Set high up in the Alps Erin and Will are hoping that this break will lead to answers that Erin has been hoping for.
A reconciliation with her brother Isaac, an answer to how her brother Sam died when only 8, whether she should go back to her job as a detective in the police, are she and Will suited to a future together????????????
Surrounded by mountains in a hotel that was a sanatorium and doesn't seem to want to leave the past behind Elin and Will are soon drawn into the mystery of staff disappearing, strange happenings and dead bodies that have been mutilated. Elin soon resumes her police officer persona and investigates when the hotel is shut off by a snow storm and then an avalanche. Who can be trusted to tell the truth? Twists and turns all the way lead to a surprising ending, a very enjoyable book.

I am sorry but I could not get into this book at all. The story felt flat and I seemed to plod through it. I kept reading hoping to like the story and Elin. Sorry not my cup of tea.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

INot a great read, kind of, who is she going to trust next but I did finish the book and then was disappointed. I probably would havbe enjoyed the book more, if I had read Sarah's previous books.

Pearce proves herself at the start of this novel as sculptress of words. Dark, atmospheric and creepy... This book drew me in instantly with its opening gambit.

Unfortunately this workmanship failed to deliver when it came to a believable story. I didn’t feel any connection with Elin or any of the other main characters.

I struggled to comprehend her reasoning for attending her brother’s engagement party. Having not seen him for over a decade, she decides that attending his engagement party at a fancy hotel (amongst all his friends and family) would be a good time to accuse him of killing their brother!

Elin is described as a competent detective who quickly rose through the ranks and achieved great status within the force. She made a error in judgment, which put her life in danger and subsequently led to her being placed on ‘leave’. Regardless of her mental state, her detective skills were really lacking and she failed to jump to the most obvious conclusions. Instead, preferring to either chase weird alternatives, do the very thing that put her on leave or question if she wants to be a detective. I found her frustrating and a bit annoying.

Bearing in mind she’s just lost her mother (6 months ago), is on leave from her job, is about to accuse her brother of murder on his engagement party... her doting boyfriend still manages to squeeze in an ultimatum of ‘move out with me or be dumped’ and yet he is still painted as the best boyfriend ever!

Her brother; spent all they’re childhood bullying her, swiftly left once their sibling died, chose not to return when their mum passed and was believed to be a murderer and basically cut Elin out of his life... was forgiven for everything at the end and invited to come and live with her. He showed no emotion that his fiancé was murdered, he wasn’t upset, scared or behaving how a someone would if they’d lost the love of their life - he was an odd character!

The more I focus on elements the more I find I’m picking it apart. I read it to the end, the ending is wildly not what you would expect and is also hard to comprehend. And I’m a bit disappointed because it could’ve been SO good if the style of the first few chapters had held up!

Thanks to NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Elin and her boyfriend Will travel to Switzerland to celebrate her brother, Isaac's engagement. They stay at an isolated hotel in the Alps where Isaac's new fiance, Laure, works. It was once a Sanatorium with a dark past. When a storms cuts off access to and from the hotel and women start going missing, Elin, a police detective on leave from her post, is asked to assist in the investigation.

This was a very mediocre book for me. I didn't feel the need to abandon it, but I wasn't rushing back to pick it up either. The liked the setting but I couldn't connect with the characters and the resolution didn't feel particularly satisfying.

Thank you #NetGalley and Random House UK for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Although this book kept my interest, I just didn't believe in the principal character.
Elin has come for a break to a remote new hotel, with her boyfriend Will. She is on extended leave from the police force after making a crucial error when she chased a suspect alone, rather than waiting for backup.
After arriving at their destination, there is a series of disappearances and deaths and Elin is asked to assist the police.
Despite her previous error and it's consequences, Elin makes the same mistakes in this investigation and Even withholds evidence.
I just didn't find her believable.

Elin and Will travel from the UK to attend her brother and Laure's engagement party at a luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps. However, a dangerous snowstorm keeps the guests locked in and people start to go missing.
Elin, being herself a detective back home, starts investigating as best she can.

The Sanatorium is a great thriller with good dialogue and characters. Some unexpected twists at the end! Highly recommended!

The creepy setting used in this book was well thought about and added to the story, personally there is no way I would stay in the hotel the surroundings sound beautiful but the hotel ....... No thank-you I would recommend this book

Elin is taking time off from her job as a detective and accepts an invitation from her brother to go to a hotel in the Swiss alps to celebrate his engagement. Its not long before his fiancee goes missing. The description of the hotel is very creepy and the alpine area is very good and atmospheric.

Though slow to start, it did sort of get going a bit in the middle but then the ending was confusing and ridiculous. The writing, itself is fine and the descriptions of the snow and the mountains are good, but I was not impressed by the characterisation or the plot.

The main character, Elin, is so flaky I just couldn't get interested in her. I get that she is traumatised by something that happened on a previous case, and that she has unresolved issues around the death of her brother as a child, but she was just too dithery and irritating. She tells others to stick to the known facts but she accepts other people's accounts at face value, jumps to conclusions, accuses various people wrongly, and deliberately puts herself in dangerous situations, alone - more than once.

