by Will Carver
SYNOPSIS
There are worse places than hell…
Hotel Beresford is a grand, old building, just outside the city. And any soul is welcome.
Danielle Ortega works nights, singing at whatever dive bar will offer her a gig. She gets by, keeping to herself. Sam Walker gambles and drinks, and can't keep his hands to himself. Now he's tied up in a shoe closet with a dent in his head that matches Danielle's broken ashtray.
The man in 731 has been dead for two days and his dog has not stopped barking. Two doors down, the couple who always smokes on the window ledge will mysteriously fall.
Upstairs, in the penthouse, Mr Balliol sees it all. He can peer into every crevice of every floor of the hotel from his screen-filled suite. He witnesses humanity and inhumanity in all its forms: loneliness, passion and desperation in equal measure. All the ingredients he needs to make a deal.
When Danielle returns home one night to find Sam gone, a series of sinister events begins to unfold. But strange things often occur at Hotel Beresford, and many are only a distraction to hide something much, much darker…
REVIEW
I read The Beresford back in July 2021 and I loved the story, but because it had been a while since I’d visited this strange building and its inhabitants I was wondering if I should go back and re-read the first book before checking out the upstairs. In the end I decided not to but within a few pages I’d been transported right back into this surreal world. It’s a testament to Will Carver’s writing that with just a few tiny prompts I could picture the interior perfectly, the layout, the atmosphere, even the art deco architecture without difficulty. The descriptions and the world building in the first book were so detailed and absorbing that they’ve stayed ingrained in my mind years later.
Something about the way Will Carver writes just really resonates with me. He can write a sentence or paragraph about mundane, day to day things but it always has a sinister edge. It doesn’t feel like I’m reading fiction about other people, it feels like he’s talking directly to me - “You logged into your work email over the weekend when you could have been swimming with dolphins”, because this is me, and probably a lot of other people too. With the disturbing subject matter and themes in the book, these comments almost feel like a warning to the reader to look at their lives and make changes!
Upstairs at the Beresford is not what you would expect it to be. It's horror with a twist - observations of human behaviour, a social commentary and bizarre Lynchian style people-watching which is both surreal and absorbing. Will Carver definitely has one of the most unique voices in contemporary horror and I would be more than happy to book another stay at The Beresford in the future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Will’s latest title published by Orenda Books, The Beresford came out in July 2021. His previous title Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize, while Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Good Samaritans was book of the year in Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Express.
Thanks to Anne Cater - @RandomTTours, Will Carver - @Will_Carver, and Orenda Books - @OrendaBooks for the opportunity to read and review.
Fiction: Noir / Horror
Publisher: Orenda Books
ISBN: 978-1914585920
Pages: 368pp
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