I'm helping to close the blog tour for the fabulously dark Upstairs at the Beresford by Will Carver, a prequel to The Beresford which came out in 2021. Huge thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours and to the publisher for my review copy.
The Blurb
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 darker…
Upstairs at the Beresford is published by Orenda Books and came out on 9th November 2023.
My Review
I love Will Carver books, he's now a go to author for me. But I hate that they are so hard to review! If you've read The Beresford you'll have a wee idea of what you're letting yourself in for here. If you haven't read it, don't worry, this is a prequel and you don't need to have read The Beresford. But I bet you'll want to after reading this one!
The Beresford is a large, magnificent building at the edge of the city. We don't know which city and it doesn't matter, it could be anywhere. Full of fading grandeur, this establishment is owned by Mr Balliol, resident in the tenth floor penthouse, and managed incredibly efficiently by Carol, who lives off-site but has a room on the ground floor she can use if she wants. The Beresford is always full and how long someone needs to stay dictates the floor they end up on. In the book, we mainly focus on the longer term residents on the seventh floor but with visits both up and down the way, including to the sales conference taking place on the lower floors. This is the life of the hotel in full swing, full of colourful characters, and things gets very dark indeed.
We meet several residents of the seventh floor, one of whom is jazz singer Danielle. I loved the descriptions of her, how music seems to accompany her every move. And Odie, little bookworm and son of Diana and Sam Walker, and the purest thing in this book. He'll be your favourite character, I'm sure, he was mine. A young boy who has had to grow up quickly seeing his violent father take things out on his mother and what she'll do to get the money together to escape him. He's just a wee soul. We meet IP Wyatt, a reclusive author staying in an upper floor, who deletes what he's written at the end of the day. Until he gets out right. And Carol. Of indeterminate age, she's been there pretty much since the beginning, managing the hotel with a smooth efficiency, turning rooms around so they are ready for occupancy with incredible speed. But there is a deep sadness to Carol which we learn more about as the story progresses. She was a standout character for me. And Mr Balliol. What to say about him? All seeing, all knowing, he revels in people's misery, finds violence entertaining. Is he just an evil man or is there more to him?
Because he is interested in the lost souls, the desperate, those that what something really, really badly and what they are willing to do to get it. And they don't necessarily need to be bad people. We meet the Mays who aren't residents of the hotel, a sweet older couple who live close by. Mrs May is praying hard to God for what she wants but he's just not listening. Mr Balliol is though, and willing to help. At a cost. Back in the hotel, The third floor is full of salespeople, mainly men, here for their annual conference, hosted by the genial Mr Balliol. The after party is something else - dark and grotesque, verging on horror.
There are segments where Carver directly addresses the reader, as in previous books, and these are often angry, but address big issues. In this one, God and religion generally get a hard ride but also it shows the disconnectedness (is that a word? Don't think so but you know what I mean) in society. We don't connect with each other any more, not properly. We don't look out for each other. But here, if God isn't listening to the lost souls then someone else is. As I said when I opened, Will Carver's books are really hard to review. But they are always entertaining, challenging and thought provoking and Upstairs at the Beresford is certainly that. It makes us consider what we really want and what we would be willing to do to get it. Would we go as far as some do here? Or should we be thankful about what we already have and less greedy? As always with his books, Carver has left me with questions about myself and the world around me. And that's got to be a good thing, especially when it came via an absolutely cracking novel.
The Author
The Author
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