The Sanatorium
Detective Elin Warner #1
Mystery & Thrillers
Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Bantam Press
18 Feb 2021
3/5
Netgalley
Neh
‘At first glance they’re magnificent, yet the more she looks, the more she realizes how sinister the mountains appear: raw, jagged spikes. It’s not hard to imagine, she thinks, looking out; this place somehow consuming someone, swallowing them whole.’
An imposing, isolated hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But she's taken time off from her job as a detective, so when she receives an invitation out of the blue to celebrate her estranged brother’s recent engagement, she has no choice but to accept.
Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. Though it’s beautiful, something about the hotel, recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium, makes her nervous – as does her brother, Isaac.
And when they wake the following morning to discover his fiancée Laure has vanished without a trace, Elin’s unease grows. With the storm cutting off access to and from the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic.
But no one has realized yet that another woman has gone missing. And she’s the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they’re all in . . .
Oof… here’s a tough one. I feel Pearse somewhere derailed and didn’t find her tracks back. It starts off interesting but along the way towards the end the story goes under, and the mystery looses it’s interest.
You know those big pieces of fireworks you’re really excited about and after lighting, it goes ‘psssssssst’? Yes? Ok, you know the feeling…