I could have overlooked all this if the ending had been satisfying but the denouement, when it comes, doesn't convince. Another person's motivations seem to have been included in the perpetrator's motivations and the whole thing doesn't make much sense.

Also, at the very end, we are shown a new character who seems to have been mysteriously involved in one of the events in the sanitorium, yet that event was explained away at the time. What was all that about?

No, sorry, this one really needs a good edit.

This book was a book I half liked and half disliked. I loved the claustrophobic atmosphere of the alps during a blizzard. The setting and atmosphere were really good choices and I loved them. Plus the building has a dark history too which I liked and there was a feeling of menace about the atmosphere.

The mystery was okay, a little unbelievable and a little slow for my taste. There’s mysterious deaths and an investigator who is on leave for ptsd. I liked the inclusion of a police woman with ptsd as I haven’t read many thrillers with a character that has ptsd. Parts of the book confused me and I thought it was trying too hard. The characters I didn’t really connect with but overall they were okay.

The book has multiple povs which I didn’t enjoy as I prefer thrillers to focus mainly on one person. The inclusion of POVs from the victims made the books feel jumpy and took away from the mystery. I was also disappointed by the reveal.

Overall the atmosphere in this book was amazing and I wish I could have loved the story but I just didn’t.

What can I say about this book, it has taken me a long while to read this in its entirety because the book never really gripped me. Nagging plot holes irked me - the lead British women on lead with stress/trauma from her police role investigating the rising body count in Switzerland. Even with the possible working though the pain 'stiff upper lip' attitude she would have no legal authority in this country even with then cut off from the storm. The security in the hotel would have had more say. The characters really were an unlikable bunch and even Elin the lead grated on me. The ending also felt a little deflating. The big reveal seems a little colourless compared to the deathcount. The description of the hotel and the atmospheric scenery of the weather was brilliant and enjoyed picturing the hotel schematics in the minds eye and the idea of a sanatorium turned hotel in the middle of nowhere up a mountain with murders on every corner sounded right up my alley, I just felt the actual plot seemed a little chaotic and disjointed to the reader. I never connected with the book so it was a hard read for me.

I was mesmerised by the Swiss Alp setting of Le Sommet, an old Sanatorium that has been modernised into a prestigious hotel where Erin is staying along with her partner Will, her estranged brother Isaac and his partner. I felt immediately on edge as the tension between Erin and Isaac is quite apparent. Erin is a detective who has taken leave on the grounds of experiencing PTSD, add a hotel that has become isolated because of terrible snow and murders which begin to occur, it’s a locked room mystery that would have Jack Torrance chilled. The Sanatorium is a taut, creepingly unravelling mystery that will have you braced to your seat.
The backdrop location of this deathly investigation is an old Sanatorium that was once a hospital for tuberculosis patients that you learn weren’t treated with the most utmost of respect. This harrowing setting will have Erin racing against time to uncover the truth of the rising body count. Erin, as our protagonist, is at some points overly self sympathising but her personal fight with her inner demons and her determination to avoid her brother drives Erin to uncover the truth of the happenings occurring at Le Sommet.
I felt that The Sanatorium was a great example of how entertainingly claustrophobic and tension filled locked room mysteries are. With the Swiss Alps already setting the thrill factor high and the constant elusion of the sinister culprit, the invite was accurate - once you arrive you’re really not going to want to leave until all the unravelled threads have been collected and bowed together.
Sarah has cleverly orchestrated a tension filled, heart pumping, confined mystery that is a read for cosy blanketed evenings!

The setting for this book, a disused sanatorium now made into a modern hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, adds the perfect backdrop to this chilling story. There's also a terrible snowstorm and the threat of an avalanche while trapped inside the hotel with a psychopathic killer, which makes it a tense story with plenty of twists.

Elin is a British detective with a troubled past and an uneasy relationship with her brother, who works at the hotel. Flashbacks during the story slowly reveal the reason why, It's a fascinating look into the human mind and how things can be suppressed or distorted to protect the person from further trauma.

The Sanatorium is a place of secrets hidden from the world, with a terrible past where atrocities were committed, and now the past is coming to wreak vengeance. Tension builds with every page, and the ending suggests Elin will be back in another book. Recommended for fans of atmospheric thrillers!

