The Sanatorium

I listened to this book on my morning walks, and I’m sure that the other walkers I encountered must have wondered about my head shaking and eye rolling. There is just so much wrong with this novel.

Elin Warner, a police detective on leave because she suffers panic attacks after a botched investigation, and her boyfriend travel to Le Sommet, a remote luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps, to attend the engagement party of her estranged brother Isaac. Her attendance is not to celebrate but to confront Isaac about the death of their brother Sam many years ago because she suspects Isaac was responsible.

Shortly after their arrival, Isaac’s fiancée Laure goes missing and another woman is found dead. Because of snowstorms and an avalanche, the show more Swiss police cannot come to the hotel, so Elin offers to investigate. Bodies pile up in this locked-room mystery. The creep factor is that the hotel, though almost completely renovated, was once a sanatorium for people with tuberculosis.

What irritated me more than anything is how inept and inconsistent Elin is. Sometimes she panics and hesitates, and other times she goes off by herself even when the danger mounts – and despite the fact that not waiting for back-up in an investigation led to her leave of absence from her job. Sometimes it takes her forever to make a deduction: a body is found with hands and feet bound, and wearing a gas mask, and with amputated fingers, yet it is only the presence of sandbags that prompts her to conclude that this death was not an accident?! She ignores obvious things like the bracelets found on the dead when those are so much a part of the murderer’s signature. At other times, she jumps to conclusions; she suspects at least three different people and is proven incorrect each time. She shares information with everyone, even her brother whom she doesn’t trust, but keeps information from the Swiss police? If this is the way she normally did her work, surely she would have been dismissed for incompetence!

Considering the body count, a strong motive is required, but that is certainly not the case. The explanation given by the killer is so complicated and convoluted that it is just ridiculous. And don’t get me started on the epilogue! The possibilities suggested are all illogical.

The writing style is also annoying. The style is so overwritten as to be overwhelming. Phrases appear again and again, as do descriptions. How many times must the reader’s attention be drawn to the amount of glass in the hotel’s structure? How often does Elin try to grasp at some idea that her mind trips over? All of Elin’s thoughts and emotions are mansplained. And are eyes actually so revealing of one’s state of mind?

The chapters are short and always end with a dramatic, suspenseful line. What is irritating is that the next chapter picks up from exactly the same spot. Why would a conversation be divided into two chapters? This is nothing more than a cheap use of cliffhangers.

Stay away from this mystery unless you like a totally amateurish detective, unsupportive and patronizing male characters, and an unrealistic plot with a nonsensical resolution. The epilogue suggests that there will be a sequel. I regret wasting my time on this book so I will certainly be avoiding any follow-up.

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THE SANATORIUM was probably my most anticipated read for early 2021, but unfortunately it didn’t live up to that delicious creepy gothic cover. This book is very popular now so I don’t want to rehash the plot. Here it is in a nutshell:

Elin Warner, a British detective on leave due to PTSD from a case gone wrong, travels to the Swiss Alps to celebrate her estranged brother Isaac’s engagement at a renovated hotel, previously a sanatorium. She and Isaac have some heavy, unresolved family drama. Not long after Elin arrives, Isaac’s fiancée goes missing, a snowstorm traps them at the hotel, and then dead bodies start piling up. Elin investigates to help out local police, though she lacks jurisdiction?

I love snowstorm thrillers, and I show more appreciated the frozen, isolated setting, especially combined with the hotel’s unsettling history as a tuberculosis hospital. Unfortunately, though, not much else appealed to me. The pacing was slow, I felt detached from the characters, and the culprit’s reason behind the murder spree was too farfetched. And then there’s the confusing epilogue. Meh, not for me. (There are other things I’d like to add about the killer’s reasoning vs the victims and the epilogue vs the rest of the book, but I won’t because of spoilers.) show less

