Cover Image: The Retreat

The Retreat

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

This book was everything I hoped it would it be.
I was hooked quickly and completely unwilling to put this down. I devoured this book in just one sitting. I have no regrets and can’t wait to read more by this author.

Was this review helpful?

There are far too many characters in this story. It became confusing. The pace was slow and I became a bit bored in places. The writing style was good and the description of the setting was excellent. Average read

Was this review helpful?

A twisty, engaging, page turner. Another gripping thriller and story line from Sarah Pearse. I can't wait for the next one!!

Was this review helpful?

I must apologise for not reviewing this one earlier, I thought I had. I loved the first book in this series and enjoyed catching up with DI Elin Warner. I felt like this story has been done before and had similar traits to several other books I’ve read recently. The setting was set well and it was easy to visualise, but I certainly don’t want to visit it!!

Was this review helpful?

This is the second book in the Detective Erin Warner series and after reading "The Sanatorium" which I loved, I could not wait to start this book.

Detective Erin Warner is called out to a wellness retreat on an island off the English coast. A woman's body has been found on the rocks below the yoga pavilion. The victim is not a guest and it at first appears to be a tragic fall, but when a second person dies the next day, Erin suspects something more heinous is occurring.

The island itself has a dark past, the locals call it "Reaper's Rock" once the playground of a serial killer and rumoured to be cursed.

This book had me hooked me from the start with a creepy feeling throughout.

A compelling read full of drama and suspense.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

Fantastic book, a dance of secrets and surprises, this heart-stopping thriller invites you to venture into a world of mystery that will leave you breathless.

Was this review helpful?

A follow up to the first book in what will be a series of books based on a female detective. The last book ended SPOILER ALERT!! with someone stalking Erin. So I was desperate to read this. It’s a great standalone but I’d definitely recommend reading The Sanatorium first.

Was this review helpful?

As soon as I picked up Sarah Pearse's The Retreat, I was instantly intrigued by the promise of an idyllic wellness retreat with a dark and mysterious past. The book did not disappoint.

Set on an island off the coast of Devon, known as Reaper's Rock, The Retreat follows DS Elin Warner as she investigates the suspicious death of a woman found below the yoga pavilion. What at first seems like a tragic accident quickly turns into a complex web of secrets, lies, and past traumas that haunt the island to this day.

Pearse masterfully weaves together a suspenseful and atmospheric thriller that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very end. Her attention to detail and intricate plot development ensure that every twist and turn is both surprising and believable, leaving readers guessing until the very end.

One of the things I loved most about The Retreat was Pearse's use of setting. Reaper's Rock, with its stunning natural beauty and eerie history, feels like a character in its own right. Its past traumas and the curse that haunts it add an extra layer of tension to the already gripping plot.

DS Elin Warner is also a compelling and relatable protagonist. Her dedication to solving the case, even in the face of danger and personal turmoil, is admirable and keeps the reader invested in her story.

Overall, I highly recommend The Retreat to anyone looking for a well-crafted thriller that will keep them guessing until the very end. Sarah Pearse has once again proven herself to be a master of suspense and storytelling, and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next. As for braving The Retreat this summer? I'll leave that up to the readers to decide.

Was this review helpful?

3.5 ⭐
#TheRetreat by #SarahPearce is stronger than her first offering in #TheSanatorium but I'm still not completely convinced by the storytelling. The writing and the ideas work but there's just something not quite there- yet. One element Pearce uses that I'm not a big fan of regardless of who uses it, is the ultra quick wrap up, straight into an epilogue.
■■SPOILER■■
Both books, featuring DS Elin Warner have finished the same way. It wasn't necessary the first time but Pearce has built on the idea for this book. Sadly, it's both too little and too much to be convincing. I hope, if there's a third installment, readers are given some answers.

Thanks to @randomhouse and @netgalley for the free e-ARC in return for an unbiased review.

Was this review helpful?

I liked Pearse's first book - 'The Sanatorium' - because of the claustrophobic atmosphere and the edge-of-your-seat tension levels. I had high hopes for this book, 'The Retreat', as this marks the return of detective Elin Warner in a different but equally remote setting.

