3.5/5 stars
Good story. I'm always a bit of a sucker, for some reason, for a book where people are cut off by snow and up mountains. I do like the atmosphere it creates. Well drawn characters and a overall a good read.
Elin- oh dear, I could shake her she was so exasperating. How did she ever get to be a detective?
People who play with food and don't eat it- Grr
Consumption of water had me running for the loo
The word "throat" almost every other sentence.
Adele replaced with Elin early on in the book- typo
Ending? Hmmm -not hugely believable
American spellings too -not good
Another book that if you are on holiday and find this in the bookcase it will be fine for a pool read. I would probably give this author another go to compare- this book does show promise

* spoiler alert ** At the beginning of this book,I had to wonder,who would go stay in an old refurbished sanatorium,that's decorated with bits of medical equipment??
That would be me! Scene set nicely.
It gets better when the snow comes down and some people just don't evacuate in time... so you've got a cast of characters and one of them has to be the killer.
I really enjoyed the building,the pool,the snow. I was clearly here for the scenery and the story from the past was interesting too.
I just didn't quite have any faith in Elin,who seemed a bit unconvincing to me.
There were quite a few layers of lies to get through before we got to the truth,as with any good mystery book... and at times it felt like the murderer could have been anyone.


Enjoyable,but for me,its the setting that will be more memorable than who did it and why. (less)

flagcomment · see review

A great read, you just need to cosy up, let your imagination conjure up a raging snowstorm and a creepy old sanitorium converted to a hotel. There you have the perfect setting for a good story. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It did get a little convoluted towards the last part when there were so many red herrings I almost needed a fishing net. However it all worked out in the end .
A great book.

