Creepy old sanatorium, middle of Swiss Alps, a blizzard and an engagement party - recipe for a deliciously thrilling ride. Fans of Lucy Folley will love it.

I could not wait to start reading this book. I personally went to school in the Swiss Alps, so as a hardcore fan of thrillers, I was beyond excited for Pearse's novel. And the completely claustrophobic setting reminded me of some of the other best sellers this year: Lucy Folley's The Guest List and Ruth Ware's One by One.

Turns out I was right. The Sanatorium is a very thrilling, very atmospheric read. I was in love with the creepy scenery throughout. However, there was something missing in the mystery part of this book - Ellin, the main character and an ex-cop, was a truly horrible investigator. This shouldn't be the case for someone who used to be a rising star in the London police.

Finally, I think that character development is very well done. While we had some really unlikeable characters, such as the sociopathic brother, I think this only added to the creativity and the claustrophobic feel of this mystery.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Sadly I decided after the first chapter or so that I couldn't read any more. i found the whole premise horrific and frightening. The cover of the book promised somehting slightly different, I think, and I'd hoped to read about the majesty of the Swiss settings.
So I can't really give a proper review.
Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this. I'm sorry it was all too much for me.

As this is a Debut novel I was delighted to get a copy the cover of the book is absolutely perfect but from the start it started to just not add up a detective on holiday who was nearly scared of her own shadow.
Sorry not for me, and its certainly not a thriller.

The Sanitorium is Sarah Pearse's debut book. This is a superb Gothic thriller set in Switzerland. Extreme weather conditions make the setting claustrophic and isolated. The action takes place in a former sanitorium, recently converted into a luxury hotel. Elin, a police officer on sabbatical, is visiting with her partner, Will. Elin's brother, Isaac and his partner, Laure, are also at the hotel. These, and others, are interesting characters with intriguing back stories woven together, which make for an excellent read.
The Sanitorium twists and turns - every time you think you've solved the mystery, something happens to change your mind. The ending doesn't disappoint either! I loved it!

This is a very atmospheric book and I wish it had used that atmosphere more and made the Sanarorium an actual character. However it never felt real...lots of talk about glass and snow but nothing that made it really come alive.

I disliked Elin & think we needed to find out what happened with Sam and her case and what caused her to be the way she was much earlier. I also didn't understand her relationship with Will. It didn't seem to have a solid base and then to deal with all those many many issues...why would you? Seemed rather forced.

I also didn't feel that the author had much experience with the realities of grief. 6 months since her Mum is really no time at all with dealing with it...so it was hard to reconcile what emotional state Elin was in.

The actual detective side...was just so far fetched. The reveal was just bordering on ludicrous and I am sorry to say I struggled with it all.

Thanks to the author, publisher & Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Given the atmospheric, claustrophobic setting in the Swiss Alps during a blizzard I expected to like this book much more than I did – I wonder what went wrong here?

Let’s start with the things I did enjoy, and the setting is definitely a treat. An old sanatorium high in the Swiss Alps that has been converted into a fancy but sinister hotel – it doesn’t get much better than this. And when a massive blizzard cuts off the hotel from civilisation, and people start dying, the stage is set for a tense closed door mystery. Pearse brings her setting to life with vivid descriptions of the old TB sanatorium and its eerie presence despite having been remodelled into a fancy resort. With a shady history, the building itself seems to exude an air of menace and danger that made for a wonderful backdrop.

So why didn’t it work for me? Probably a few reasons, and mostly to do with reader preference.
1) Mainly, I found the whole premise extremely unbelievable, from the strange way that people suddenly start dying, to the investigative efforts of a British policewoman on leave for PTSD (who has absolutely no jurisdiction in Switzerland), to the reveal of the final culprit and the motives of the murder spree. I felt that the book suffered from the problem of “trying too hard” to fit in everything under the sun to make it a twisty read, only to end up being confusing and lacking cohesion.
2) The characters: even though I liked the premise of Elin, a policewoman with PTSD, I felt that she always kept me at arms’ length and I didn’t bond with her throughout the entirety of the book. As a detective she didn’t ring true for me, even considering that she was recovering from a recent breakdown. As for the other characters, not only did I find most of them thoroughly unlikeable, but they also lacked believability for me. Some remained mere stereotypes I never really got the hang of. I felt entirely emotionally detached throughout the book, which took away a lot of the enjoyment for me.
3) I have found from previous experience that I do better with closed-door mysteries if they are told from one POV only, which helps build suspense for me. Here, the POVs from the murder victims made the story appear choppy, added an added element of having to suspend disbelief and took away a lot of the mystery for me. Again, personal preference, other readers will totally disagree with me here.
4) The final reveal: given that the body count rises throughout the book, I expected an evil villain with a strong motive and found the final reveal just a bit lacklustre and – again – farfetched.

All in all, THE SANATORIUM was a book that contained all the things I usually love in a novel, but for various reasons did not end up working well for me. With a wonderfully atmospheric setting and a mounting body count, it will undoubtedly thrill other readers, though, so it’s one you need to pick up and try for yourself rather than taking my personal reader preferences into account here.