This book is set on an island off the Devon coast which has been made into a wellness getaway. The island has a sinister past - a school with a dodgy history, the creepy 'Reaper's Rock' and a series of brutal murders - but that hasn't stopped the LUMEN developers from making it a luxury retreat. When an accident happens at the resort - a fatal fall from the island's yoga pavilion - DS Elin Warner is called in to investigate. Struggling with her own past trauma, she begins to uncover some of the island's deadly secrets as both the tension and the bodies begin to stack up...

Pearse, as with her first novel, manages the tension of the setting brilliantly - what starts out as a luxurious guest experience soon becomes a nightmare because of the events and the inhospitable weather moving in. The island is remote and cut off from the mainland - all the better to host a potential serial killer.

It was also good to see DS Elin Warner again - I liked 'The Sanitorium' but felt she could be more developed as a character and here she is! I liked that she stepped up to investigate in this book - she wasn't the default detective on site, but insisted she was up to the job even though she was still working through her own troubles. She also had a personal link to the island as her husband, Will, was on the design team and his sister, Farrah, worked there - this made the stakes feel higher with regards to what was happening.

The key guests on the island - centring around a family group - were much harder to like! There were a fair few sisters and husbands/partners, plus a cousin, and I did sometimes forget who was who. Some of them were quite unsympathetically portrayed - although none of this stopped me from engaging with their stories, their secrets and lies.

I liked the more investigative/police procedural elements of the novel best - there are some great little twists in there, including at least one revelation that really threw my amateur detecting. There's some sections of the book where Elin is going it alone when I felt that the tension was unbearably high. As usual, I suspected everyone and didn't see the final denouement until it came - exactly as it should be.

I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys a well-managed, tense and atmospheric thriller with a solid police procedural at its heart. I was pleased to meet Elin Warner again, but I also think that new readers to the series wouldn't struggle to follow the story without having read 'The Sanitorium'. I think I liked this second instalment better than the first and I'm looking forward to book three.

Was this review helpful?

An isolated location, creepy history with murders in the background. What can go wrong?

Detective Elin is back to investigate the crimes. I love how she acknowledges her limitations, yet she tries her best to solve the case.

A family group arrives on the island, and pretty quickly things get nasty. Secrets and betrayal come to life, when one person after another disappears.

The book is really well-ploted, it's quite dark and tense. A fast-paced story which makes you want to continue until you find out what is really going on.

I liked The Sanatorium, and I think The Retreat was even better. I can't wait what else the author brings to us!

Was this review helpful?

As much as I was a fan of the first novel in this series I’m not sure that it should have been a follow up. Bit odd and too many characters made me lose interest at the beginning and I had to fight to get through it

Was this review helpful?

I really enjoyed The Sanitorium by Sarah Pearse, and did not realise when I started The Retreat, that I would revisit the character of Detective Elin Warner.

Both books have a similar premise: murders take place in isolated areas which means that flawed, damaged Elin Warner is forced to investigate cases, which perhaps should not be handled by someone with her limitations. The setting is glorious and atmospheric, in a similar way to The Sanitorium, and works perfectly for this story. There were lots of twists and most were not predictable until the end when there was practically no-one left; however, for me, the idea of Jo, Bea et al, all holidaying together felt forced and a little unconvincing from the start.

I felt like I have read similar story lines to this before and there was something a little clunky about some of the reveals and the backstories as to why they were there.

Having said that this didn't quite work for me, I will be keen to read the next in the series to see how Elin develops. Her personal life and her professional life is a bit of a mess and I'd like to see her being a detective without almost being thrust in uncomfortable situations to see her more triumphant and less of a chancer.

Was this review helpful?

The Retreat

I wasn't a huge fan of The Sanatorium and Elin but wanted to give her a 2nd chance because the premise on this looked great.

A creepy island with a rock shaped like a Reaper...where bad things happen. This book is so atmospheric and you almost get a horror movie vibe from it. Everything is gradually creeping up on you and there were a few times the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Full points for atmosphere and world building. Really could visualise and feel the energy of that island.

Elin is still a tricky character. She doesn't seem that good at her job, she takes really silly risks and it takes her a long time to find out anything.

This book did surprise me in a few places..
The deaths come thick and fast. The deaths were very well done and all unique and jarring. I appreciated that.

There is some brilliant ideas here and then some easy reasoning to make them work which is frustrating. The reason for no back up could have been so much more. I am not convinced that the police force wouldn't send back up to a series of murders though because they were dealing with an road traffic accident! There were also a few coincidences that just felt a bit too easy.

