Review: The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

Review: The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

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Audiobook, detective elin warner series, First in a Series, mystery, penguin audio, Reviews, sarah pearse, suspense, the sanatorium, thriller

The Sanatorium

by Sarah Pearse

Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden

Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publish Date: February 2, 2021
Audiobook
11 hrs 59 min
Series: Detective Elin Warner #1
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

You won't want to leave. . . until you can't.

Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel.

An imposing, isolated getaway spot high up in the Swiss Alps is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But Elin's taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept.

Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge--there's something about the hotel that makes her nervous. And when they wake the following morning to discover Laure is missing, Elin must trust her instincts if they hope to find her. With the storm closing off all access to the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic.

Elin is under pressure to find Laure, 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 are all in. . . 

My Review:

Welcome to the hotel Le Sommet - where you can enter.. but you can never leave....

Who else loves a good gothic setting at an abandoned sanatorium turned hotel?! Me Me ME! Pearse does an amazing job bringing us the atmosphere we need to truly feel like we are there with Elin.  I am truly fascinaed with the past and the terrible things that happened at these kinds of places.  Imagine your husband or father putting you into a place claiming you had tuberculosis (which you may or may not have had) just to undergo experiments - whether it's collapsing a lung or something even more sinister.  #heebiejeebies Of course, this dies down as all things eventually do and now we have our setting - welcome to the new (and improved?) hotel ... which is a character all in itself.

The mystery aspect of this is a lot of fun. I love it when history presents itself in the... well... present. Elin as a detective on extended leave for her PTSD ends up way out of her jurisdiction but when you're isolated, miles from anyone else, with no way out - it may just be up to her to dig deep within herself to use her skills to figure out what the hell is going on - as she has a very personal stake in the outcome.

Appluase for Pearse for a debut novel well done.  There's definitely some implausabilities .. but it's a work of fiction and I was more here for the FEEL of the novel, rather than the many details, if that makes sense.  There's one scene at the end that had me scratching my head because I'm SO CURIOUS - so yes, I'll definitely be reading the next book.  I can't wait to see Pearse grow as a writer and get to know Elin a bit more - because I have a feeling she's going to be showing us readers a side worth waiting for.

★★★★

Audiobook, detective elin warner series, First in a Series, mystery, penguin audio, Reviews, sarah pearse, suspense, the sanatorium, thriller

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