Review: The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

 

 

Title: The Sanatorium

Author: Sarah Pearse

Published: Feburary 2021, Pamela Dorman Books

Format: Hardcover, 400 pages

Source: Personal copy

Summary:
You won’t want to leave. . . until you can’t.Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel.

An imposing, isolated getaway spot high up in the Swiss Alps is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But Elin’s taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept.

Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge–there’s something about the hotel that makes her nervous. And when they wake the following morning to discover Laure is missing, Elin must trust her instincts if they hope to find her. With the storm closing off all access to the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic.

Elin is under pressure to find Laure, 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 are all in. . .

 

My thoughts:  I love thrillers and I love anything gothic, so when I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it…and I am so glad I did. I absolutely loved everything about it!!! 

I flew through this book in two sittings and that’s only because I was doing a buddy read and we had a mid-way chat and I didn’t want to read ahead and let any potential spoilers slip. I happened to be in the minority of the buddy read in my enjoyment of this book, but oh well – that happens. As soon as we finished discussing the first half, I picked up the book and finished it…and could not read it fast enough!

I am so obsessed with locked-room type mysteries and this one was such a good one. And I loved the fact that this was set in a hotel that had been transformed from an old sanatorium. Hello creepiness! I don’t think you could pay me enough to stay there. Maybe I would visit, because I have to say I have a slight obsession with sanatoriums, but staying in one is a completely different story.

I loved the main character, Elin. She is such a flawed, complex character and has her secrets and those are always my favorite. She’s at the hotel for her estranged brother’s engagement party and when strange things start happening, even though she’s on leave from work – she’s a detective – she of course steps in. Oh and did I mention that there’s a major snowstorm happening and the hotel is cut off from basically anyone getting to them?

This book really kept me on my toes and I loved that as more and more sinister things start to happen, we learn more about not only the sanatorium but also about Elin herself. As much as I tried to work out what was happening and who was behind it, I definitely did not put all the pieces together before the reveal. 

This book was so creepy and atmospheric and that ending completely sets it up for another book, which I’m so happy to report is in the works! You all know how much I love my series and I will be quite eager to see what happens next for our dear Elin. This is a series I will absolutely be continuing!