This book has left me speechless and I cannot begin to say how grateful I am to have received an arc.

From the beginning, this book was intriguing and the mystique was apparent. However, as we delve further into the story and discover all the hidden twists and turns scattered throughout the pages by Sarah Pearse, we are transported into the story and left in a state of utter shock.

The Sanatorium was unnerving, atmospheric and chilling - I loved every minute.

This is a very good read and I recommend it to anyone who likes murder/mystery books where a group of people are locked away with a murderer for a few days because of weather/high seas etc.
You are never certain who is responsible for the murders - only that you know it has something to do with the hotel's previous life as a sanatorium. As usual, for me, I didn't work out who was responsible.
When you read this type of book you always want to shout 'don't go somewhere on your own as there is a killer about' but still they do. Doesn't happen too much in the book as visits outside or to other parts of the hotel are usually in pairs.
For me, a slightly complicated unravelling of why but otherwise a very good book

The book is very atmospheric , descriptions of the Sanatorium and the area it is set and yes the weather areall really good
Character wise I didn’t connect to any of them and story wise was interesting
Therefore am not really sure why it was just ok all round for me
Would definitely read the authors next book

A remote setting in the Swiss Alps sounds idyllic, but the trip Elin Warner takes to the luxury hotel sited there turns out to be anything but.
Elin is a detective. After a traumatic incident in the course of duty, Elin has been experiencing flashbacks to an incident in her childhood that resulted in the death of her much loved younger brother, Sam. She is struggling to function, and has taken time out of work. This has been the perfect opportunity to confront some of her demons...the visit to Switzerland is to celebrate the engagement of her older brother.
Upon arrival we sense conflict. Elin and her brother clearly have unresolved issues, and from other narrative accounts interspersed with Elin’s story we know that this hotel is not as pleasant as it seems.
The site of an old sanitorium, the history of the place is tinged with darkness. When an employee of the hotel goes missing it becomes worrying. When an avalanche occurs, leaving the staff and odd guests stranded, things take a more sinister turn. Then a second body is discovered and it’s fair to say all hell breaks loose.
Someone is playing a very dangerous game, determined to take their vengeance on someone for something they resent. We are given a number of options for possible suspects, but Elin throws herself into this investigation with reckless abandonment. All around her, people are injured or killed...but still she determines to play the hero and sort this out (because she has to make up for something she wishes she’d done a long time ago).
We do eventually see Elin get the satisfaction of solving this, but at what cost? The revelation seemed to be a jump just a little too far to feel fully plausible, and my lack of engagement with Elin herself made this hard to really feel overly happy about. Things seemed to be over, but then came that weird tagged-on ending suggesting that perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to accept everything the author had presented us with. I have my suspicions of the identity of the mysterious watcher in the carriage, but it seemed so at odds with everything else that I’m not sure what to make of it.
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication. It had some high points, but felt just a little too jumbled to work effectively.

From its utterly chilling, creepy opening, I was fairly certain I was going to enjoy The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse… and I wasn’t wrong! I was on the edge of my seat kind of tense for the whole time I was reading it, including some times when I almost couldn’t turn the page and had to read through my fingers!

It’s set in brand new upmarket hotel and ex-sanatorium, Le Sommet, as sometime police officer, Elin, arrives with her boyfriend to celebrate her brother Isaac’s engagement. Things quickly go awry when a storm rolls in cutting off their only route out of there and Isaac’s fiancé, Laure, goes missing. We’re left wondering if there’s an innocent explanation or whether something more sinister is going on. And then there’s another disappearance…

The stormy mountain setting is really atmospheric, particularly when coupled with the allusions to the hotel’s “interesting” past and vivid rendering of the stark interiors. In fact, some of the prose is so evocative that I can clearly imagine this book onscreen: a movie that would be perfect for Halloween!

I thought the plot was perfectly paced, full of twists, turns and mini reveals. I also enjoyed the development of Elin’s character over the course of the book. If I’m being picky, my one criticism would be that editors have missed a word and a phrase that have been vastly overused, which won’t bother most people, but once I’d noticed it I couldn’t unnotice it.

