#Spooktober ‘The Sanatorium’ by Sarah Pearse

About the book…

‘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 . . .

Hugest and warmest of thanks to Bantam Press for approving me via Netgalley to read ‘The Sanatorium’, which is out in February 2021! You will need at least 2 hot water bottles, 3 blankets and an optional spaniel to sit on you to stay warm whilst reading this Swiss set thriller.

The ghosts of the past cast hideously long shadows as, despite protests and disruption from the locals, Lucas and Cecile try to turn a local resort for those trying to recover from tuberculosis in the early part of the twentieth century, into a chic, minimalist hotel/spa resort.

It would not be my personal idea of heaven to spend a holiday in a place decorated like a memorial to minimalism, glass cases displaying vintage ‘spitoons’ and hospital-esque decor sounds a bit too much like a busman’s holiday for this nurse. It doesn’t appear to be Elin and finacee Will’s idea of a much needed break either, as Elin is on extended sabbatical from her role as a detective after a case went hideously wrong.

What could be better than visiting your estranged brother,Isaac, and best friend,Laure, who are getting married, in a remote Swiss hotel?

Well let me tell you what is worse…the discovery of a body in a pool, the thawed remains of another and the prospect of an approaching storm which leaves the remaining visitors, staff and owners trapped. And then someone attempts to drown Elin. As the only police contact within the hotel, the Swiss police ask her to be their eyes and ears on  the ground until they can get there.

Suddenly, Elin’s hand is forced and the decision about whether to return to work is taken out of her control, much to the consternation of Will. As she investigates , the shared history that she and her brother have,rears it’s ugly head and the surrounding mountains, far from being a landscape of possibility and remoteness, suddenly seem weaponised against the trapped inhabitants of the hotel.

Elin has to turn inwards, evaluating her and Isaac’s childhood trauma in order to work out just what is going on here, but is she so determined to find out the truth that she doesn’t fully appreciate that the consequences could be life changing?

There is an underlying psychological cat and mouse came played between author and reader, that mirrors the narrative between Elin and the killer, as the plot escalates with surgical precision-the editing and storytelling is so on point that this is absolutely not a book to start with the promise of reading to the end of page xyz before lights out. Oh to hell with it, when did I ever take my own advice?!

But please take my advice on not researching masks used in days gone by,as that is just plain terrifying.

That this is a debut novel was shocking to me, the pacing of the chapters and the compulsive narrative swept me away and it’s no exaggeration to say that it gave me chills. Overshadowed by the ghosts of the past, the secluded location provides a claustrophobic atmosphere in which all the events and feelings expereinced by the main characters are magnified. It is a race against time to prevent more deaths, escape an oncoming avalanche and restore an equilibrium to damaged relationships. That’s a really tall order for damaged detective, Elin. The reason I included ‘The Sanatorium’ as #Spooktober read is because it is both haunting and haunted. It is like the Marsten House, or The Overlook where these buildings exist as conduits to evil, they are the background, the stage, if you will, for the characters to play their parts out on.

There are some places in the world that just give you the creeps without even being able to tangibly realise where that sensation is coming from-Le Sommet is exactly one of those places. The misery and pain that was carried out in the name of science and research into a deadly disease echoes terribly the situation in which we find ourselves in. So check in at your peril, sometimes the disease is better than the cure…

About the author…

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 and still has a home 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.

Twitter @SarahVPearse @BantamPress

Links-https://www.pennlive.com/news/2015/11/white_death_memories_from_pa_n.html

https://www.thelocal.ch/20171023/the-spookiest-places-in-switzerland

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/tuberculosis-sanatoriums-were-quarantine-experiment/608335/