Why a Booktrail?
1929. The Regent Hotel in Birmingham is a place of deception and glamour.
Hokey Pokey
What you need to know before your trail
Behind its six-storeyed façade, guests sip absinthe cocktails on velvet banquettes, while the staff navigate the hotel’s labyrinthine ‘below stairs’ to ensure the finest service is always at hand.
In the early evening, psychoanalyst Nora Dickinson checks in under a false name. It’s unlike Nora to deceive – her aversion to lying borders on the pathological – but she’s travelling with an agenda. Having shadowed the famous opera singer, Berenice Oxbow, from Zurich, she’s determined not to lose sight of her now.
But when a terrible snow storm isolates the hotel – and its guests – from the outside world, reality appears to shift. Nora’s grip loosens, and the nightmares she’s worked hard to control begin to bare their teeth.
Locations
Reset- England - Birmingham
- A: Grand Hotel
- B: Britannia Hotel
- C: Cooperation Street
- D: Cherry St
- E: Victoria Square
- England - Coventry
- F: Meriden
Travel Guide
Birmingham and Meriden
Birminghan
The hotels in the novel are not real but the author got much inspiration from the research she did about the city. She invented the Regent, a fictional hotel in the very real streets of the city.
Meriden
The author states: “Meriden was once believed to be the centre of England. Crossroads are significant in vanpire lore; depending on local superstitiion, therey’re meant to be places where vampires are especially dangerous, and especially vulnerable. The novel uses the village’s name ALSPATH as recorded in the Domesday book.”
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Hokey Pokey
Destination/location: Birmingham Author/guide: Kate Mascarenhas Departure Time: 1929
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