That said, I otherwise could not fault it – it’s a brilliant, page-turning read, once which I’m sure I’ll be recommending to creepy thriller fans for a long time to come.

Set in the Swiss Alps, Elin and her boyfriend Will are staying in the newly opened and luxury hotel, Le Sommet. Isolated, this hotel has been converted from an old sanatorium. It has an eerie feel to it which sets Elin on edge.

Elin’s brother Issac works there and has just got engaged to Laure. Then one night Laure goes missing. Issac is frantic but Elin believes he knows more than he is saying due to events in their past.

Then a body is found.

Now in the midst of a snowstorm and an avalanche has blocked the road, the police are unable to reach them and so Elin, a police officer in the UK begins an investigation. All the while dealing with PTSD and problems of her own,

This really is a chilling, psychological thriller with a sense of tension and foreboding from the very start. The descriptions of the hotel alone give it a real sense of an almost claustrophobic menace and the cold seems to seep off the very pages.

The characters are well rounded and engaging, with its twisty, clever plot this really is unputdownable. Any fan of psychological thrillers is going to love this, a definite must read. Just brilliant and I loved every minute.

Elin Warner and her boyfriend, Will Riley, are going to visit a luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps for the engagement of her brother, Isaac to Laure, who is the assistant manager. The hotel has been created from an old, disused TB sanatorium and Will, an architect, is interested in all of the design features. Elin, though, is not looking forward to the trip. Suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, on leave from her job as a detective, struggling after the death of her mother and nervous about seeing her estranged brother, she is a mass of insecurities and anxieties with unanswered questions. In fact, one of the main reasons she wants to attend the engagement is to get to the bottom of what happened to her younger brother, Sam, who died as a child.

On top of all Elin’s personal issues, things are not right at the hotel, which is, frankly, the best character in the book, in my opinion. I loved the idea of a sanatorium becoming a hotel, with spooky, original artefacts scattered about. When people start to go missing, and, of course, the hotel is cut off from the outside world, Elin is asked to investigate. I did find this a little odd – not only because she had no real authority, but because she barely seemed to be holding herself together. However, as she begins to investigate, Elin does seem to begin to rediscover herself.

Overall, this was something of a mixed bag for me. I loved the setting, but felt little empathy with Elin, or the characters generally. Some of the ‘props,’ might make this work better visually, if it is ever put on screen. As a mystery though, I found it confusing and the motive seemed unlikely – especially considering the various possible suspects.

Considering how much I liked the description of this novel, and was excited by the setting, I was disappointed that I did not like this more. I usually judge books by considering whether I would like to read another novel featuring the main character. In this case, I would have to say, probably not. However, I did love the setting and, although I felt the author threw just about everything at the plot, this is a debut novel and I can imagine it is tempting to do that with a first book. The writing was good and I feel sure that the author has a promising career before her. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

Rated 3.5

Elin, a British detective on extended leave, goes to Switzerland for her brother's wedding. When an avalanche cuts off the hotel, Elin finds herself investigating a gruesome murder that involves a prop linked to the hotel's former use as a clinic. Sinister and inventive.
Many thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for letting me read an advance copy..

The Sanatorium is Sarah Pearse’s debut novel and it’s fantastic! I really struggled to put this one down, there is so much tension and suspense within the chapters that you can’t help but carry on to the next one.
The story is set at a luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps, it used to be a sanatorium and the owner and designer has left some of the artefacts within the new design. Elin and her boyfriend Will have travelled there to celebrate her brother Isaac’s engagement to Elin’s childhood friend Laure. Isaac and Elin have a difficult relationship due to the tragic death of their brother Sam which Elin blames Isaac for. Elin is also having a tough time at work, she is police officer on an extended break after an arrest went very wrong.
Elin does not like the hotel as soon as she arrives, there is something dark and foreboding about the place. Then Laure goes missing and they are completely cut off due to a huge storm and avalanche threat. Elin’s police training kicks in and she tries to help but she has no idea of the danger she is in.
The Sanatorium is such a good read and the story becomes more and more intense as they are cut off from any help due to the weather. The building is an integral part of the story, not only for its history but the way it has been designed, vast sheets of glass leave them feeling exposed and vulnerable and there are many empty corridors and blind spots.
I would highly recommend this book, it is eerie and tense, a real page turner.

