The Upstairs Room

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 An incredible read. Clever, chilling, I couldn't put it down -- Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble With Goats and Sheep

A gripping and impressive story of mounting terror. Spellbinding -- John Carey The Upstairs Room is the real thing. Frightening and clever and full of atmosphere -- Susan Hill, author of The Woman In Black A brilliantly observed and utterly unnerving ghost story of contemporary feminism and the housing crisis. Murray-Browne turns the screws so cleverly that the moment you long to break the novel's breathless grip is also the moment you recognize that its world is actually your own. -- Anna Smaill, author of The Chimes Kate Murray-Browne's debut novel is a property horror story ... compulsively readable. Murray-Browne commands a lucid and reasonable prose, just the way to conduct you unprotestingly into the midst of this deranging subject matter. She is sharply observant but never overwrites - and on the few occasions when she offers a plain simile it's surprisingly funny as a result. Such cool writing looks easy. It's not. Murray-Browne is an expert editor and it shows ... The Upstairs Room is engrossing. A fine holiday read. Far from London. * Evening Standard * Effortless ... a chilling tale of just how badly wrong life can go when you mortgage yourself to the hilt. * The Times *