<i> An imposing, isolated hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. Though it’s beautiful, something about the hotel, recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium, makes her nervous. </i>

This is a hard book to review.

This book is set in an abandoned hospital turned hotel, in a secluded location, in a storm...this is the makings of a terrifying, fast-paced thriller.
The first few chapters really took me to that place. The prologue is creepy and put me on edge. I didn't know if this was going into a ghost story or a creepy stalker type thriller.
When we kick into the book, Elin, our main character, is panicky and anxious about the trip to the hotel, because of the weather, and because of who she is due to meet there. Reading it through her perspective really gave me that feeling of anxiety and trepidation she was feeling.

As the book goes on, we see our main character get into her stride and her confidence gets stronger. For me, she fell into her role a bit too easily. I really enjoyed this anxious, edge-of-your-seat feeling we had in the initial chapters.

It was quite intriguing at first but my attention started to drift just before halfway. The characters seemed too lightly drawn and I found I didn’t really care what happened to them, or why.
Good scene setting - I really got a sense of the remoteness of the hotel/sanatorium and the treacherous weather around them, but in the end it wasn’t enough to hold my attention. I did skip to the denouement but was a bit underwhelmed by that too.

A very chilling and unsettling book! It almost reads more horror than thriller to start with. Maybe not one to read in the house alone!

A chilling thriller that never lets you get settled to a point where you feel you know what’s coming.

An ex-sanitorium has been re-developed into a luxury resort high in the Swiss mountains. An avalanche strands a number of staff and guests – and missing people and bodies start to mount up.

An impressive debut from an author I’ll be keen to read more of.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this arc. I liked the premise and was intrigued for a closed mystery setup. This follows the protagonist, a DC on leave, who attends a Swiss resort where her brother is getting married to the woman who manages the place. But then one day the finance disappears...
Parallel to this story we follow a bunch of characters who live and work in the area and get killed one by one...While we also learn the original architect, who was meant to convert the sanatorium to a resort disappeared...
Tbh I didn’t get into the story. This was a slow burn with the threads coming together slowly, the events didn’t seem causal. Also I found the protagonist too simpering and timid; I couldn’t believe when it was revealed she’s a detective. Also hey relationship with Isaac, his brother, wasn’t established enough. I felt like we’re told he’s weird rather than shown.
Overall this was a okay read.

I was looking forward to reading this book wanting a good thriller with great characters. However I would class this more as a horror novel. The first few chapters are frankly frightening. I am not prone to nightmares but had one that evening. I so wanted Elin to be a strong advocate but her overly described paranoia just became annoying. Overall I found the characterisation the weakest part of the novel. Sorry but it just didn't work for me.

The fact that I was reading this in the garden on a freakishly hot September's day and this book still gave me shivers is testament to the writing.

This is one creepy book - set in a luxury hotel that used to be a sanatorium, that sets the tone immediately.

Then you have the mysteries, what happened to the architect, Daniel in the prologue (fairly gruesome description of his attacker), how does Adele fit into this?

Then you have Elin, on sabbatical from her job in the police with lots of issues to deal with in regard to her brother who is just a narcissist. She is at the hotel, along with her boyfriend Will, to attend the engagement of her brother, (said narcissist), Issac and Laure - then she goes missing.

The Alps and it's ever changing weather just adds to the tension - as the plot thickens as deep as the falling snow I had no idea of where this was going!

Really enjoyed this mystery.

Thanks to Netgalley for he opportunity to review this book, this is my honest opinion

The setting for this novel is my ideal setting to find: snowed-in, high up in the Swiss Alps, an architecturally innovative hotel hiding dark and hidden secrets. A series of increasingly gruesome crimes. I find the old sanatoriums of this part of Europe intriguing, and was totally pulled in by that aspect of the book. The tension builds in the novel, there were mysteries to solve but most of all I loved the atmosphere, the creeping sense of dread as the avalanches set off and the murderer closed in, and the psychological complexities of all the main characters. It felt very human, despite its more far-fetched elements, meaning I could suspend disbelief and sink into the storytelling. Highly recommended!

I found the subject matter of this book reminded me of scary films that I had seen with similar settings. I was hooked from the start and couldn’t put the book down. Definitely recommended to those readers who enjoy reading this type of book.

Sarah Pearce is an interesting new author and this her debut is an exciting new thriller.
The story is based in the french alps in a state of the art hotel which was recently built on the site of an old sanitarium. Elin Warner is a UK detective who is currently on medical leave and together with her boyfriend are there to celebrate her long estranged brother’s recent engagement.
The weather takes an alarming change with continuous heavy snowfall and avalanches resulting in the hotel being completely cut off from the rest of civilisation
As dead bodies are found and others going missing then turning up dead Elin finds herself knee deep in the investigation.
Well worth a read.

This was a fast, fairly easy, and enjoyable read. 3.25 stars.

The atmospheric thriller feeling that opened the book was top notch. I've always loved a figurative 'island' mystery, so this book was no exception. This time, the isolated place was a luxury hotel, which was actually a refurbished old sanatorium from late 1800s. In real life, I wouldn't imagine staying in a place like this, but in fiction, this made an awesome setting.

