with their heads, we get an insight into Brogan’s troubled past & even more troubled mind. I kept hoping he’d change, but knowing he wouldn’t. The ending twist was a complete surprise to me & I know this book will disturb me for some time! I wished it had ended differently, with more exploration of his alternate personality, and not so sudden, but maybe that’s just because I didn’t want it to end.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for my free advance copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.

Overall, The Resident is a very entertaining and interesting read full of suspense and great character development. The prose is excellent - never boring, with just the right about of description and information, always setting the scene perfectly and with exactly the right pacing to keep me never wanting to put the book down.

I gave it 4 stars because the author missed a trick with the ending. It was quite underwhelming to me, knowing how close he came to making it great, and falling at the very last hurdle.

!!!!!SPOILERS!!!!!
Firstly, I didn't buy Elsie's propensity to just waltz into Colette's house and stab Brogan in the neck with almost no provocation. It went completely against her character in my eyes and the logic for it to happen had to be stretched way more than anywhere else in the book. This part was further dragged down by Elsie's silly 'here's the reasoning for everything I did even though no one asked' spiel, which wouldn't have been necessary had the book ended differently.

What would have tied the whole book together and given the ending a greater sense of irony is Brogan realising that he truly had come up against a female serial killer in Colette, one who was smarter than him and won against him in their battle of wits at the end.

Had Colette admitted to deliberately murdering Jeremy, and Brogan figured out that she had in fact deliberately sent Martyn up into the attic knowing Brogan was there, and then played the victim and manipulated Elsie into stabbing Brogan for her, I'd have given the book 5 stars.

Brogan's perceived ownership of women and his lust to torture who he thought was an innocent Colette to death just because he was physically stronger than her would have come back to bite him full force when he realised Colette was stronger than him mentally and because of this, it would be him who ultimately suffered at her hands and not the other way around. I'm not trying to wedge third wave feminism into the story, in fact I'm thankful the book had no political commentary at all, but this small tweak in the final events would have provided a great twist and been so much more satisfying than how the book actually ended.

Up until the very end, the book was incredibly well-written and I will definitely be looking out for more work by this author.

The Resident is a scary, psychological thriller by David Jackson.

Thomas Brogan is a sadistic killer lurking in the attic of an abandoned end of terrace house. He quickly discovers that the other houses on this row can be accessed through a gap in the adjoining walls in the attic and that’s when the fun really begins.

This was a fantastically dark and twisted thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through. The laugh out loud moments of humour lightened the mood and the insights into his past actually made me rather like and feel empathy for this deranged and sadistic killer. Great writing!

This book is not for the faint of heart. I found myself listening for noises coming from our loft for days after finishing this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and definitely recommend it but don't read it whilst eating!

Thank you, NetGalley, David Jackson and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Resident is an extremely creepy thriller about a serial killer on the run hiding in an abandoned house at the end of a terrace that he discovers can access the rest of the actually lived-in homes on the block and find new victims. My favorite aspect of this novel is that it's told from the serial killer's POV. It is fascinating being on this side of things as we're usually with the victim or detective. There are plenty of scenes that will spook and plenty that will make fans of dark humour happy. Highly recommended to readers looking for a solid serial killer thriller. This is one not to be missed!

Engaging, enjoyable and fun throughout, this book was easily let down by the ending. There is a general feeling of an anti-climax that has continued in the days after finishing this book. That being said, there are a couple of reveals dotted throughout that had some payoff, but only one gave me pause as I hadnt worked it out.

In terms of pacing, this is a great example of how a thriller can be done well - there is no let up from page one. It also helps that the person we spend all of our time with, and inside the head of, is easy to read about and has some amusing moments dotted throughout the narrative. The other characters that have a signifcant impact on the story (there are 3 of them) each had an individual voice that was easy to follow.

I was a bit disappointed that there seemed to be a lack of "games" when it came to the serial killer and his potential victims - I think this is definitely something that needs work. The fact that the story spiralled into what was basically voyeurism was a let down and not what I thought I would get going into the novel.

There are one or two graphic scenes that come out of nowhere which lack emotional impact - I actually had to skim one because of the graphic nature of it. This clashes with the subtle nature of the rest of the book and actually is very jarring.

My final point is that the ending gives little to no closure - especially for the people we have been following for the majority of the book. This is a bit of a let down and again doesn't really have the emotive punch that I think the author was going for.

The book was a 4 star read up until the last few chapters - it is let down by decisions made by the author which may suit some readers but ultimately was not for me. I would read more from this author.

Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for sending me a copy of this book for an honest review

Really enjoyable book. It kept me hooked from start to finish and had a really unique storyline. I read it in a few sittings as I couldn’t put it down. Loved all the characters in it!

