The Man on the Middle Floor

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Pub Date 01 Jan 2019 | Archive Date 13 Jun 2018

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Description

Three People


Two Murders


One House



Nick, Tam and Karen live on three floors of a south London house. One is struggling to find his place in society, one is drowning his sorrows in alcohol, and one has embarked on a life-changing research project.


Despite their proximity, they are completely disconnected. That is, until a murder in the house brings them together, irrevocably. 


One of them is guilty, one wants to find out who did it, and one wants to find out why.


Unsettling, illuminating and thrilling in equal measures, The Man on the Middle Floor will make you think twice about those who lives around you. It is a book about society, about detachment, about guilt.


It’s about a crime where the question is not who but why.





Three People


Two Murders


One House



Nick, Tam and Karen live on three floors of a south London house. One is struggling to find his place in society, one is drowning his sorrows in alcohol, and one has...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781910453544
PRICE $14.95 (USD)

Average rating from 132 members


Featured Reviews

Absolutely brilliant read.

The novel centres on a house in south London, which is split into three flats occupied by three very different people. Nick, Tam and Karen all lead unconnected lives and the story is told from all three separate points of view in turn. The characters are all struggling. Nick has to face autism and living on his own for the first time, Tam has just resigned from the police force and Karen is determined to submit an award winning research paper on autism.

The characters are brilliantly developed and for me the story line went through unpleasant features to horror to amazing to hilariously funny. At times, I laughed out loud. Underlying it all there were serious issues addressed including living in today’s society with a mental illness, dysfunctional family life, abuse and wanting to keep the old-fashioned methods alive.

If somebody had listed the content of the novel I may well not have read it but it was cleverly written and I look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, RedDoor Publishing and Elizabeth S Moore for my ARC in return for my honest review.

Excellent Read. Highly recommended.

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Excellent! I love it . This is only the second book I've read in fiction that gets it right!

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An interesting story with a brilliant plot, great characters and beautiful writing!It was also funny keeping your interest until the end!The characters were well developed !

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Elizabeth S. Moore’s debut novel is ambitious- an attempt to combine storytelling and social commentary. There’s a genuine earnestness in the way Moore approaches her themes- just how well conceived is society’s approach to autism and Asperger’s? Do academic findings translate into real life? This issue driven, big-hearted book attempts to find out.

Cleverly positioned in terms of flaws, each character is developed fully and honestly. The multi person narrative is handled well, and Moore’s investment in her characters is clear. She cares about the issues at the heart of this novel, but her earnestness is perhaps the book’s flaw. There are genuinely dark scenes- but the light tone feels slightly incongruous in dealing with them.

There’s plenty to uncover in this debut and it’s sure to win plenty of fans- but ultimately its effervescence froths just a little too much.

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Fantastic! I loved this book! The characters were interesting, the story was full of action and I was eager to continue reading until I got to the end. Am looking forward to read more from this author

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Loved how the author dealt with the issue of aspergers syndrome and factored into the story beautifully. All in all I found this to be a good read, if a little slow in parts.

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Book Description
Nick, Tam, and Karen live on three floors of a south London house. One is struggling to find his place in society, one is drowning his sorrows in alcohol, and one has embarked on a life-changing research project.

Despite their proximity, they are completely disconnected. That is, until a murder in the house brings them together, irrevocably.

One of them is guilty, one wants to find out who did it, and one wants to find out why.

My Thoughts
The Man on the Middle Floor was a rare reading experience for me. There were parts I loved, parts I liked and parts I didn't enjoy at all. That wasn't because the writing was bad or the plot was boring. Quite the opposite actually, it was so well written that the characters and their actions and motivations made me feel empathy, sympathy, laughter, joy, and disgust(just to name a few of the things I felt). This isn't a sunshine and roses story where everyone winds up living happily ever after. Bad things happen, people make poor and selfish choices, people die, people are abused, people are neglected and the isolation that one can feel living in a city surrounded by people is palpable.
Tam, Nick, and Karen each have a flat in a house in London. In the past, they may or may not have even acknowledged each other in passing and they are certainly not privy to details of each other's lives. Tam is a policeman unable to accept the changes that technology brings to his department. Nick is autistic and any deviation to his accustomed routines rattles him badly and in unpredictable and violent ways. Karen is a researcher trying to better understand autism who has no time for anything or anyone that she doesn't believe can help her validate her findings.
These three strangers lives begin to connect in numerous ways, most of them sad and tragic. Love, loss, abuse, crime, punishment, isolation and the society we live in are all explored. This wasn't a book that kept me up all night reading, but it was a book I thought about each time I put it down. The subject matter was often dark and uncomfortable but very real. I haven't stopped talking about it with friends and I still find myself thinking about the story at odd moments.I find myself rereading parts and developing an even deeper appreciation for the author's style.
Thank you Elizabeth S. Moore, Red Door Publishing and NetGalley for the digital ARC to read and review.

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There have been a number of recent-ish novels with non-neurotypical main characters, but I don’t think you will have read one quite like this before...

The plot centres around three people who inhabit, separately, the same London house. On the top floor, Karen, a doctor working on what she hopes will be ground-breaking research into how people with autism can lead fulfilling and productive lives. On the ground floor, Tam, a policeman, previously injured in the line of duty, who now finds there is no place for him in a modern police force, or at least no place he wants to inhabit. And the man on the middle floor: Nick.

It’s an interesting, unsettling read with some unusual and often challenging themes. We get inside the head of Nick, a troubled young man with Asperger’s, and it’s not a comfortable place to be.

Karen is obsessed by her work and able to think of little else; she’s incapable of remembering to perform basic functions of everyday life (putting petrol in her car, picking up her children at an agreed time.) Separated from her husband and children, the visits from the children feel like an imposition and she counts the minutes till they leave and she can get back to work. Since Karen seems to have always been pretty much like this, why she chose to have three children in the first place is a mystery.

Karen herself seems somewhat disconnected from the usual emotions and it makes a kind of sense that she’s chosen to work in the field of autism.

The blokey Tam, dealing with the loss of his career through booze and sex, is the most obviously “normal” and to me, at least initially, perhaps the least interesting of the three. However Tam definitely goes on a journey over the course of the story and by the end is, if not a different person, one who has broadened his horizons and outlook.

And then there’s Nick. His sections of the story are written in first person, and it’s hard reading at times. Life is a struggle for Nick; not only because of his Asperger’s, but there is clearly something dark in his family history , particularly in his relationship with his grandfather. He is a very troubled and damaged young man, failed by those around him and he beset by feelings he cannot understand or deal with about sexuality, violence and death. He clings to his routines and when these are disrupted, all hell breaks loose - almost literally.

The Man on the Middle Floor is a very well written and thought provoking debut. The author clearly has a lot to say on certain subjects and does so in a very effective way. Some dreadful things happen in this book (it’s very dark and disturbing at times) and it’s clear there can be no easy resolutions for the characters - Nick, in particular - but the ending is quite satisfying, though can feel a little heavy on the exposition at times as the author fills in the gaps. There’s a great courtroom scene too.

While reading I wasn’t always sure that I liked the book, but I was always interested and challenged.

I was intrigued to learn more about the author after finishing the book, and found this interesting post on her website in which she discusses the book and some of the reactions to it - worth checking out.
https://elizabethsmoore.com/ramblings/2018/3/29/autism-and-writing

Many thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

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