The main character, Elin, was an unreliable narrator (but thank goodness, not because of the cliche alcoholic problem). She was a Detective in UK who was taking leave of absence to attend her brother's engagement party, which was to be held at the hotel, mainly because the fiance worked there. Murder and mayhem ensued.

I actually enjoyed the story flow, the actions, the mystery element, and the haunting atmosphere. Some of the sub-plots were quite predictable (as an avid reader of Mystery & Thriller), but it was fine. If I could nitpick, the only factor that didn't sit right with me was Elin's character design. As a trained detective, her methods of analysing the mystery and murder scenes felt like an amateur; I was expecting more analytical thinking. She also went against her gut feeling frequently, which I would've thought should've been the main pointer a good Detective followed. Furthermore, she overshared all her confidential findings to everyone who would listen throughout the book.

Having said that, the overall reading experience was enjoyable. Considering this was a debut novel, it was quite promising and I can't wait to see more from the Author.

== Typo/Error Notes ==
While reading this copy, I noted some of the following errors, in case the Publisher is interested:
- Page 19 (or 27/400 digitally) - "Elin swallows hard, bending down to plug the vacuum..." => This was supposed to be Adele, not Elin.
- Page 296 (or 304/400 digitally) - "But we're know they're not coming..." => "But we know..."

I would like to thank Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for an advance copy of The Sanatorium, a thriller set in a hotel in the Swiss Alps.

Elin Warner and her boyfriend, Will, have been invited to celebrate her brother Isaac’s engagement to Laure at Le Sommet, an upmarket hotel in an isolated part of the Swiss Alps that has been converted from a former TB sanatorium. Elin doesn’t like the feel of the hotel and this is compounded when Laure disappears. Then a body is found, just as the hotel is cut off by an avalanche.

I really wanted to like The Sanatorium as it has such a promising premise, lone detective, limited suspect pool and mysterious goings on. Unfortunately I found it to be a real slog and it didn’t really hold my attention apart from one purple patch where it became the novel it could have been.

The novel starts with a disappearance in 2015 then segues to the present day where the neurotic Elin makes her appearance. On leave from her job as a detective sergeant after a traumatic case she’s a bundle of nerves. Other readers may be more sympathetic towards her but I found her incredibly tiresome and I doubted her reliability. It put me off and I almost abandoned the novel. Late in the novel she steps up to the plate and solves the case. This 10-20% of the novel is effective as she drops the neuroses and gets down to business but the rest of it is difficult to wade through.

The motive for the crime will be unfathomable to most readers prior to the denouement as it relies on late reveals and a confession. Is it credible? I wouldn’t say so and I didn’t like the implications of it.

The Sanatorium is not for me and I don’t think I’ll be reading the sequel that the rather strange epilogue implies is coming but who knows? The new, improved by one investigation Elin might draw me back.

I really wanted to like this. It sounds like something I should love, locked room mysteries are my very favourite genre and I love an atmospheric setting.

Unfortunately I didn't love it. I just found it flat. I considered DNFing multiple times in the beginning because I couldn't get into it all. I wasn't invested in any of the characters, the descriptions of the location didn't thrill me and reading it felt like a bit of a chore. It should have been exciting - There were brutal, graphic murders and I didn't feel anything.

The motive for the murders was odd, it felt scrambled together and incomplete. Unless there's going to be a sequel, the epilogue was just awful.

I wish I had better things to say about this book as all the components I usually love were there but it didn't make me feel anything and I was never excited to pick it up.

I love books based in Winter-time. Give me a book based in a snow-capped destination with people huddling together in front of a roaring fire, any day over a beach side read! This is what drew me initially to this book, as well as its beautiful evocative cover. The storyline also reminded me of the TV adaptation of Agatha Christies The Labours of Hercules, where the indefatigable Poirot is marooned in an exclusive Alpine Hotel with a killer following an avalanche. So far, so good…

Elin Warner, a policewoman suffering from PTSD, is persuaded to visit the luxury Swiss Hotel located high in the Alps to celebrate her brother Isaac’s engagement. Hotel Le Sommet, once an infamous sanatorium for TB patients, is now an uber cool minimalist 5 star hotel. After a ferocious snow storm, and subsequent avalanche, the hotel is cut off from the world, during which some guests go missing, including Isaac’s fiancée Laure. Elin takes it upon herself to conquer her demons and investigate the disappearances.

While the book certainly delivers on creating the right type of atmospheric setting, high up in the isolated mountains, the plot line is somewhat thin and lacks the complexity that the reader might expect. I grew a bit tired of Elin’s moans and groans, and apathy. Not my type of heroine of the hour. There is an entire cast of hotel guests who could be the murderer and sometimes the authors attempts to throw the reader off the scent were a bit forced and clumsy. When the story reaches its eventual climax, it was more of a fizzle than a pop. I also assume that the rather confusing epilogue is suggestive of a sequel? An enjoyable 3 star read but did not deliver the Wow factor for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley/Random House UK for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.