Will and Elin have come to stay in a luxury hotel high in the Swiss Alps. They are there to celebrate the engagement of Elin's brother, Isaac, to Laure who works there. But soon it becomes clear that all is not what it seems.
The hotel has been built from the ruins of a TB sanitarium and there are many local people who didn't want it built. To Elin, it has a strange atmosphere but Will thinks it's just because she's about to meet her estranged brother after many years.
Then someone dies and an avalanche cuts the hotel off from everywhere.
Super spine chilling tale with multiple threads all I seemingly intertwined.

This was a tough one for me. On the one hand its a very atmospheric thriller with some great description and good dramatic tension. On the other its a not so brilliantly executed mystery with one of the most inept investigators I've ever seen who spends most of the book having her job mansplained to her by her incredibly horrible brother and significant other.
The setting really is marvelous. The hotel is a remodeled sanatorium that treated TB patients hundreds of years ago and the super sensitive Elin finds the entire place sterile and horribly frightening. Author Sarah Pearse's descriptions are excellent, much of my initial delighted fear was invoked entirely on the images she conjured in my head of the stark mountains, endless snow and this huge, strange building echoing with horrifying memories of death and pain.
The mystery itself is kind of eh. Its not necessarily bad its just kind of all out of left field and one of those stories where the reader has no way to make any connections and the solution or reason isn't really arrived at, it just kind of happens.

It has been some time since I read a book where my heart was in my mouth from the first moment I realised all was not well, to the climax. The author writes so well that the reader is almost feeling what central character Elin is feeling, and you become truly immersed in the events of the book.
The story itself is reminiscent of a 70's disaster movie, which isn't a bad thing, but the whole 'isolated group in mountain retreat cut off by weather with avalanche expected' is a reliable setting for a heartstopping thriller.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's a real page turner. I can see the movie in my mind now & I will be first in the queue when it comes!

This is a classic thriller, set in an exclusive alpine resort, a detective attending her brother’s engagement party turns pretty horrific when one of the engagement party goes missing, and more people start disappearing...and reappearing..

It’s a good plot, keeps you guessing, and is a page turner. I enjoyed reading this book!

My thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for the advance copy.

Having heard so much buzz about The Sanatorium on Book Twitter, I was absolutely thrilled to be approved to read this debut by Netgalley UK – with it’s isolated setting, cold winter vibes, and chilling location, it sounded right up my street!

As the novel opens, police detective Elin Warner is reluctantly making her way to Le Sommet, a recently opened and exclusive luxury hotel high in the Swiss Alps that has been controversially converted from an abandoned sanatorium. With her architect boyfriend Will in tow, Elin is hoping to reconnect with her estranged brother Issac and his fiancée, her childhood friend Laure.

Suffering from PTSD as a result of her last case, Elin is hoping that meeting Issac again will allow her to put the ghosts of the past – and of some long-held childhood trauma – to rest. Will, meanwhile, is hoping the break will allow Elin to focus on her future, rather than being stuck in her past. But when the hotel is cut off by a snowstorm and Laure goes missing, it isn’t long before Elin and Will find themselves embroiled in the many mysteries that surround Le Sommet‘s past. And then the first body is found…

Intriguing isn’t it? As you can probably tell, there’s quite a bit going on in The Sanatorium, with the novel mixing together elements of the traditional ‘country house’ mystery – isolated location, limited number of suspects, EVERYONE has something to hide – with those of a psychological thriller.

Elin makes for a fantastic narrator in this respect as, owing to her PTSD and the emotional toll that repressing her childhood trauma is taking on her, she makes for an unreliable and deeply fallible main character. Admittedly there were times when I did get somewhat frustrated by Elin – she has a tendency to switch from coolly efficient to emotionally incapable rather rapidly at times – but, for the most part, I found her to be a sympathetic character with understandable motivations and fears.

