Thrilling, dark and tantalizing: The Sanatorium

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse has been all over my feed for the past few weeks and I can confirm that it is absolutely worth it. Not only is this thriller full of cut-throat suspense but twists and turns that have you on the edge of your seat.

I'll give you a quick summary, without any spoilers so you can get the same nail-biting experience that I did when I picked up my copy. Elin is invited to her brother, Isaac, and his fiance's engagement party in Switzerland at the cutting edge hotel, Le Sommet. But Elin and her brother haven't spoken in years, and there's a dark family history between them, bubbling with pain and unspoken accusations. However, there's a deeper horror within the essence of the hotel itself with its warped collusion of modern architecture and gothic splendor from its days as a sanitorium. A day into Elin's stay, Laure, Isaac's fiance, has gone missing. Elin is forced back into her role as detective, and she begins to realise that all the shiny glass and bright lights of this luxury hotel can't hide the bad blood.

'This was a place where people had struggled with illness, a place where people died. It made sense, now, her brother celebrating his engagement here. This place, like Isaac, is all about facades.' (The Sanatorium, p.23)

This book is fast-paced and sharp. You're thrust from one revelation to the next through Pearse's neat and precise pen. I've never come across a thriller so well-written and thoughtful. The details are so specific and clever that you don't realise you've missed all the clues until the end, and even then you're left with a tantalising epilogue that has you hungering for more. I promise you that this is a must-read, and if you're planning on taking a trip to the Alps, you won't be able to see it the same way.