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.

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

This wasn’t what I was expecting from the blurb. It’s not a ghost story, more a psychological thriller. The idea of the story was very good, but I couldn’t get to grips with Elin. Kept thinking that policing wasn’t really the role for her, she was too damaged. Unfortunately if I don’t take to a character it tends to be a chore to read the book. The back story of the death of Sam was a big part of the story, and her relationship with Isaac was difficult to say the least. Did I miss why Isaac had lied about his job, other than he couldn’t face going home for his mother’s funeral? The Swiss police seemed to disappear from the story before the end, and I thought the big reveal confusing. The fact that she was going back to work once she returned home was surprising considering the amount of bodies and wrong tracks she racked up during her “investigations “! The descriptions of the weather and the hotel were great, built up the atmosphere well., and it was certainly tense in parts. It appears from the ending that this might be the start of a series of books about Elin. Good luck with the next book.

For some reason this book wasn’t quite as scary as I imagined it might be. I’m not really sure why I didn’t find it more thrilling as there were some quite gruesome kidnappings under very disturbing circumstances and yet at times I did feel the plot was a little slow.

On saying that it would be a very clever reader who could guess who might have done what and why. Told from the Protagonist Elin’s point of view most of the time, the plot is kept very close to the writers chest, she gives away very few clues along the way.

I think perhaps the main reason why I wasn’t as excited with this book as I thought I might be is Elin herself. The detective, on compassionate leave and on holiday at this luxurious hotel in the Swiss Alps with her boyfriend. Invited by her estranged brother to celebrate his engagement, Elin hoped it might be a chance to build some bridges with him and their shared past, and to decide whether she wanted to continue in the police force. Unfortunately Elin and her ‘problems’ is the main reason why I didn’t particularly enjoy certain aspects of the book, it was her constant anxiety and self doubt that to be honest just got on my nerves. I found her irritating and for a detective always seemed to be stating the blatantly obvious. To be fair though, the ending explains Elin’s anxiety issues so perhaps I was a little harsh.

So to the final chapters and the dénouement. Well, this is where the plot really picked up for me. When everything came together, a very tense part to the book with revelations falling over each other. I loved this bit and my interest really picked up. This is where everything is brought together and there are lots of aha moments. Plus the very end! Wow, not too sure whether I was supposed to know or whether there is potential for a book 2, either way – eeek!! Well worth the slow bits.

3 1/2 stars rounded up to 4.
Review to be posted to my blog nearer to publication date.

I very much get the feeling that The Sanatorium could be the start of a detective series starring Elin, a Devon and Cornwall detective. Elin has been having a really bad time at home and is taking some time off of work. She goes on a holiday to the Alps to meet up with her brother and her oldest friend to celebrate their engagement. This is an atmospheric thriller and the tension really builds. The minimalist hotel, which was a former TB hospital, gets cut off due to bad weather and then bodies start appearing - you get the idea?
I liked the main character and her back story. She was believable and you really want her to find some peace and closure (after she has discovered who the murder is of course!)
I would recommend this book. It was different and held my attention.right to the end.
Thank you to @NetGalley, the publishers and the author Sarah Pearse for the opportunity to read and review #TheSanatorium

The blurb of The Sanatorium suggested that the ghosts of those who were ‘treated’ at the Sanatorium were going to be involved in the disappearance of the women in the hotel...this wasn’t the case.

The book took a whole different turn; not in any way a bad turn but there was a lot going on. Lots of potential killers in quick succession; some family drama and bad weather all mixed together to create a bit of a mish-mash.

I didn’t understand the epilogue, so will have to go back and read that bit again to see what I missed.

Overall the setting was such a good place to create the Sanatorium but the plot didn’t live up to my expectations. That said, there are a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews for this book; so don’t take my word for it! Have a read and see what you think!

Where do I start!? Spine tingling, chilling - this psychological thriller has it all. Add in the grim idea of what happened years past in the hotel when it was a sanatorium, the eerie atmosphere of snowstorms and avalanches and you’ve got the ingredients to keep you up late into the night. That could be because you can’t put the book down or because you’re too scared to put out the light!
This story is just so good and the reveal, when it comes, is complex and unexpected. Even the Epilogue holds a teaser. Can’t wait for this author’s next book.