The Sanitorium also drips atmosphere. There are some fantastic descriptions that really allowed me to imagine the cold minimalism of Le Sommet‘s interiors and the glacial isolation of the snowy surroundings. Sarah Pearse is also excellent at building dramatic tension and, whilst the book doesn’t quite manage to avoid some of the clichés of the thriller genre, all of the set pieces are pulled off with great aplomb and the novel definitely has that page-turning, can’t-stop-reading quality!

Whilst Elin makes for an excellent narrator, I did have issues with the way some of the other characters and relationships are portrayed in The Sanatorium. Will in particular is clearly meant to be the ‘nice guy’ but I found his behaviour – and his lack of patience and respect for Elin’s trauma – to be really problematic. He has his redeeming moments but, on the whole, I didn’t feel that the subplot involving the state of Elin and Will’s relationship worked alongside the rest of the novel and I was disappointed that one of the key events later in the story seemed designed to guilt Elin into appreciating Will’s role in her life.

I also found the character of Issac – Elin’s estranged brother – to be very difficult. Aggressive, demanding and manipulative, Issac spends much of the novel high on the suspect list and I found it difficult to believe in the redemption he is given at the novel’s conclusions. Whilst the subplot involving Elin, Issac and their shared childhood trauma was interesting, the conclusion to it felt somewhat tacked on and, again, like an excuse for Elin to revaluate Issac and excuse his poor behaviour.

Given that Elin is such an interesting character, I would have liked to have seen her work through her PTSD and trauma on her own – and for her own reasons – rather than doing so through these relationships with the male figures in her life. This was particularly disappointing to me because the main mystery of the novel centres around male degradation and abuse of women, with an interesting (and sadly all too believable) examination of the way in which ‘troublesome’ women were confined to sanatoria for often made-up reasons. Given this element of the novel, there are trigger warnings for some graphic depictions of violence/bodily mutilation, mentions of sexual violence/rape, and discussions of psychosis/delusional psychosis, as well as significant representation of PTSD.

This maybe makes it sound as if I didn’t enjoy The Sanatorium but that’s definitely not the case. I enjoyed it for what it was – a pacy, atmospheric thriller that I raced through in a couple of evenings and had a good time with. But as with many thrillers, you do have to suspend your disbelief a little to really immerse yourself in the story. There’s definitely the occasional ‘that wouldn’t really happen’ moment, plus some slightly dodgy light-touch characterisation in places but if you just go along with the ride then this is an enjoyably atmospheric debut that takes place in a fantastic setting, poses an interesting mystery, and has that all important page-turning quality.

What an excellent story this is, so good in fact that it could be easily mistaken for being based on fact rather than being pure fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and in a perverse way was disappointed when it ended. That this is Sarah Pearse's first novel makes it outstanding.

Assuming that, like me, you enjoy a believable tale that is twisty enough to keep you guessing then this is a book you need to read.

Erin, a detective, is on leave after her last case nearly killed her. She takes her partner, Will, to meet her brother at a new Swiss hotel where his fiancé works. Erin and her brother, Isaac, have unresolved issues regarding the traumatic death of their young brother when they were children.
The hotel is chic, minimalist and a renovated Sanatorium with a dark and sinister past.
Staff begin to be adducted and murdered. A snow storm and avalanche prevents outside rescue, so Erin reluctantly has to step up to keep everyone safe.

The elements are all their for a tense, claustrophobic thriller but I found the resolution unsatisfying and, as even stated in the text, only made sense to the killer. There was also an epilogue that, unless linking to an ongoing narrative, felt completely unnecessary.

Readers who enjoy similar snow-bound murder mysteries will, I am sure, find this an exciting page turner.

I’ve always been fascinated by abandoned buildings, Urbexing is something I have always wanted to try but been too scared to make a reality! The most beautiful and atmospheric of these are abandoned Sanatoriums - large and magnificent architectural masterpieces which have such a turbulent and troubled history. Therefore the setting of Sanatorium; an asylum which has been renovated to a chic hotel on the Swiss Alps really peaked my interest. When murders start occurring and an avalanche cuts the hotel off from civilisation, Elin Warner, a detective on a career break after a disturbing case finds herself in charge.

