Loved this. Pacing was spot on. Mystery unravelled slowly, with enough red herrings to keep you from guessing who the perpetrator is. Setting was great, with enough tense atmosphere to keep you turning the pages.

Detective Elin Warner #2

‘There’s something rotten here’….

Health retreat Lumen has opened on Cary Island, Devon but the island has a dark past. Locals call it Reapers Rock believing malevolence lingers there and that it is cursed which is very understandable since the Creacher murders in which some teenagers were murdered while on a school Outward Bound trip several years ago. In the present day Elin and DC Steed are called to the island when a woman’s body is found. Initially they think it’s an accident but that is to change as more evidence emerges. Is the past catching up with the present?

First of all, the setting is good and allows the author to create some intriguing situations and for things to connect between the past and the present. Elin’s personality and character comes across quite well although she’s clearly struggling with issues from the previous case, she does show resilience and some toughness here which is good to see.

Unfortunately the pace is very slow until the last part of the book and it’s very hard to get into the way that it’s written as it lacks the tension and suspense that we should be feeling and it’s just a bit flat. There are statements in italics which are Elin‘s thoughts are often bland or statements of the obvious I’m not keen on those at all.

Ultimately, I think there’s too much going on in this and you end up not being able to see the wood for the trees. It misses the mark for me, it’s not a bad read but it’s one that won’t linger along in the mind.

PS If you think about what has previously occurred on the island would you consider going there on a retreat???! Don’t think I would!

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Random House UK, Transworld for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

I’ve really been looking forward to The Retreat after loving Sarah Pearse’s debut novel The Sanatorium. I have to admit I wondered if she could do it again, and she has.
We again meet Erin Warner who first appeared in The Sanatorium and it was good to have a shorthand to her vulnerability as a character, but you don’t need to have read The Sanatorium to get maximum enjoyment from this book.

I was hooked from literally the first page to the last. It begins with a horrible death, of course. I love the way Sarah doesn’t shy away from the gore and horror, and yet it doesn’t feel gratuitous. Although, as someone who loves gritty thrillers, this might just be me.
DS Erin Warner arrives at a wellness centre on an isolated island and becomes embroiled in the events that follow and the island’s secrets right up to the thrilling climax.

I loved it and would highly recommend.

Sarah Pearse really knows how to create an eerie atmosphere, a group of people stranded due of bad weather with no help other than Detective Elin Warner and her new partner. I won’t be going into too much detail as I didn’t even read the synopsis for this book, I enjoy my thrillers the most when I go into them blind.

The Story itself had so many twists and turns, there were many times that I thought I had it solved only for the rug to be pulled from under me. There were similarities in the structure from The Sanatorium but I didn’t mind that. I love that not everything was tied up in a nice ribbon for us, some things were left to possibly continue in book three.

The only reason I couldn’t give this book the full five stars is because I felt like it was missing a little something, it just didn’t wow me.
Sarah Pearse has cemented herself as an auto buy author for me.

I gave The sanatorium 3 stars, enjoyable in parts but also frustrating. Despite this, I thought id give The Retreat a try but main character Elin was still annoying,
I wasn’t overly fussed on anything happening in the book untill around 50% in when things started picking up.
I initially struggled to keep track of the characters and still don’t really know how everyone ties together.
Parts of the story dragged on then it all seemed to be rushed in the epilogue but I’m still left with unanswered questions. I will not continue with this series but if you enjoyed the first book you’ll probably enjoy this one too, just not for me 😊.
* Spoiler - Stay tuned for book 3 where Elin will run off doing something stupid alone and gets hurt again

I received an advanced review copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The second in Sarah Pearse's Detective Elin Warner series, The Retreat follows a similar premise to her previous novel The Sanatorium - an isolated but newly developed luxury hotel built somewhere with a sinister past. This time the setting is an island, formerly the setting of a mass murder and an abusive boarding school, where the guests are meeting an untimely end. Our troubled detective, newly restored to the job after a trauma-induced career break, is called to the scene alongside a reliable sidekick Steed. Despite the similar premise this is still a pacy page turner. I couldn't out it down. It also is very atmospheric - quite chilling at times. I really hope there will be another in the series as they're a great read.

The retreat is very fast paced you become attached to everyone, everyone has a reason but it keeps you guessing right to last pages.
Will certainly be looking other books by this author.

A disjointed family arrive for a mini break,on a newly opened designer retreat, for a chance to catch up after a pretty traumatic time. It was supposed to be a relaxing time but even before they arrive the two sisters Jo and Hannah are having disagreements. And when on the first morning a body is discovered the unsetlements are heightened.
But when the body discovered was someone who shouldn't even have been on the island suspicions are raised.
Elin Warner is called in to solve the case but when another death is reported she discovers there is something more sinister afoot.
I enjoyed this novel, there was plenty of intruige and suspicions and with everyone acting strangely it was hard to know who to trust. I hadn't read The Sanitorium, but this didn't prevent me from understanding Elin's character. I would enoy reading more from Sarah

I really enjoyed Pearse's debut novel, 'The Sanatorium', so I was very excited to receive an ARC of The Retreat.
The book featured troubled detective Elin Warner again.
Set on an island off the Devon coast, the retreat of the title is a luxury eco-resort. Many years prior to the building of the resort, several brutal murders were committed on the island and the perpetrator is currently locked away.
When a guest staying at the resort is found murdered, followed by another, Elin starts to question whether the right person was locked the first time.
This book fell a little short for me. I felt it dragged on after we found out who the killer was, and I lost interest - although I did finish it.

Another fabulous novel by Sarah Pearse, fast becoming a favourite author, I'm really very impressed with how established her writing feels by only her second thriller.

