The Sanatorium was the debut novel by Sarah Pearse, published in 2021.
It was recommended by Richard Osman and Reese Witherspoon, was Waterstones Thriller of the Month and was a number one Sunday Times bestseller.
I therefore had high expectations when I started this book.
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Plot
After facing a tumultuous time in both her professional and personal life, Detective Elin Warner arrives at a beautiful yet eerie hotel in the Swiss Alps. The luxury hotel was recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium and is the location of her estranged brother’s engagement party.
Elin and her brother Isaac have a fractured relationship but she is hoping the celebration could help ease the tensions between them. At the very least she hopes she can get some answers about events from the past.
However, their family drama has to take a backseat when Isaac’s fiancee goes missing and a body is discovered. As the weather worsens, the guests and the staff of the hotel are stranded. The police can’t get to them due to the blizzard and avalanches.
Despite being on extended leave from the British police, Elin takes charge of the situation and liaises with the Swiss police to try and keep everyone safe and find the killer.
The Sanatorium Book Review
With so much hype and attention, I really wanted to love this book.
I did enjoy the beginning. The creepy, atmospheric setting and close-door thriller/mystery storyline were so promising. However, I felt the plot deteriorated the more I read on.
To the author’s credit, I found the setting of an old sanatorium in the Swiss Alps to be the perfect location for a murder mystery. Although I can’t imagine anyone ever thinking an old sanatorium would be a great place for a luxury hotel!
I loved how creepy and atmospheric the setting was and that was maintained well throughout the book. The sterility of the hotel and its medical past was intensified by the snow that contained them during the blizzard.
However, it’s the characters I struggled with. Elin, supposedly a talented police officer, was just hopeless. Her detective “skills” seemed to be based on selecting people at random and deciding they must be the killer.
She missed obvious clues and made some questionable decisions. If she was just your average hotel resident you could probably forgive her naivety but as a detective? Completely farcical.
We were then expected to believe she noticed a minute detail that lead her to discovering the truth, when the glaringly obvious facts eluded her.
I disliked both her boyfriend, Will, and her brother Isaac. I found them both to be quite manipulating. The other characters just weren’t explored enough for me to form a proper opinion.
The mystery itself was actually quite good and I didn’t predict the outcome. However, I felt the setting and the plot line just deserved a better delivery, or at least better characters.
Not all ends were tied up but there has been a sequel, The Retreat, which may shed a bit more light on the more ambiguous moments.
However, I’m not sure I’ll be rushing to read the sequel as I was so disappointed with the original.
Has Sarah Pearse written any other novels?
Sarah Pearse has written three books in the Detective Elin Warner series.
- The Santatorium (2021)
- The Retreat (2022)
- The Wilds (2024)
What should I read after The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse?
If you enjoyed The Sanatorium, I’d recommend reading the rest of the books in the Detective Elin Warner series. You may also like The Long Weekend by Gilly Macmillan and Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena as they both have a similar “trapped with a killer” feel to them.