{"id":2034,"date":"2020-04-28T17:21:45","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T17:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cityadventurers.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2034"},"modified":"2020-04-28T17:21:45","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T17:21:45","slug":"hotel-alpha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cityadventurers.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2034","title":{"rendered":"Hotel Alpha"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just finished reading Hotel Alpha by Mark Watson.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Hotel
Hotel Alpha – photo by Juliamaud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The book is narrated between Graham, the concierge of the hotel, and\u00a0Chas,<\/span> the blind adopted son of the hotel’s owner.\u00a0<\/span>Chas<\/span> had been blinded by a fire at the hotel, which killed his mother.\u00a0<\/span>Howard York, the hotel owner <\/span>rebuilt the Alpha and adopted Chas.<\/span><\/p>\n

The book was not what I was expecting. With the blurb on the back telling of “when two mysterious disappearances raise questions that no one seems willing to answer….” I had assumed it would be a mystery adventure. Instead it is more of a drama, which interweaves real people and events with the fictional characters between 1960’s and 2012. Reasons for t<\/span>he disappearances are hinted at as they happen, rather than being mysterious. But the reasons are not what they first appear. Later, new facts emerge to explain the disappearances. And later still, even more new facts compel the disappearances to be re-examined.<\/p>\n

An interesting read.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Plot<\/h3>\n

Howard York – self-made man and founder of London’s extraordinary Hotel Alpha – is one of those people who makes you feel that anything is possible. He is idolized by his blind adopted son, Chas, and Graham, the inimitable concierge, whose lives revolve around the Alpha. But when two mysterious disappearances raise questions that no one seems willing to answer, Chas and Graham must ask themselves whether Howard’s vision of the perfect hotel has been built on secrets as well as dreams . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

Available from the Big Green Bookshop<\/a><\/p>\n

#BuyAStrangerABook on Twitter<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Big Green Bookshop<\/span>\u00a0is an independent bookshop that lets strangers buy each other books via Twitter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My thanks go to\u00a0T<\/span>he Big Green Bookshop and especially to <\/span>Mark Watson<\/a>, who bought me a copy of his book<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just finished reading Hotel Alpha by Mark Watson.\u00a0 The book is narrated between Graham, the concierge of the hotel, and\u00a0Chas, the blind adopted son of the hotel’s owner.\u00a0Chas had been blinded by a fire at the hotel, which killed his mother.\u00a0Howard York, the hotel owner rebuilt the Alpha and adopted Chas. The book was not … More Hotel Alpha<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[375,376,377,378],"class_list":["post-2034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-buyastrangerabook","tag-hotel-alpha","tag-mark-watson","tag-the-big-green-bookshop"],"yoast_head":"\nHotel Alpha - City Adventurers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cityadventurers.co.uk\/blog\/?p=2034\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hotel Alpha - City Adventurers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just finished reading Hotel Alpha by Mark Watson.\u00a0 The book is narrated between Graham, the concierge of the hotel, and\u00a0Chas, the blind adopted son of the hotel’s owner.\u00a0Chas had been blinded by a fire at the hotel, which killed his mother.\u00a0Howard York, the hotel owner rebuilt the Alpha and adopted Chas. 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