Each time I review a book that sits within a specific genre, I feel like I should offer the audience a caveat. And here it is: I rarely give five stars to any book I read, and when I do, it’s most likely to be those at the more literary end of the spectrum since that is my default preference.
Having said that, two of my favourite books of all time sit firmly within genre fiction, and both are thrillers: Out by Natsuo Kirino, and A Simple Plan by Scott Smith. Or rather, this is the label they have been given by their publishers, as was Charlotte Levin’s recent triumph, If I Can’t Have You (another of my five star reads). What I mean is, these are thrillers only by designation, and a rather narrow one at that, for all these books stretch the definition of that genre to new limits in being at the same time incredibly drawn character studies of their protagonists.
On the surface, at least, Sarah Pearse’s debut “The Sanitorium” looks set to join that five star club, because, aside from its chillingly enticing cover, its main character, Elin Warner, has all the backstory: not one, but two traumatic incidents in her past - one personal and one professional - that has resulted in severe PTSD. As a result, Elin has taken a self-imposed sabbatical from her job as a police detective, unable to trust herself to return to the job she clearly loves. During this sabbatical, Elin and her partner Will receive an invitation from her estranged brother, Isaac, who is due to throw an engagement party in a luxurious new hotel in the Swiss Alps. There’s only one catch: the hotel, set to be the jewel in the crown of the area, has a dark and secretive past as a sanatorium for TB patients dating back to the early twentieth century, and someone isn’t happy to let that past go unnoticed. Cue a spate of grisly murders and an avalanche, giving all the ingredients for the perfect locked room thriller. So far so good.
Sadly, for me, this is where the majority of the promise ended, but in the interests of fairness I’m going to try and deconstruct why this was.
Almost from the outset, I felt as though the book struggled with something of an identity crisis. My sense, given Pearse’s considerable talent at writing is that it has all the aspirations to be a deep and thoughtful character study. Amongst its many threads are the seeds of a story about patriarchy and the unfair treatment of the underclass, be that on religious, gender or socioeconomic grounds. But this instinct is almost immediately quashed by an almost equally strong pull to write something very commercial - the sort of book that has one eye on the adaptation market for Netflix etc. I do not know whether this pressure came from the author or from her editorial team, but the unhappy result is something that never fully satisfies in either regard.
For a good third of the book, Elin is trapped within the constraints of her inner psychological torment, to the extent that she cannot bear to be in confined spaces, and the very act of looking at the snow in the mountains is enough to trigger flashbacks to both her incidents of past trauma. We are explicitly told this again and again, as well as being given brief snapshots of the nature of these traumas, one of which directly involves her older sibling Isaac and an incident from their childhood. Throughout, Elin tells us that she cannot function in this new environment, nor with the reappearance of Isaac in her life, beset by doubts for her own mental health which render a return to work a very remote possibility.
And then, all of a sudden, Elin decides that she’s going to solve the murders that have been happening all around her and practically overnight demonstrates a most remarkable recovery from her ills. If she were a real person, the whole psychiatric community would want to be studying her right now, because that’s some transformation! Yes, there are occasional detours back to “can I do this? I don’t think I can do this” territory, but overall it just doesn’t seem credible, apart from in service to the plot.
Nor is it merely her characterisation which seems off; there are numerous logistical issues which arise which are simply glossed over. When the local police cannot attend the scene due to the restrictions imposed by the avalanche, Elin simply phones and says that she’s a police officer and they cheerfully allow her to manage the situation, armed with nothing more than sandwich bags and tweezers, and a whole lot of compromising the various crime scenes. She does this without complaint from the remaining guests whose safety is only marginally accounted for and never checked on.
As though to avert the reader’s gaze from this unlikely scenario, we are given moment after moment of breathless tension, and no less than about three separate endings. Just when you think it’s over, another suspect rears its head with their own agenda. It’s all very readable stuff, if only window dressing for a novel which could have been so much more. I found myself comparing events time and time again to a fire: there was plenty of kindling and paper being thrown on to keep it smouldering, (Pearse knows how to handle chapter endings), but beneath it all where were the logs? Where were the fundamentals of plot and character?
Whilst not wishing to turn this into a rant, neither can I avoid mentioning the vaguely laughable male support characters in this novel. Firstly, the dastardly Isaac who, with his different but no less important agenda to Elin could well have had his own viewpoint in the story but is instead left to languish in villain land, complete with a frequently rubbed bad eye. Secondly, Elin’s supposed boyfriend, Will, who quite apart from showing any compassion or understanding for Elin’s PTSD seems to spend the majority of the novel mansplaining her mental health to her in a particularly grating and patronising fashion. It’s no wonder Elin won’t move in with him. If I had been her, his stuff would have been on the doorstep before he’d had the chance to say “have you eaten anything?” for the tenth time. I half-hoped that there would be a reason for his behaviour that evolved with the novel, but no, (spoilers). He was simply a dick.
As mentioned, Pearse has a gift for writing a pretty sentence, as witnessed through the many forays into landscape and scene setting, and I would be the first in line to read a novel where she was able to fully embrace these gifts in a less compromised plotline with properly developed character arcs.
As it is, the thrills were not nearly thrilling (or actually gruesome) enough to sustain the wobbly footholds of its foundations which transformed my reaction into more of a gross frustration than abject disappointment. I see the early reviews for this are mixed and I will be very interested to see how this dynamic swings when the book makes it into the wider public next year. Will it satisfy the hard-core genre readers, used to seeing very sophisticated plotlines? Perhaps. But, sadly, for this reader it only made it up the mountain to three stars, and for that I am so sorry.
My thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC in return for an unbiased and honest review.
Content warning for scenes of murder and torture.

A creepy atmospheric thriller perfect for fans of both Agatha Christie and locked room murder mysteries.

The setting is an old abandoned sanatorium high in the Swiss Alps which used to used to treat TB patients. The sanitarium has been converted to a luxury hotel although has retained the clinical look and feel of its original purpose.

Elin and her boyfriend Will are invited to the hotel to celebrate the engagement of her estranged brother Isaac and his girlfriend.