The former Sanitorium du Plumachit is about to shed its dilapidated skin. Derelict and abandoned for years it’s going to become a swish, luxury hotel, the Sommet. It was originally a TB hospital situated high up in the Swiss mountains overlooking the town of Crans Montana. Some of the townspeople were against its transformation and there were rumours about its past….but now The Sommet is ready to open its doors to its guests.
Elin Warner and her boyfriend, Will, are among the first ones. She’s a newly promoted DS on extended leave after a particularly harrowing case. But she’s unsure if she wants to return to her job and uneasy about the reunion with her younger brother, Isaac. This is meant to be a happy holiday as he’s about to announce his engagement to Laure, a Sommet employee. But unresolved family tensions simmer beneath the surface as Elin is still haunted by the accidental death by drowning of their younger brother, Sam.
The Sommet is breathtaking, with glass walls everywhere to give its guests spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. But Elin feels exposed and uneasy. There are small glass boxes in the communal areas which contain artefacts from the former Sanitorium which she finds disturbing.
But what should be a luxurious holiday destination is about to become their prison. The snow that they admired from inside the windows will soon become their jailor and the hotel’s guests its prisoners. An avalanche traps Will, Erin and Isaac and few other guests after the rest are evacuated. Now they cannot leave and as they realise their predicament the killings start. There is someone else in there with them, a figure in black wearing a grotesque mask. Someone knows the horrific history of the sanatorium and is determined to bring it to light… who will be their next victim?
This is a terrific debut novel and really cracked along. I liked the shut in feeling of the hotel surrounded by mountains, both picturesque and deadly, with its guests trapped like the TB patients in the sanatorium. The former hospital provided a really Gothic atmosphere with the macabre objects on display and its dark shadows. Elin was a likeable well drawn character who took charge of things once the first bodies appeared and she begins to discover clues about the sanatorium’s shocking past. She felt uneasy about the place on arrival and sensed that something wasn’t quite right. She is surrounded by secrets. There were several satisfying twists and turns in the plot with a very scary villain which kept the suspense cranked up really high. It all built to a final twist which had me quickly turning pages to see if I’d missed something. The author really keeps the reader on their toes and guessing up till the end. It was also a great idea to locate it in a former hospital as I’ve always found these places inherently creepy which is what attracted me to the novel.

Elin Warner is on a break from her job as a detective when she receives and invitation to celebrate her estranged brother's recent engagement at an isolated hotel in the Swiss Alps.

Upon arrival at the recently converted hotel, Elin experiences some strange things and when her brother's fiance goes missing, her unease grows.

With a storm cutting off access to and from the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic.

From the creepy opener to the ending that left me thinking long after I'd put the book down, this excellent thriller kept me gripped throughout.

I loved the setting of an old Sanatorium in such an isolated place. A killer walking around in an old gas mask was quite terrifying to me!

Elin was a really interesting protagonist and I was never really sure if she was a reliable narrator or not; the author gave nothing away!

Creepy and atmospheric, The Sanatorium is the perfect thriller.

I couldn't be more thrilled that I read this book as it started getting colder, as when he temperature dropped my mind was whisked away to an old sanatorium turned fancy hotel high up in the Swiss alps... aka the perfect setting for a murder!

When a massive Blizzard hits the hotel, the murder start, and we are drawn into a murder mystery. I absolutely loved the use of description in Pearse's writing, and how she managed to bring this old building to life, and how she made it clear that no matter how many fresh coast of paint you put on it, sometimes the ghosts of old will always come through, and the old sanatorium never really went away.

A brilliant thrilling read perfect for a winters night in!! Thank you so much to Netgalley and Bantam Press, Random House UK for the ARC!

Wonderful!

Once in a while a book comes along where you just want to thump the air and then phone the author to say thank you for taking you out of a reading slump.

I've read a few books set on mountains during snowstorms and involving skiing recently but this is defintaly up there! The first chapter put images in my head that I am probably going to have for a long time yet.

The fact that the hotel in the novel used to be an asylum is bad enough -but then you learn about what really went on there.

Characters are dark, setting is well crafted and aaargh! don't go in to that room/cellar!

don't look outside either as the avalanche is coming.....

The reader has the sense of a murder story from the outset and as the book progresses it rapidly becomes a thriller with some pretty macabre details of the deaths.
Of course, Pearse has chosen her setting well – a remote mountain hotel and severe weather conditions. She also successfully had me suspecting each of the characters in turn. My only (niggling) problem was that, although we are told the detective has a problem with inaction in moments of intense stress, the over-emphasis on this irked me just a little too much.
This will appeal if you like suspense intertwined with the detective solving.


Thank you to NetGalley and Transworld Publishers (Penguin Random House) for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Sanatorium cover and title gave me the shivers (in a good way) and I couldn't wait to get started on such an original idea for a plot. A former institution in the Swiss alps is transformed into a swish minimalist uber chic hotel. It's the brain child of duo - one of whom went missing two years earlier. Our protagonist Elin has arrived for a stay with her partner Will. She's meeting her brother Isaac and his fiancee Laure. A hotel cleaner has, unbeknownst to anyone, already gone missing and the following morning Laure can't be found either. Elin already feels uneasy about her stay and confronting her family's past with her brother and when she discovered she is the last person to see Laure - talking angrily into a burner phone - the narrative takes off. An avalanche means guests are stranded at the hotel and police have no way of getting to the remote location - and it's left to detective Elin to attempt to unravel exactly who the killer is at The Sanatorium. There are some genuinely haunting scenes in this novel. I particularly 'enjoyed' the opening and the, erm, original way the killer has selected, deposed of and presented the bodies of those they have taken. Elin comes to her own half way into the book, I wanted to shake her in the first half as she is quite, shall we say, insipid, but stick with it because it becomes apparent why this is the case. The Sanatorium is definitely one to read in the winter months, there were moments that had echos of The Shining - the isolation and the building were used perfectly to scare me the reader! Look forward to reading more by this author.