I have to say that I don't have a fear of attics but rather the ladders leading up to them, so there really could be someone living in my loft and I'd be none the wiser. My first house was in a terrace and I could totally imagine builders cutting costs by not bricking all the way up between the houses. This is what killer on the run, Thomas Brogan, finds when he hides in the loft of an abandoned house. With access to three houses he can steal a little food from each one without anyone noticing and remain hidden from the police.

Brogan is at constant war with himself due to the other voice in his head and it's like he has whole conversations with himself. You can see how this happened through flashbacks to his lonely childhood and it just shows you how certain events can inflict lasting damage. Not that every lonely, bullied child becomes a serial killer, of course! Seeing this side of Brogan makes him appear more human rather than a soulless serial killer and rather strangely I did grow to like him.

Once Brogan started to interact with the residents of the three houses, I was completely hooked. After a close shave at one house he focuses his attention on deaf old lady Elsie and newlyweds Martyn and Colette. After discovering that the young couple are hiding secrets from each other, Brogan soon realises that he can have some fun with Martyn and Colette whilst using Elsie for provisions. It's just that niggling voice in his head crying out for more blood to be shed...

So very addictive, I couldn't put The Resident down and read it over the course of 24 hours. Written with surprising elements of humour, The Resident is a darkly comic thriller that thoroughly entertained me from start to finish.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

The Resident was a downright tense and creepy thriller that had me glued to the pages from beginning to end!

Thomas Brogan is an extremely dangerous serial killer and is on the run from the police. Brogan takes refuge in an abandoned house with it’s windows and doors boarded up. To his delight when he checks the loft he finds a gap which allows him to move along to the other neighbours lofts and spy on them!

Brogan likes to play games with his victims, he has a dark sinister mind and he's messed up. He also has a softer side too which makes you feel for him until you remember how evil he really is.

The author has a skill of making you feel totally absorbed in this story, it’s eerie but so clever. There are strong themes of voyeurism, obsession and murder in the plot.

The characters are well developed and I absolutely loved Elsie’s character she was such an adorable old dear. There’s a cracking twist at the end that you won’t see coming!

Warning - Do not read if you scare easily and live in a row of terraced houses. You'll be having nightmares at the slightest noise in your ceiling space.

I wish to thank NetGalley and Serpent’s Tail/Profile Books for an advanced review copy in return for an honest review.

When I started reading this book initially I kept thinking back to this 90s film with some guy living in the walls stalking someone and I couldn’t remember the name. I easily remembered the film with the same name The Resident with Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilary Swank but that wasn’t it. Then I remembered Sharon Stone and William Baldwin and remembered it was called Sliver. This book…isn’t that Lol but it has all the feels from those films.

I was hoping I would be terrified by this book, I wasn’t. It did, however, make me check there were no holes in the ceiling though! Although, from what I’ve been told we do have an open plan loft though stretching the 5 houses -oh god I’m done for!

I did find this book fascinating. We are thrown in the thick of it at the beginning, there is a manhunt for Thomas Brogan. But why we don’t know. We don’t actually see any of the sadistic murders on-page, everything is left out. We don’t initially know what drove him to do this acts of violence until later.

Instead, what we have is an intense 12 days of what Thomas. Is it wrong to find him fascinating? I did have to laugh at some of his inner monologues with himself. I was intrigued by his plans to terrorise the Fairbrights and watch how his lust for one person could change his demeanour.

There is one point in the loft where I actually started to get a bit nervous for him. Yes, I was nervous about the serial killer!! Yes crazy! I became attached to him. I was enjoying the acts he carried out on the unsuspecting couple. Completely messing with their heads and marriage. I found it all quite thrilling and entertaining in all honesty.

The Resident is a different book than I expected. I expected a scary story told from the victim’s point of view. Instead, we are told the story from the killer and I ended up caring about him!!! I enjoyed the random friendship he created with Elsie. I was nervous and panicked when he was walking around the houses, scared he would be caught! Waiting for the fallout.

I was unsure of the book at first, I had to get my bearings before I settled down and devoured it in a day. The only thing I was not happy with was….. the end!! Because it ended. I was so invested, I wanted more I would have happily sat there and read many more pages!

This is my first book by Mr Jackson, here I have found a new author that I am now going to catch up on. I already have done if DS Cody books do need to get cracking. If Jackson can make me care about a serial killer god knows what else he can make me care about!!! I want to find out though!!

This is one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read!

Well written and drags you right in even if you don’t want think about what is happening.

I’m currently sourcing a company to fill my attic in with cement 😂

If you like psychological thrillers this is for you.

I was gripped to this book from page one. It's a high pace really intriguing thriller. I loved the idea as well.

I'd read from this author again.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.