I have learned that I am a huge fan of locked-room mystery novels. Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None and Shari Lapena's An Unwanted Guest are both similar books that I binge read and rated 5 stars...now add The Sanatorium to that list. I do admit that you will have to put all skepticism aside and just go with the story to actually enjoy it--yes, the motives involved may be completely ridiculous and our lead character recklessly runs straight into danger without thinking, but that's just because we're all here to have a good time, man. I definitely understand the horrible reviews but this is my shit and I ate it right up

If I’d been watching The Sanatorium on TV it would have been behind splayed fingers with a large cushion at the ready.
The location of the hotel high up in the Swiss Alps solely accessible via a narrow, vertiginous mountain road, the incessant snowfall giving a nod to total isolation, the glass display cases containing macabre medical memorabilia from the sanatorium era and our first introduction to an anxious, asthmatic and panicky Detective Elin Warner all add to the tense and threatening, claustrophobic and creepy atmosphere.
The super short chapters make the book a compulsive page turner.
The harrowing back stories are slowly revealed to keep the reader guessing and questioning.
All the ingredients for a gripping crime thriller full show more of blood and gore that twists and turns, suggesting suspect after suspect until the grand denouement. Or is this just the beginning? show less

This is a book I wish that I had read a hard copy of-- so that I'd have the satisfaction of throwing it across the room.
The narrator was not likeable and her partner was abusive. The author, however, did not seem to find the partner's behavior to be problematic. Without spoiling anything, the book focuses on a female speaker who is on leave from a career as a detective. Detectives are strongly opinionated, observant, and creative thinkers as a necessity, right? Well. Not this one. She's surrounded by men who belittle and second-guess her. This did not change throughout the book and was worse to me than the quite- hole-y plot. The final chapters of the book introduce new material that had not been even hinted at up to that point. I don't show more find that particularly fair to readers. It makes the rest of the book feel pointless. There were also clues that the author seemed to forget to wrap up in the conclusion like the bloody carpet?!. If you'd like to make a drinking game out of repeated phrases, look for "out of the corner of her eye," "bitter liquid," and "bile rose in the back of her throat". Cheers. show less

This may not be the worst waste of time ever, but it's perilously close. Nothing about it makes any sense under even the smallest amount of scrutiny. The main character has zero redeeming traits. She's supposed to be a Detective, but if there is even the most rudimentary psych eval prior to hiring, this gal would have never made it through the front door. And just to rub salt in the wound, the epilogue (yes, I did actually read it to the end) concludes with some shadowy mystery character stalking her. It's bad. Truly bad. You've been warned.

Just the title of this book is enough to send chills down your spine, isn't it? I love the cover too, which gives off a very eerie vibe.

The Sanatorium was just what it suggests, a clinic for TB sufferers, but now it's a fancy hotel in the Swiss Alps. Elin Warner is there with her boyfriend, Will, to celebrate her brother's engagement. Longstanding family issues mean she hasn't seen Isaac for a while but it's time to try and put those issues to rest and Elin thinks facing it head on is the way forward. She's also on long term leave from her job as a detective and is trying to decide whether she is able to go back to her job.

From the moment Elin and Will arrive everything seems to go wrong. Bad weather, missing people, strange attacks, show more whispering in corners, and just a general sense of unease pervade. This is certainly an atmospheric read with the weather and the sinister feel of the hotel adding an extra dimension to this thriller. The setting really stands out for me.

Once I was into the story I found it hard to put this book down. It's fast-paced, often with cliff-hangers at the end of chapters, so it compelled me to keep reading. Also, every time I thought I knew what was happening a curveball was thrown at me and I really appreciated that element of suspense throughout.

It's hard to believe this is a debut novel. It's plotted so well with twists and turns galore. The hotel is unnerving and its past proves even more so. I think this is very much a plot-led story and so the characters felt kind of secondary to that, but that's often the case with thrillers and isn't a criticism, just an observation.

I enjoyed The Sanatorium very much. I'll most definitely be looking out for Sarah Pearse's next book which I hope will also be suitably chilling. show less