This was a creepy story set in the mountains and a hotel where there used to be an old sanitarium.
After travelling to the hotel for am engagement party, things start to go wrong and a body is found, when much of the hotel has been evacuated due to an avalanche.
I enjoyed this book and the writing style. It was certainly quite spooky in parts and gripping.
There were a few questions raised when thinking back on the story, but it was a good read.

Beware of The Sanatorium! It's creepy, macabre and disturbing. I've never booked a hotel because of its architecture but it seems some people do. The minimalistic lines of a completely modernised and refurbished former sanatorium set in the Swiss Alps seems to attract that sort of punter. Certainly it's not the food but definitely the remoteness might have its attractions. With a building snow storm and steamy outdoor pools, seeing the wood for the trees becomes increasingly difficult. It isn't long before mutilated bodies are found and Elin, the detective on R and R, is the only one qualified to handle the crime scene. She has to do it alone as the hotel becomes totally cut off because of an avalanche.
The book certainly grips and horrifies, maybe more so because of who the perpetrators are although we only find this out towards the end. I still cannot quite link the way the victims died with the rationale of the murderer.

An atmospheric eerie thriller, set in a remote hotel high in the mountains. The mountain is cut off by an avalanche, a hotel guest goes missing, and the search is afoot! This book has had lots of praise on Twitter and social media generally and I can see why, a nailbiting, page-turning, keep you up all night mystery!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read it, hope I can sleep after finishing it

A Sanatorium with a sinister past has recently been converted into an hotel.. Elin Warner is on a break from her job as a detective sergeant and reluctantly travels to this isolated hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, to celebrate her estranged brother's engagement, During her stay, an avalanche cuts off access, her brother’s fiancée disappears and a woman is murdered, which Elin puts all her efforts into solving.
The Sanatorium is an enjoyable thriller, very eerie and atmospheric. Good descriptions of the hotel and it’s very remote setting with good characterisation.

Really enjoyed this book.

This is my first book by this author and will not be my last, This book grabbed me from the start.
I enjoyed the writing of the story it was like you where living through the words in this book like you was there, A Chilling thriller that will keep you turning the pages.
Elin and her hubby head to a remote hotel in the alps to meet her brother to celebrate her brothers engagement it is the last place she wants to be. But this hotel holds secrets and as the story goes alone they are revealed.


Thank you to Net Galley for an advance copy of this book.

Reading The Sanitorium was a disappointing experience. From the prologue onwards it was difficult to imagine an assailant approaching, wearing an old-fashioned gas mask contraption.
The concept of turning a derelict sanitorium into an exclusive hotel was interesting enough, but the descriptions of the interiors seemed as unlikely to appeal to anyone in the same way they didn’t to Elin, the central character. Elin’s journey from damaged detective unable to return to work after a traumatic case to successfully solved the murders in the hotel – on her own and as ineptly and rashly as her methods were, was too incredible to buy into.
This is a well written debut, but the plot was unlikely and thin in places. I’m sorry to say I did not enjoy it.
With thanks to Random House UK and Netgalley

This story had all the elements that I need in a great story.

Perfect location: An old sanatorium which has now been turned into a luxury spa. There was opposition from a lot of people about reinventing the place. It's located high in the Swiss mountains, which lends to the fact that it can get very isolated in bad weather.

Mystery: from the start we get the strange person in the gas mask, this is creepy and I really loved this element. It made me question is it real or not? Then we have the dead bodies popping up and people disappearing, great suspense as we don't know who or what is behind this.

Characters: Elin is a flawed character, she obviously has a backstory that has led to where she is now. The same goes for her brother. We learn throughout that things aren't all sibling love between these two. But why?

With all this said, I just felt that I couldn't connect with the story enough to take full enjoyment from it. To me there was a bit too much going on. I did feel that I'd missed a book somewhere, even though this is a debut, as it kept on going on about Elin's previous case. I do understand this is to build her character up and to get a background into her and Isacc's relationship, but it took away then from what was happening in the Sanatorium, which I wanted to be the main purpose.

