The Concierge, Abby Corson

The author of THE CONCIERGE, Abby Corson, has been a luxury travel and lifestyle writer for over 10 years, and it shows in the way that she's able to depict a luxury hotel in the English countryside, with it's own concierge, Henry Harrow, the narrator of this, her first novel.

Now 73 years old, Henry has worked at the Cavengreen Hotel since he was 16. After a shocking murder, a very intense investigation, and a hotel ownership change, he finds himself narrating the story behind all that, in his own, rather unique voice. The blurb introduces him thus:

I suppose it would be fitting to explain that I am talking into a dictaphone and the lovely Helen will be typing out my story for you to read. She will have a certain amount of creative control—sorting out moments when I get a bit tongue-tied or slightly muddled—but I have told her to leave in as much as possible, so as not to miss any of the important bits. This is my account of the Cavengreen Hotel murder, best we get that bit in early on.

Henry was a conscientious and hard working concierge at the hotel for many years, after starting at the bottom and working his way up. He assisted guests in all sorts of ways, ensuring that those staying in the luxury, exclusive, five-star establishment had all that they needed or desired (within reason obviously). The hotel was known for it's high-quality service, the restaurant, and the events that they host. It was during one of these events - a wedding - that Henry was called to a guest's room, to find a blood-drenched body lying on the floor. This guest didn't appear to have been one of the wedding party, but the police proceed to hold absolutely everybody in the hotel at the time - guests, including the bride and groom and some family, and staff - in what reads like captivity, as DI Arjun Raj grumps and snarls his way through the investigation of a murder that he seems quite willing to pin on Henry.

The story of the events, and Henry's past, are told by him dictating the story for his friend, a retired publisher, Helen, to document as part of a book that she insists he should write. The events in the hotel have shocked him to the core, as did the purchase of the admired hotel by an American group, lead by the stereotypical loud, larger than life type of man. 

Readers are left with just Henry's version therefore, and it's up to them to decide if Henry's a typically unreliable narrator; a dotty, likeable old man who loved his job and his colleagues; or something slightly more ambiguous. His voice is one of those that could very well be telegraphing a kind, gentle man who has been caught up in something beyond his control, or it could very well be a man with something to hide. Readers could be excused from coming away from the earlier parts of the book - before the victim / motivation / killer is revealed - having an each way bet on how this is going to pan out. There were certainly times when this reader was convinced Henry was something very different from the portrait he was painting of himself - the best sort of possible unreliable narrator in other words.

The author has adopted an interesting style for telling this tale, with Henry's voice the only one heard, meandering around in the alleyways of his memory, observations, life and events at the hotel and after the murder. His desire to investigate this murder is partly to clear his own name, partly because he believes the police investigation is incredibly inept / misguided. His friend Helen, by encouraging him to use the dictaphone to record detailed commentary - thoughts / interviews / his observations - has created a scenario in which he's comfortable to say many things that he might not have written down. He's also liberal with requests for what she should / shouldn't transcribe because of that. The storytelling feels slightly on the gentler side, with Henry's voice very much that of an old man who has spent a life in serving others, aware of the need for diplomacy, but not above a bit of gossip, he doesn't miss much that goes on around him. A keen student of humanity in other words. Readers may find themselves guessing about a lot of things, right to the end. Who is really telling the truth, who did murder the guest in the room, and why the hell it is that the police investigation, with it's bullying of witnesses, enforced lock-in and seriously odd main investigator seems so far away from traditional, dare I say, believable procedural stylings?

It's often tricky to pull off that sort of close in, self-involved voice, yet THE CONCIERGE does it with just enough doubt to make it very engaging, and dare I say, most unusual crime fiction undertaking.