Title: The Sanatorium
Author: Sarah Pearse
Publisher: Bantam Press
Synopsis:
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…
My Review:
The Sanatorium is an enthralling, tense thriller set in the Swiss Alps. We follow Elin and her boyfriend Will as they travel to the a new hotel – a converted sanatorium – for her estranged brother’s engagement. Elin is tense anyway, as her relationship with her brother has been tense in the past, and then things get even stranger…
There’s lots of twists in this novel and Sarah Pearse builds the atmosphere brilliantly. It doesn’t feel overdramatic but there’s a good balance of action and character development – though by the end of the novel I still didn’t really feel like I got to properly know Elin as a character (but perhaps that’s intentional?) I certainly raced through the pages wanting to know what had happened, and although some parts I sort of guessed at, there were plenty of surprises throughout!
I really enjoyed the build up of tension and the creepy, atmospheric setting of the hotel as the weather cuts the guests off and the danger mounts. There are lots of thriller novel tropes in this book but they’re all included to add effect and ehanced my enjoyment of the book. Definitely one to curl up with when you have a few hours spare, and really immerse yourself. It’s a fun, gripping read that I’d definitely recommend.