Elin is currently on leave from her work in the police force following an incident which has left her traumatised. She is hoping to take this opportunity to confront her brother and at last find out what happened the day her younger brother died. She was 12 when Sam died, and his death has affected her throughout her life, making her always on the search for answers. She has flashbacks to the day it happened and is convinced Isaac caused the ‘accident’.

The weather is going downhill rapidly and a decision is made to evacuate the hotel. Unfortunately the only road down the mountain becomes impassable and a few hotel guests and staff are left stranded at the hotel.

Isaac’s fiancée disappears and then
a woman’s body is found in the outdoor swimming pool, weighted down by sand bags. Elin offers to help the local police out as they are unable to reach the hotel to investigate the murder. They agree to her collecting evidence and asking basic questions but what she begins to uncover makes her dig further.

Are the murders connected to the hotel, as there was a lot of opposition to its building or is there another motive? Will Elin find out the truth of what happened the day Sam died?

And THAT ENDING!! There has to be another book!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading more from Sarah Pearse.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for an advance copy of the book to review.

Release date 18th Feb 2021

There are no other words to begin this review but than this is definitely a creepy thriller!

The Sanatorium tells the story of a new luxury hotel in the Swiss alps that has been built on the site of an old sanatorium. Elin Warner is visiting the new hotel for the weekend with her boyfriend Will, meeting up with her estranged brother and his new fiancé for their engagement party. Things soon take a different turn when an avalanche hits the local area and the hotel needs to be evacuated. Before Elin is due to leave the hotel on the last bus a body is found and, with no local police able to get to the hotel for days, her detective experience is called upon. Unfortunately the body found is not the last...

Although a really good thriller be warned, this book is heavy and there are some quite graphic scenes which will stay with you, especially relating to the historical aspect it links to of the scene of a sanatorium. It keeps you guessing throughout and every time you think you’ve figured it out it takes a completely different turn, I did not see the final twist coming. I was however slightly disappointed with the ending reveal - the epilogue redeemed this though with a suspenseful implication that all was not over and left you wanting to know more, very cleverly done.

Overall a good read but not the happiest of content by any means!

This is one of the most atmospheric books I've ever read. The hotel at the height of the swiss Alps, which was previously a sanatorium, in the middle of a powerful snowstorm really captured my imagination and proved the perfect backdrop.

I really enjoyed that story too, however... some of it just didn't come together. Things were discovered (isaac leaving his job) and this was never referred to again. The journey home with Elin and Will also revealed something, but it just came out of nowhere and made no sense. If these things were resolved, it would probably have been a 5* read for me.

3.5* rounded up to 4*.

A fairly well crafted thriller, I enjoyed reading this book - though some of the pacing felt a little clunky and forced.
I enjoyed Elain's dilemna and struggle to work through her ptsd and thought it fit well to create some obstacles to overcome in the book.

The present tense was a challenge to overcome, but once i had, I finished the book in one sitting.
Recommended to anyone that enjoys thrillers.

Thrilling, chilling- tingles down my spine type of read. This book is enthralling from start to finish. The characters were well developed and you got to know them quickly. The settings are described beautifully, you totally feel like you are there, inside the book- I guess that’s why the book is so exciting, you feel like you’re there experiencing what the characters are experiencing. Well written-
All round great read.

Many thanks to the author, publishers and Netgalley for a free ARC of this ebook.
I'm not a particular fan of books written in the present tense, and this is one of those that doesnt work this tense to advantage at all.

I appreciate that it is an uncorrected edition, but there are so many issues present it that it spoils the reading experience. I didn't enjoy this book at all. The characters are overwrought and the setting overblown. The story meanders and the characters emotional difficulties are insurmountable. I struggled to finish the book, and was glad when I did. I'll award it 2.5 stars.

I would actually give this book a 3.5 out of 5.

I really enjoyed the story and found it quite gripping. I think it had a good start, middle and end. I really liked the character of Will I found him so likeable. Elin grew on me at the beginning I wanted to give her a shack but as the story went on I started to like her. I was glad I got the baddie the wrong, I like it when a book beats me. My only grump but it could be my mistake I was sure it said at one point both brothers were younger than her then Isaac became the big brother. Would definetly recommend this book.

