Saint Death (Pre-Order) — Kate Collins

Pre-Order. Publishing 15.04.26

An unsettling literary horror novel shot through with dark humour, about a crumbling hotel, a contemptuous receptionist, and a disastrous TV production. For fans of Virginia Feito and Celia Dale.

In a once grand hotel in the English countryside, Hester works as the receptionist for a manager she hates and guests whom she despises. Hester's days are monotonous and claustrophobic, so when a production studio hires the hotel as the location for a TV pilot, things are finally looking up. Not only will filming take place in the hotel, but the five main actors will be lodging there, right within Hester’s grasp.

As the cast and crew arrive, the hotel is suddenly alive with activity. But as the production slides off track, Hester offers her assistance, delighting as she becomes more entangled. Soon, the lines between fiction and reality start to blur, and Hester begins to obsess over her new guests with rather grim consequences for all.

Set over a three week period where the hotel becomes a stage, and jumping backwards to explore the distressing events that proceeded Hester's life as a receptionist, Saint Death is an atmospheric novel which oozes with grime and gruesome details, examining inherited ghosts, thwarted desire, and our relationships with our physical selves.