There is much to like about Sanatorium, and this doesn’t just extend to the brilliant setting of the book. The crimes themselves are creepy, with the assailant wearing a black, rubber gas mask with a hose connecting the mouth and nose. This imagery stuck with me and is so creepy when reading after dark!

I also really enjoyed the characters – particularly Elin who has a lot of previous trauma, claustrophobia and commitment issues which are explored throughout. Although she is a detective it was nice to have someone with flaws and personal issues to overcome and it never felt cliché like it has in previous crime fiction stories I have read. I also liked that you never really trusted anyone in the book – they all felt well-rounded and realistic but your guard was up the whole way through and there were plenty of red herrings to confuse you. My only criticism would be the end few chapters – I didn’t understand the reveal twist at the end and don’t think it added much to the story – is it trying to set up a second book perhaps? The epilogue was nice to wrap things up but again didn’t really feel needed – it just summed up everything we already knew.

Overall, The Sanatorium is an atmospheric and creepy read which kept me hooked trhoughout. Thank you to NetGalley & Random House UK & Transworld Publishers – Bantam Press for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

With crisp fresh snow laying thickly on the ground I picked up a book that would chill me to the bone more than the arrival of the beast from the east. Even with my heating set to core of volcano the goosebumps never left me as strange copper bracelets are found and masked strangers appear from nowhere and people go missing. Not just any mask either, gas masks with a monstrous looking thick rubber hose from nose to mouth.

The chilling setting of an old sanatorium, difficult to get to and isolated to keep the tuberculosis patients away from the smog of the city, seems a strange choice to turn into a luxury hotel. So when Elin arrives with her partner Will to celebrate her brother’s engagement, after an anxious journey, the tension was thicker than any smog.

The author cleverly alludes to past family issues and another brother but I couldn’t quite work out if the anxious Elin was a completely reliable source. In fact I didn’t trust her brother Isaac either. Considering his fiancée Laure then goes missing my suspicions were aroused to almost everyone and motives become apparent for both staff and guests alike at the luxury hotel.

This is paced slowly to draw out the anxiety and to let the setting creep under your skin, but not once did it feel slow to read. Kudos to the author for using both the prologue and epilogue with such aplomb too.

The characters and plot had an Agatha Christie feel of an old fashioned mystery but like the hotel it has had a modern revamp and Elin is no Miss Marple.

A perfect read for a cold winter night I recommend blankets and hot chocolate to keep away the chill and the heebie jeebies.

Only thinking about Sanatoriums makes me distrust any type of story or creation, they are not happy places, they haven’t been happy places and they will never be. So, an architect who created his “masterpiece” on a sanatorium, trying to make it a museum while you are walking the corridors it’s scary and disrespectful. Having said this, I think that this is one of the points of the author, make us remember how people suffered at the hands of their doctors while they sell it for the good of humanity, but never forget how evil was what they did.
This is the story of Elin, she is meeting her brother in a new hotel using the structure of an old sanatorium, they are not on good terms and the distrust between them is touchable all the time. But there’s another plot combined with it, the disappearance of some of the workers at the hotel, while there’s a snow blizzard approaching the hotel making all the hosts trapped in the building. Ready to be a little bit scared?
This had been a slow paced story, I would have rushed the plot, it was good to have all the emotions flying in the reader’s mind while the action is evolving. While I really enjoyed the read, I missed a little bit of the background of the patients of the sanatorium, there’s little detail and too quickly wrapped for my taste. I was intrigued with Elin, she seems to have a very interesting background with PTSD and being a police officer, but I would love to know more and more focus on her. Maybe we will see another case where she is the main detective? Fingers crossed!
This is an atmospheric read, full of twists and hunting situations; if you want to be afraid of the dark for a few days, this is your next read, believe me.
Ready to enter “The Sanatorium”?

This closed room mystery takes place in an hotel that previously served as a secluded sanatorium. The crime that is the center of this novel is almost to be expected given the eerie setting. A great read!