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.

#UpstairsAtTheBeresford @Will_Carver @OrendaBooks
#RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour #CarverCult

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…

My Review

Upstairs At The Beresford is the sequel to The Beresford, except it’s actually a prequel. It’s darkly funny, but not in the way The Beresford is. There is still a lot of the author’s musings and philosophising, but less of the googling how to dispose of the bodies, chopping off the fingers and toes to get rid of the prints, and using drain cleaner to dispose of the digits.

In a way Upstairs is much darker, but less embarrassingly laugh out loud funny, in that twisted way that Will Carver does so well. The residents all have their reasons to end up there – it’s cheap, but it’s also a place to hide your secrets.

Singer Danielle Ortega is hiding more than a secret. She’s hiding a tied-up Sam Walker in her closet. But then he should know when to keep his hands to himself. His wife sells her body to pay the rent, while son Odie is at school.

Once a month the third floor is used to hold a conference. Mr Balliol loves the conferences, but then he is a collector and makes his decisions from his penthouse suite. Handsome, suave, and charismatic, he speaks at the conferences and the room is thrown into rapture. Danny Elwes is one of the delegates, and a more selfish, despicable character you are unlikely to meet.

Carol has worked at The Beresford for years. She can’t get over the loss of her one and only love, Jake. She runs the place and organises the ‘clean-ups’ of which there are many. Keith is on reception, always smart and sporting a cravat. He’s non-binary and all he wants is for his mother to accept him. Ollie suffers from PTSD. He manages security.

You can make your wishes come true at The Beresford, but the price you pay is high. And you know what they say ‘be careful what you wish for’, though in this case it’s more a matter of ‘be careful who you wish it for’. Ain’t that the truth.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series and the critically acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series, which includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were ebook bestsellers and selected as books of the year in the mainstream international press. Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for both the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2020 and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize, and was followed by four standalone literary thrillers, The Beresford, Psychopaths Anonymous, The Daves Next Door and Suicide Thursday. Will spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his children.

Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.