My #Review of #TheSanatorium by @SarahVPearse published by @TransworldBooks

A beautiful, eerie hotel in the Swiss Alps, recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium, is the last place Detective Elin Warner wants to be. But her estranged brother has invited her there for his engagement party, and she feels she has no choice but to accept.

Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. And things only get worse when they wake the next morning to find her brother’s fiancée is missing. With access to the hotel cut off, the guests begin to panic.

But this is only the first disappearance. Everyone’s in danger – and anyone could be next . . .

Well, I’ve had The Sanatorium sitting on my bookshelf for almost a year, and during the Christmas break I decided to read some of those books that I should have read months ago!

So let’s dive in! I loved The Sanatorium for the first chapter – I have to say that I’m not one for reading creepy books, but The Sanatorium was breathtakingly creepy and gave me the shivers from the outset. The first chapter’s description of the old Sanatorium, high up in the desolate and bleak mountain setting, whilst it is being remodelled into a Hotel, with one person wandering around it almost made the hairs on the back of my neck stick up and when that chapter climaxes….well suffice to say it made me jump!

This is a fairly fast-paced locked-room mystery set in a vast modern hotel that has a dark history, we have our lead character Elin Warner who is there to meet her estranged Brother who is celebrating an engagement, Elin has her own demons to deal with but as a British Police Detective, she unwittingly gets pulled into a game of cat and mouse with a desperate and scary killer, all the while without any outside help as a snowstorm has shut down any access to the Hotel Le Somnet.

I loved this book so much, it held my attention the whole way thru, I didn’t guess the outcome which is always a bonus, but the buildup and twisty turn of events to the climax, made this a great thrilling read, and due to the setting (which is exquisitely described) was pretty dark and spooky. I liked that we saw the flaws in the main character and her own story and her Brothers was intertwined with the main plot.

A superb book and a storyline that will stay with me for a while…..then ending lead’s me to believe there may be a follow -up? Maybe?

A 5 Star read

Sarah Pearse lives by the sea in South Devon with her husband and two daughters. She studied English and Creative Writing at the University of Warwick and worked in Brand PR for a variety of household brands. After moving to Switzerland in her twenties, she spent every spare moment exploring the mountains in the Swiss Alpine town of Crans Montana, the dramatic setting that inspired her novel. Sarah has always been drawn to the dark and creepy – remote spaces and abandoned places – so when she read an article in a local Swiss magazine about the history of sanatoriums in the area, she knew she’d found the spark of the idea for her debut novel, The Sanatorium. Her short fiction has been published in a wide variety of magazines and has been shortlisted for several prizes.

You can buy The Sanatorium in various formats HERE

You can follow Sarah on Twitter HERE Instagram HERE Facebook HERE

And Sarah’s Website HERE

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