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
It's such a pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for Upstairs at the Beresford today. Many thanks to Will Carver, Orenda Books and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for my advance copy of the book.
Will Carver's The Beresford was memorably about a grand old apartment building full of macabre secrets and grimly inescapable murders. In Upstairs at the Beresford, he takes us back to when the venerable institution was known as the Hotel Beresford and it's soon clear that this darkly singular establishment has always been a place like no other. A familiar face from The Beresford appears again here but the rest of the characters are new to this prequel and so readers can choose to read in either publication or chronological order.
The Hotel Beresford might still bear all the hallmarks of the grand, lavish building which once played host to celebrities and dignitaries but now the peeling paint and faded hopes left over from its elegant past houses people who need somewhere cheap to stay. We are told that 'each floor looks the same yet has its own unique landscape' and so it's the residents on the seventh floor and the penthouse's sole inhabitant who feature most prominently. The seventh floor has always been the most chaotic and noisy and that's made immediately evident but a dead addict, frantically barking dog and a man tied up in a closet are merely the curtain-raisers to what later occurs here. Meanwhile, upstairs in his penthouse, the chillingly enigmatic Mr Balliol sees it all...
This is a Will Carver book and so, of course, we are provoked into casting our own judgements on the characters, many of whom are flawed, fallen individuals whose behaviour is ostensibly shocking and yet only too predictable given how selfish, scared and fallible humans can be. The residents are undoubtedly manipulated by somebody else but nevertheless, it's often their own behaviour which results in them finding themselves in such dire straits. Danny Elwes is unequivocally an awful person but is Diana Walker just an angry, neglectful mother, Lailah merely a thief and I.P. Wyatt unforgivably wasting his talent, frozen by the fear of failure? And what of Carol, the hotel's long-serving manager who oversees the smooth running of the hotel, regardless of what horrors take place there but is searching for something herself? Or young Odie, how long will his innocence remain intact? With the hedonistic monthly third-floor conference offering even more in the way of temptation and apparent gratification, it shouldn't be any wonder that as with the characters themselves, readers will be forced to muse upon the seemingly straightforward question, 'What do you want?'
Throughout the book, there are biting observations about society and as always with a novel by Will Carver, it's uncomfortable, confrontational and provocative. This is most definitely not a book for the easily offended but even that bears questioning – why are we shocked by certain words or deeds and yet often meekly accept so much horror in the world? Without giving too much away about the fiendishly imaginative plot, the examination of faith and the inescapable blurring of good and evil really drives the compulsively unsettling narrative. Is the pursuit of pleasure always a sin or is a life half lived the greater transgression? There's a line from Frank Turner's song, Demons which I was reminded of while reading Upstairs at the Beresford, 'You're not delivering a perfect body to the grave'– but what of our souls? The philosophical, theological points considered here are likely to be incendiary and yet, why shouldn't we question and challenge ideologies and beliefs? There aren't any easy answers to be found in Upstairs at the Beresford but that’s what makes it such a consummate exploration of life, humanity and indeed, inhumanity.
Acerbically funny, sharply insightful and accompanied throughout by an exquisite soundtrack, Upstairs at the Beresford is another devilishly compulsive read from Will Carver. Very highly recommended.
Upstairs at the Beresford is published by Orenda Books. It can be purchased directly from their website, further purchasing links can be found here.
Follow the blog tour, details are below.
About the Author
Thanks for the blog tour support x
ReplyDelete