I'm still giving this a 3.5 rating because I did enjoy all the aspects. Just maybe could have concentrated on one storyline.

Plus, the epilogue!?! Is there a sequel?


Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an early digital copy.

Elin is a police detective on extended leave after a gruelling case when she and boyfriend Will go to visit the Sanatorium, a beautifully designed building that has been changed into an up market hotel in the Alps. Elin is here to celebrate her brother’s engagement party. All the staff there become very afraid as the weather traps everyone in the sanatorium and a serial killer is on the loose.
Elin has to solve the case as there is no one who can get there to help so only the phone and internet can help her along with the long suffering Will. The past use of the building as a sanatorium is the key to the mystery.
The situation Sarah Pearse describes is stifling and frightening. It is amazing that this is her first novel as it is such an assured piece of storytelling and even frightening in parts.
The atmosphere she creates is amazingly described; you can see yourself there and feeling very afraid. The plot is so clever and the motives come as a complete surprise. I can even see this being turned into a screenplay one day.
Pearse cleverly leaves a teaser for another story involving Elin in the future. I really hope that she writes it one day.

From the get-go, this book was thrilling. Set in the mountains, it’s a thriller that has you on edge until the end.

Thoroughly enjoyed this; the link between past and present was easily presented.

The star of this book, (which is not a ghost story, as I'd assumed), is definitely the titular Sanatorium. Set high on the Swiss Alps, it is indeed a former asylum, now restored as a top-class hotel, and where police officer Elin, who is currently on leave and suffering from PTSD, and her boyfriend pitch up to celebrate her estranged brother, Isaac's engagement. I couldn't help but picture the Outlook Hotel from the Shining. Things soon turn bad as a snowstorm descends, and Isaac's fiancée goes missing. When a body is discovered, Elin chooses to investigate an increasingly murky mystery. There's plenty of gruesome finds for fans of Thomas Harris or Kathy Reichs.

I am a fan of both thrillers and mysteries novels, and The Sanatorium nicely draws a picture of cold, wild places , while at the same time there's a claustrophobic feel to the place, as the story progresses. I enjoyed the overall atmosphere of the book, but did find it hard to empathise with Elin sometimes. Her past, both from childhood and more recently, play a big part of the story arc, but some elements appear, then aren't fully explored, which I found frustrating.

One particular note, I'm not a fan of books written in the present tense, which this book is. Somehow the flow doesn't work for me.

However, the ending is well done, and sets up nicely for a sequel.

Overall, as a thriller, this is a fine story, albeit slightly uneven and patchy in places. But worth your time and money.

This was an ARC, provided by NetGalley, which did include a few typos which I'm sure will be corrected before publication.

This is a brilliant psychological thriller with so many twists and turns it keeps the reader guessing to the end. Sinister and threatening, you wonder if anyone is going to survive their visit to the sanatorium.

This book started well with a very atmospheric setting. Unfortunately it didn't keep me gripped.
There was plenty going on, a little too much for the book to flow, with the storm, disappearances ,lies, and murder all intertwined with Elin's angst of which she had a lot of personal issues. Losing her mother, the death of her younger brother, the hostile feelings towards her other brother, stress from an incident at work, career decisions and her relationship with Will.
Full of self doubts, flashbacks and a lot of things she couldn't quite grasp Elin was not the most reassuring of detectives but to give her credit she kept on going. There does seem to be a tendency for authors to give their detectives a troubled personal life but poor Elin seemed to have more than her fair share which was a distraction from the investigation.

High up on the Swiss Alps, a sanatorium turned high-end hotel welcomes Elin and her boyfriend Will as they arrive to celebrate Elin's brother's engagement. But tensions between Elin and her brother Isaac heighten when a snowstorm descends, and Laure - Isaac's fiancée - goes missing. When a body is discovered, Elin's left to investigate while the pool of suspects remain trapped in the hotel together.

