Title:- The Sanatorium
Author:- Sarah Pearse
Date published:- February 4th 2021
No. of pages:- 437 pages
Genre:- Psychological Thriller
Rating:-
Plot:- 4/5
Writing:- 4/5
Overall:- 4/5
A beautiful, eerie hotel in the Swiss Alps, recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium, is the last place Detective Elin Warner wants to be. But her estranged brother has invited her there for his engagement party, and she feels she has no choice but to accept.
Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. And things only get worse when they wake the next morning to find her brother’s fiancée is missing. With access to the hotel cut off, the guests begin to panic.
But this is only the first disappearance. Everyone’s in danger – and anyone could be next . . .
This was actually an engaging psychological thriller. The story starts with Elin Werner, a former detective from UK who with her boyfriend Will comes to Switzerland to attend her estranged brother’s Isaac’s engagement. The engagement is held in a luxurious hotel set in the Swiss Alps where Isaac’s fiancee, Laure worked. The hotel seemed to be having a dark secret–the fact that it used to be a Sanatorium with a dark history. Then some guests in the hotel start going missing…
The story started out a bit slow but then soon when Elin started to investigate, things got a bit interesting and kind of became fast paced. There were not much twists and turns but nevetheless I was hooked into the story, particularly the part when Elin wondered if the murders that are taking place inside the hotel has some sort of connection with the the dark history of the Sanatorium. The descriptions of the snow, the scenery of the Swiss Alps made the readers feel like they are in Switzerland. The ending was however a bit too predictable and it was kind of lame but I actually enjoyed reading this book. This is the first book of Elin Werner series so can’t wait for the next book to release!
Overall worth four stars!
arah 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. You can find Sarah on Twitter @SarahVPearse and Instagram @sarahpearseauthor
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