I enjoyed this much more than the 1st book and would definitely like to read the next one.

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

Was this review helpful?

I really enjoyed The Sanitarium by the same author so was very keen to request and read this one. Unfortunately I’m left with very mixed feelings. Firstly it felt very long with some chapters dragging on and not much happening. I was stuck in a dilemma of it being interesting enough to not want to DNF but also not interesting enough for me to want to pick it up and read it. It took me just over a week to read. Don’t get me wrong when things started to come together it was interesting but the big reveal didn’t feel much like a big reveal, there was only 3 characters left at the end so it was fairly obvious who the killer was IMO. I did like the added twist at the end but it also confused me why that wasn’t looked into further by the detective 🤷🏻‍♀️ all in all a fairly good time, the writing was good, I just wasn’t sold on the story.

Was this review helpful?

I enjoyed reading this, characters were very believable and I loved the storyline. Gripping, interesting and recommended, the story came alive in my mind
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers and the author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion

Was this review helpful?

An idyllic location with a less than ideal history, what could possibly go wrong..? It turns out, quite a lot actually! I really enjoyed the first book in the Detective Elin Warner series, The Sanatorium, so I couldn’t wait to dive into book 2, The Retreat.

This one has a very different feel to The Sanatorium, but is no less tense. When our main family group arrives on the island we quite quickly get the impression that all is not particularly well with the group dynamic. And the events of the first few chapters only serve to bring this into even more sharp focus. After Elin Warner arrives things go from bad to worse and I was left wondering whether anyone would get to the end of the book completely unscathed.

DS Warner is a fascinating character and I was really glad to see her back in this new novel. Though this is her second case, I’d say you needn’t have read The Sanatorium to fully enjoy The Retreat. It works perfectly well as a standalone.

The Retreat is a really well-plotted, atmospheric and tense thriller, which I very much enjoyed. With thanks to Bantam Press for gifting me a digital copy to review.

Was this review helpful?

Many thanks to the publishing team for my digital copy for a review
This was my second read from the author. I really enjoyed The Sanatorium so knew I would be in for treat for The Retreat.
A really engaging book with lots of action and suspense, but it wasn't an overly fast paced book. The author did a good job threading in different themes from friendships, loss, relationships and and jealousy amongst one of the emotions. It was weaved throughout the different characters up until the build up. A mixture of characters that each hold their own story and hidden agenda just added that extra layer of suspicion.

Was this review helpful?

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I have chosen to write this honest review voluntarily and it reflects my personal opinion.
I haven't read the previous book in the series but there are reference to what has gone before so I didn't feel that I had missed anything crucial. There are many descriptions of the feeling of threat on the island so it's astonishing the resort is so popular. There are evidently ill-feelings between the group of friends as well as the actual murder story which is spread over a period of time due to historical murders in the area. The setting and characters are English so American spellings were misplaced, and frequent references to 'acid', 'bile', nausea and vomit began to make me feel sick. There were many twists, including at the end causing a cliffhanger, but I felt that the book was overlong, pages of wind, sea, flying objects and noise of the storm were unnecessary, we understand there's a storm! I probably won't read any more of the series.

Was this review helpful?

I read Sarah’s debut novel; The Sanatorium, last year and although I really enjoyed it there were a few things that held it back from getting the 5 stars from me - mainly the ‘what happened to the bodies’ question that I kept going back to. While I was reading it though I got accepted to read her second book on Netgalley and I have finally got around to reading it.

The drama and tension in this is extreme, you feel like you are on the island with Elin and need to watch your back as well, I think we all know how it feels when you think someone’s watching you and this is what this book delivers tenfold. It did take me a few chapters to get into the pace of the book but once you do there’s no stopping and you’ll want to pick this up every day.

I have to admit, I didn’t have a clue who the killer was in this at any point, my theories switched between people quote a few times but I never struck gold, I also didn’t see the finale coming either!

Like with the Sanatorium, Pearse finishes this book with a question and some unfinished business that leaves you wanting more… Elgin’s story isn’t over yet and I’m now eager to get reading her next instalment! If you’d struck this off after reading The Sanatorium then I would recommend giving this a chance as it definitely got me going!!!!

Was this review helpful?