Upstairs at the Beresford by Will Carver – a review BLOG TOUR

I am a big fan of Will Carver and so jumped at the chance to read and review his latest novel Upstairs at the Beresford. It wasn’t until I got a copy however that I realised I hadn’t actually read the original ‘The Beresford’ so obviously I had to remedy that first and therefore read them back to back.

Upstairs at the Beresford is actually a prequel to The Beresford. The Beresford is a grand old hotel on the edge of the city. It contains an eclectic mix of residents from the nightclub singer Daniella, to the sleezy salesman Sam, all of whom are watched over by the enigmatic all seeing Mr Balliol. When Sam goes missing it starts a chain of events that soon shows how much all the residents are hiding and just how much control Mr Balliol has. As the book says ‘There are worse places than hell..’

This was a strangely disturbing, yet riveting read that I absolutely didn’t want to put down. Once again Will Carver manages to weave his magic into a twisty turning story of seemingly ordinary people going about their daily lives. He has a great way of building disparate characters but then the further the story goes the more they start to merge in together and the storys blend.

I really enjoy the style of writing, as in all his books the sentences are short and snappy with not a word wasted. The building itself almost plays a character in it’s own right as its brought to life in the descriptions and in the way the story unfolds. You know that a building like this has it’s secrets but also that it doesn’t always want to give those secrets up.

The characters are a really mixed bag, none of whom are particularly likeable, yet together they make up a throughly entertaining story that’s part horror and part thriller. I am very glad that I read The Beresford first as this novel would have potentially spoiled that a little for me. However this book can most definitely be read as a stand alone and is a complete story in it’s own right.

I absolutely love Will Carver’s quirky and thought provoking novels and this is yet another one that I would throughly recommend.

Find out what others thought of the book on the tour –