The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

 

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse.

Published 18th February 2021 by Penguin UK.

From the cover of the book:

EVERYONE'S IN DANGER. ANYONE COULD BE NEXT.

An imposing, isolated hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But she's taken time off from her job as a detective, so when she receives an invitation out of the blue to celebrate her estranged brother's recent engagement, she has no choice but to accept.

Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. Though it's beautiful, something about the hotel, recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium, makes her nervous - as does her brother, Isaac.

And when they wake the following morning to discover his fiancée Laure has vanished without a trace, Elin's unease grows. With the storm cutting off access to and from the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic.

But no-one has realized yet that another woman has gone missing. And she's the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they're all in...

*****************************

How I love a wintery thriller, and The Sanatorium is my absolute favourite kind. Who can resist the lure of a remote, creepy sanatorium with a murky past, high in the Swiss Alps, given new lease of life as a swish hotel? Not me!

Detective Elin Warner, newly arrived at the hotel in the company of her boyfriend, is nervous about meeting up with her estranged brother Isaac, who has invited them to celebrate his recent engagement here. Her levels of anxiety are high, as she is on an extended break from work after becoming involved in a difficult case that did not end well, but the offer of a free holiday from Isaac and the opportunity to address some of their issues is too good to refuse. Things have always been awkward between them, especially since the death of their younger brother Sam, and Elin is not sure how this little holiday is going to go.

When Isaac's fiancée Laure goes missing without a trace, Elin's suspicions that something is very wrong here bring her detective skills to the fore - skills which become vital when a massive avalanche cuts them off from civilisation and any hope of the Swiss police being able to get there. Can Elin discover what is going on before it is too late?

The whole premise of this book is a winner for me. The setting is perfect - isolated, with a dodgy past, and with more than a little of Stephen King's Overlook Hotel about it - you quite simply cannot ask for a better backdrop for a chilling, mystery tale. The atmosphere is taut and claustrophobic and the tension builds beautifully as things start to go very badly wrong, on both the weather and safety fronts, and your suspicion that this is not going to be a cosy little family reunion is rewarded in spades... but no spoilers from me folks!

There are some wonderful themes introduced in the telling of this tale especially around the subject of unresolved trauma, as well as gory details to delight lovers of the macabre, and the way Sarah Pearse uses water as a thread throughout really impressed me. The characters are more than a little unreliable on the witness front, which brings in a few delicious red herrings, ones that distract both the reader and our plucky detective Elin from getting to the truth of the matter until well into the story, and the end of the tale plays out with twist upon twist that sets you reeling. I did wonder if perhaps this was a bit too much at first, but then Pearse hits you with an unsettling epilogue that makes you rethink what has gone before and puts an intriguing spin on the whole piece. This was beautifully done and completely won me over. Will there be a sequel? I sincerely hope so!

The Sanatorium is a cracking debut thriller and is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer!

Thank you to Netgalley for my advance copy, in return for an honest  review.

About the author:

Sarah Pearse lives by the sea in South Devon with her husband and two daughters. She studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Warwick and worked in Brand PR for a variety of household brands. After moving to Switzerland in her twenties, she spent every spare moment exploring the mountains in the Swiss Alpine town of Crans Montana, the dramatic setting that inspired her novel. 

Sarah has always been drawn to the dark and creepy - remote spaces and abandoned places - so when she read an article in a local Swiss magazine about the history of sanatoriums in the area, she knew she’d found the spark of the idea for her debut novel, The Sanatorium. 

Her short fiction has been published in a wide variety of magazines and has been shortlisted for several prizes.