A frustrating tale, well written, atmospheric but too many holes in it for me! A detective on leave due to problems from a past case and a family crisis which happened twenty years ago ( !) joins her brother at an old sanitarium which has been converted into a state of the art ski resort high in the Swiss alps. There is a missing person, a murder and Elin becomes embroiled in trying to discover the history behind it all! Unfortunately she appears to be repeating mistakes which are a little too obvious. The idea behind the actual story is sound I just felt the background needed work plus a few rather questionable events.

God what a creepy book this was. I really enjoyed it and loved the atmosphere it created. I thought it was a bit of a slow burner but it was a good read and I liked the characters, it’s a great little thriller.

I enjoyed the setting of this book, and the descriptions of the scenery were excellent, but the book just didn't grip me. The characters all seemed a bit unbelievable, and the story was too contrived. It all seemed a bit long-winded and quite an effort to finish. Not a book I would recommend.

I loved this book. I am always drawn to stories set in the snow, no matter what the genre but this one, with its story set in suspense was a great read. It was pretty eerie in places but not so much so that it put me off. A few gruesome parts but they went with the story. What I loved the most was the wonderful descriptions. These were fantastic. I could really feel myself there with the characters, whether out in the blizzard or indoors in the minimalistic and somewhat strange hotel. For me, the descriptions were what made this book so good although the characterisation was good as well. The story was mysterious and really got me thinking. The twists were good and unexpected but I was glad about the final couple of twists, one at the end of the story (I would have been disappointed if that hadn't happened - but it did so brilliant!) and then the final twist in the epilogue. I am presuming there will therefore be a sequel. I really hope so.

A detective on long-term sick leave is stranded in a fancy hotel in the Alps when weather takes a turn for the worse; she's visiting her estranged brother and his new finacée, along with her boyfriend. Elin isn't sure if she wants to return to the force or whether she can even be a detective anymore but when a body of a missing woman is found and the hotel is cut off, she's the best option anyone's got of staying safe and solving the crime.

The Sanatorium is a good little detective thriller with a flawed and fallible main character trying her best to right herself after a traumatic experience on the job. While I managed to guess one twist relating to Elin's past, the twists in the present-day remained elusive until the end of the book.

A good debut, well written and engaging.

I love books with a snow or winter setting, it created a very isolating feeling to to the story. The characters weren't massively likeable, possibly intentionally, but the story flowed well. A good easy read, not massively complex but a good twist/reveal. Enjoyed reading it.

A psychological thriller in a beautiful Swiss setting with some very creepy elements. Engaging but some of the characters were a little too unrealistic for me and I sometimes became unbelievably annoyed with them. Enough interest to get me to the end but not enough to have me raving about it to others.

The Alpine setting of this book is beautiful, as are the descriptions of the hotel. I found some of the main characters annoying and quite unrealistic. I thought some of the writing was too clichéd and predictable. Too many side glances, and knowing ‘he’d been like that since he was a child’, just didn’t do it for me.

Elin Warner is a police officer, on ‘gardening’ leave following an incident at work. She is also still traumatised by the death of her youngest brother Sam when she was 12. . When she is invited, along with her boyfriend Will, to an exclusive Swiss hotel by estranged brother, Isaac, to celebrate his recent engagement, she takes this as a sign she needs to re-connect with him. Elin has a bad feeling about the trip and when bodies start being found, during a blizzard, things only get worse.

I really liked the premise of this book, a psychological thriller, but I found I couldn’t suspend belief with Elin, in her role as a police officer. She has lots of problems but I couldn’t like her character. I did find some of the earlier chapters a bit spooky, and there were enough twists to make me want to see who the killer really was. The descriptions of the Swiss hotel, the area and the blizzard etc were excellent, and very atmospheric. Reading the acknowledgments I realised why, in that the author had actually lived there. The back story of the Hotel was very realistic and made the book more interesting.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book