I love thrillers and mysteries novels that play along the trope of people trapped in a solitary place together so it has to be one of them, and The Sanatorium did this really well with the added element of the snowstorm to darken the mood, and the creepy past of the sanatorium to heighten the tension and atmosphere.

Elin as a character is one we've all seen before - there is nothing really new about her. She has a past that messed her up, and is something she can't let go of, and she has recent traumas that has increased her anxiety and overall vulnerability. She doesn't come across as a strong character, and at times appears weak and vulnerable. However, I did love seeing the change come across Elin when she switched into police officer/detective mode.

One gripe I had about this book and Elin in particular is I'm pretty sure for the majority of the book all she consumed was a tiny bit of coffee and she maybe had 3 hours sleep at most. I honestly don't know how she kept going. I needed a Gillian Anderson/The Fall detective eating a burger while going through notes moment because god if anyone needed a burger, it was Elin!

I felt gripped by this book, and the story had substance to it though the build up at the start was a bit long. It's not till 50% into the book that the first suspicious body is found, and Elin's investigation really starts.

The murders in this book were also on the gruesome side as well, and there were definitely some that made me feel a bit sick reading how the person was killed. When the masks and dismemberment were added on top of that, it added to the tension and the race against time element to the story.

The ending/reveal wasn't too much of a surprise but I wasn't a fan of the reasons why.

I think for anyone looking for an atmospheric thriller/mystery book with a unique setting, this is perfect.

Not bad at all. This is an atmospheric thriller set in an ex sanatorium which has been turned into a luxury hotel. Elin and her boyfriend Will are visiting her brother Isaac for his engagement celebrations. However when Isaac's fiancé goes missing and then a body is discovered detective Elin is forced to step in - with the local police out of reach due to an avalanche. Elin is battling her own demons - suspicion of Isaac's involvement in their younger brother's death years earlier, self doubt after a difficult case and also pressure in her relationship. Can she work out the difference between real clues and her own projected problems?

This was a creepy read with its isolated location, sanatorium setting and distinctly horror tinged murderer. Yet more could have been made of the setting, I lost all sense of how many people were actually at the hotel as all the characters named seemed to be involved. The ending does set up a potential sequel with a layer of menace

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse is a tense, taut, and twisty novel.

PUBLISHER'S BLURB: "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 . . ."

As an author I am intensely jealous of Sarah Pearse's talent for describing settings! The claustrophobic nature of the snow, mountains, and the threat of an avalanche is heavy throughout. I could imagine the weather, temperature, and its beauty.

The setting of a previous sanatorium as a hotel is genius and integral to the plot. It eventually makes for disturbing revelations that must be told.

Elin Warner is a character who made me feel compromised. I wanted to like her because of how flawed she is but sometimes I felt like she needed a good shake! That's not a negative. It makes the character more real. I enjoyed how she needed answers in her personal life and what was happening in the hotel.

The Agatha Christie type mystery of having many suspects in a restricted space is elevated to a different level. Nothing about this choice of plot felt contrived or cliched.

I definitely recommend this novel if you enjoy a thriller that makes you feel like you're in the place where it's set. It's the perfect read for snuggling up by the fire while the characters endure the cold.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my early copy of this novel which is released on 18th February 2021.

I was intrigued by the cover and the description, and it largely fulfilled it’s promise. It starts at a cracking pace which mostly continues for the entire book. The descriptions of the snowy Alps, the worsening weather and the creepiness of the luxury hotel converted from a T.B sanatorium are excellent and make this a ‘page turner’. As the murders occur I felt that the logistics of the investigation, difficult though the circumstances were didn’t quite add up, but the twists coming on top of each other were just enough to forgive that.
This is a debut novel and certainly holds a lot of promise. I enjoyed it. Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an early reading Copy in return for an unbiased review.

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)

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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.