During my reading in November, I was in the mood to read a mystery thriller and picked up The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse from my shelves. The cover and premise sounded very creepy and intriguing. I was very excited to read and it did not disappoint me.
Synopsis
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 was gripped from the very start. That first few chapters really got me hooked but by the time I finished, I felt confused as if what happened throughout the book was justified or not but an old sanatorium turned into a fancy hotel in the swiss alps, stuck in a storm with no way out and with a sprinkle of kidnapping with a side of death. Sign me the f-up. This was my first Pearse book and I enjoyed delving into this mystery.
Pearse did a wonderful job of describing the creepy tuburculois sanatorium as well as the beautiful but sinister hotel that hid the secrets of the past. I really felt as if I could picture myself stuck in there with Elin and the rest of the guests.
It has a very twisty storyline with some arguable decision making with UK police detective, Elin managing to convince the swiss police to conduct a murder investigation while she was on leave for PTSD. Hmmmm. Even with Elin having a breakdown in the past, I felt as if she was a terrible and a bumbling idiot of a detective and couldn't figure out how she was even a detective in the first place. This could have been just a normal person trying to figure out a murder mystery and it would have made more sense than to have her with her occupation. There were many instances when finding dead bodies where she had to put all the obvious clues together but I give her the benefit of the doubt since her head wasn't in the right space.
I did give this book a three star rating. It was very thrilling and enjoyable. Fast paced and twisty. But the ending and that killer reveal just fell a bit flat for my taste. I will continue with the Elin Warner series with The Retreat as I do love a thriller and will give her storys another go.
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