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Press reviews
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I hate to watch horror movies in a remote place

Journalist and writer Mirko Beetschen has written a gothic novel set in an abandoned hotel on the fictitious Finsteralp in the Bernese Oberland. Here a handful of relatives meet to claim the inheritance of their deceased grandfather - and strange things start happening.

Interview on Radio SRF1
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(c) SRF Regionaljournal

I love to be spooked
​by a book

“In his second novel (…) Mirko Beetschen tests his readers’ nerves to the extreme.”
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Jungfrau Zeitung, 19.10.2018

No bedtime story

“(…) Mirko Beetschen proves to be a talented narrator who knows how to capture moods accurately and make atmospheres come alive almost physically in his dense language.”

Der Bund, 15.10.2018

Nightmare hotel

 Mirko Beetschen builds up the tension very skilfully and weaves in new, surprising plotlines (…). And of course the story is so gripping and creepy that you can hardly put the book down.”


​Berner Zeitung / 08.10.2018

Ghosts of
​the past

“With his second novel ‘Bel Veder’ Bernese writer Mirko Beetschen delivers a gripping chamber play with gothic elements.”

Kulturtipp, 13.09.2018
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The gothic hotel in the Bernese Oberland

“With his second novel Mirko Beetschen (…) has a go at the venerable genre of the gothic story. And he does that really well.”

20 Minuten, 03.11.2018




​​Readings


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​MAY 02 2019, 19h30 BIBLIOTHEK BREITENRAIN


MARCH 02 2019
LITERAARE, THUNER LITERATURFESTIVAL


FEBRUARY 24 2019
VERANDA WOHNEN & MAISON BERGDORF LADEN EIN, INTERLAKEN


FEBRUARY 13 2019
DORFBIBLIOTHEK REICHENBACH, REICHENBACH


JANUARY 15 2019
ONO, BERNE


NOVEMBER 08 2018 
BUCHHANDLUNG AM HOTTINGERPLATZ, ZURICH


OCTOBER 19 2018
BUCHHANLDUNG BÖDELI, INTERLAKEN

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PREMIERE
SEPTEMBER 25 2018
KOSMOS, ZURICH



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​Bel Veder

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  • dark Gothic novel set in the Bernese Alps
  • intelligent suspense with a classic approach
  • the Swiss author's second novel after ‹Schattenbruder›​

hardback with dust jacket, 13 x 21 cm, approx. 450 pages
cover image: Schweizerische Nationalbibliothek, Eidgenössisches Archiv für Denkmalpflege (EAD): Archiv Photoglob-Wehrli
CHF 32.–/EUR 29.–
ISBN 978-3-7296-0997-6
​ALSO AVAILABLE AS E-BOOK

The author cleverly arranges the motifs and stylistic elements of a classic Gothic novel into an atmospherically dense, gripping thriller that is most certainly no bedtime story.


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​Synopsis
Autumn 1946. The ancient owner of an abandoned grand hotel in the Bernese Alps disappears without a trace and is declared dead. His niece Eleanor arrives with her twin sister Violet from Baltimore to claim the inheritance and meets the members of her European family.
 
Until the opening of the will the small group settles within the empty rooms of the remote hotel palace and dreams of revived grandeur. Eleanor, however, feels increasingly threatened by the strange environment. The mountains as well as the abandoned halls and corridors of the hotel unsettle her. Is the old building really as empty as it seems. When a terrible accident happens and an unexpected snowstorm cuts the hotel off, the situation escalates. ​



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​Mirko Beetschen



author, journalist  & entrepreneur
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​Mirko Beetschen
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Mirko Beetschen was born in Interlaken, Switzerland, in 1974 and grew up on Lake Thun. After his studies of English and American Literature, Media Sciences and English Linguistics, stays in the US and England, bigger and smaller jobs as bookseller, cave guide, playing bus supervisor and magazine editor, he now works as a writer and freelance journalist among other things and is co-owner of the Bergdorf Company.
 
Together with Stéphane Houlmann he has published the German interior books ‹Bergwärts› (DVA, 2012), ‹Men’s Homes› (Knesebeck, 2013) and ‹Wohnort Zürich› (DVA, 2014.)
 
After the psychological thriller ‹Schattenbruder› (Bilgerverlag, 2014), ‹Bel Veder› is his second novel and his first book with Zytglogge publishers.


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© BERGDORF AG, 2018. ​ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.