<i> Elin Warner is still having a hard time, and isn't quite ready for the intense and consuming nature of her role as a police officer, when she is thrust back into the role with a bang. A body has been discovered on a tiny island near her home and she's been asked to check it out. What follows is murder and mayhem, with guests at the island retreat seemingly dropping like flies and a haunted back story to the island, that just muddys the waters. </i>

Sarah Pearse has a wonderful knack of creating this larger than life character out of her location. We saw it in THE SANATORIUM and we are seeing it again with THE RETREAT. The setting is a character in itself and very much makes the book what it is. So much description and mystery surround this historical island, that we don't need much more than that to have ourselves a story.

Elin is great, we root for her the whole time. She seems vulnerable and empathetic, and you can't help but really get behind her. Of course, the rumpled detective with a haggard past is a staple of a good mystery novel, but it's done really well here and I like how it feels quite fresh - she's a woman, she's relatively young, she'd in a stable (albeit slightly disjointed) relationship and she knows she isn't quite ready to be back at work after her 'sabbatical'.

Overall a fantastic book and one I would recommend to everyone who enjoys a good thriller, and if you enjoyed Sarah's first novel then this will be right up your street.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in return for a review. Great book twisting and thrilling at the same time. Would've been better to read The Sanatorium however the book hit many spots in the genre and was a must recommend to others.

The writing and the story: 5 stars
My enjoyment: 2 stars

I love Sarah Pearse's writing style, she is great with articulation and certainly can weave a story.
But one genre I don't read is crime.
It just doesn't hold my attention.

The sanatorium was a gothic thriller i think, and i really enjoyed that. The point of views were often that of the victims', so we were present at the time of murder. It was very atmospheric.

The retreat didn't have any of that. Bodies turned up and investigation ensued. Yawn. But that's just me - for any crime lover it is a fantastic book, which i highly recommend.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. This was an excellent read.
Thoroughly recommended although I thought The Sanatorium was better..

This was really similar to the sanitorium and was a pretty standard locked room thriller. It's well written and definitely ramps up the tension and such. I f9und it a bit slow and dragging in a lot of parts but if you can get past those then it's a pretty decent read. It wasn't reinventing the wheel by any means but it is still enjoyable, even if a little bit overreaching and overdone

DS Elin Warner is back!

I loved The Sanatorium, Sarah Pearse’s atmospheric debut, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on her follow up, The Retreat.

An island with a dark past has been reborn into LUMEN, aluxury wellness retreat, complete with yoga pavilion and executive villas. Unfortunately, relaxation is the last thing on anyone’s mind after a body is found at the bottom of a cliff. A storm is brewing, both on the horizon and with the guesys themselves…

Pearse has a way of drawing in the reader within just a few pages. Not only was I excited to meet Elin once more, my attention was immediately grabbed by the tensions between guests on the island, Jo and Hannah. Despite being sisters, the animosity and distrust pours off them, and truly sets the scene for a tense and twisted thriller.

The isolated location harks back to classic Christie; a locked room style mystery with suspects dropping like flies. The encroaching storm adds to the atmosphere and adds an obvious sense of foreboding to the going on at LUMEN.

The sinister history the island, and the infamous Reaper’s Rock, is an inspired, Gothic element which hangs over the island like a spectre, tainting all within its grasp.

Pearse is the queen of misdirection, leading us one way before pivots so suddenly you’re left gasping. The devil truly is in the detail!

I like Elin, I find her flawed but capable. Brimming with self-doubt but determined to a fault. I can’t wait to see where Pearse takes Elin next, so I’m keeping everything crossed for a third book!

The Retreat is out August 2022. Thanks to Bantam Press and NetGalley for the proof!

After reading The Sanatorium, and then discovering that a second book was on the way featuring main character DS Elin Warner, I was excited to receive this early ebook of The Retreat. The Retreat is set on an island off the coast of Devon, where there has been an apparent accident, but things don't quite add up. Step in DS Warner.

I found the book to be fast-paced, with plenty of twists and turns. I can usually sense where a book is going quite early on, but with this, I genuinely didn't have a clue until nearing the end. I enjoyed the character building and the claustrophobic setting, and I finished wanting to know more.

I can't wait to see what else Sarah Pearse has coming in the future.

I enjoyed Sarah’s ‘the sanatorium’ so when I received a message about early access to The retreat I was thrilled.

It had a very similar storyline, a murder in a remote location, no help from outside and the detective left to herself. It was a great setting, I could really picture the scenery, the rock and hotel.

There was a great mixture of characters, the storyline overall was enjoyable and the twists were good.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin random house UK for early access to this book.

Thank

In the follow up to The Sanatorium (2021), we join Detective Elin Warner on her next case: a mysterious death on an island with a terrible past where not one but two spectres hover over the new retreat.

Whilst there are plenty of twists and turns, as with The Sanatorium this is a story with unseen motives: we never have the full picture. The multiple layers – the old school, the teen murders, the current retreat – and the various new identities or secret links to the island make it difficult for the reader to form theories or guess the truth.

This is especially the case when combined with the past of the island is mixed with several tragedies in that of the family who are guests on the island: Jo with a secret she can’t tell her sister; Maya with a terrible suspicion about the past; and Hana who is lost in the depths of grief.

A complex story which ends up overreaching as multiple intertwined crimes and sins unfurl and leave the reader lagging behind.

This is the perfect sequel to The Sanatorium. The location is equally isolated qnd creates that intense 'cabin fever' feel. It was great to see Elin develop further but it still leaves enough unanswered to have me longing for a sequel. The plot is engaging with plenty of twists and turns and drama. I'll definitely be recommending it to people like I did with the first.

Whilst the reader may well see the way in which the plot is headed this will in no way detract from the sheer reading pleasure of this tale. A eerie, atmospheric thriller that will have you looking over your shoulder as you read. A wonderfully chilling story.