The Sanatorium – Sarah Pearse
EVERYONE’S IN DANGER. ANYONE COULD BE NEXT.
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 . . .
Huge thanks to Thomas Hill at Transworld for a very early look at this chilling thriller due for release in early 2021.
If you have read Stephen King’s The Shining then you can easily understand how terrifying a remote, snowy location can be for a hotel. Rather than a haunted hotel try to imagine a luxury hotel hidden away deep in Swiss Alps in a fully refurbished building which was once a sanatorium. A sanatorium that could treat patients away from any watchful eyes – you can rest assured it has its own dark history.
The Sanatorium in Sarah Pearse’s chilling thriller has been renovated to an unrecognisable form. It is the darling of the archietectural world and the famed architect who has given it new life has ensured a stark simplicity compliments luxury and comfort. Into the frozen mountains comes Elin Warner, a British detective who is currently off work on a period of recouperation and still suffering PTSD after teh death of her younger brother when they were children.
Elin has been invited to stay in Le Sommet by her elder brother Isaac (who appears both strange and estranged). He is celebrating his engagement and asks Elin and her partner Will to join him. As an architect himself, Will is delighted to have the chance to visit Le Sommet but Elin arrives apprehensive.
Her concerns appear to be valid. As Elin and Will arrive at the hotel in the midst of a heavy storm, the reader gets a sneak to another part of the site where one of the staff is about to have an unexpected encounter with a masked figure. One which will see her plucked from the mountainside and held capitve and at the mercy of a stranger. Her terror is palpable but as she sees the mask of the kidnapper more clearly – a rubber facemask with a breathing tube attached – she knows there will be no escape from her past. For the reader this was not the first appearance of the masked villain – we had already been alerted to the danger this sinister figure posed.
As Elin and Will settle in to their room and after Isaac and Elin have an awkward reunion, the storm outside continues and conditions get worse. The Swiss authorities are about to make life more challenging for Elin; they close access to the resort and other than key hotel staff and a handful of guests there is nobody left in Le Sommet. Then a body is found.
The locked-in claustrophobia oozes from the pages and is heightened when it becomes apparent the masked figure is still lurking around the hotel. With a murderer in their midst Erin steps into the fray and tries to offer what help she can but the danger is getting close to home – Isaac’s fiancee is missing and Erin cannot shake her distrust of her older brother. Is it possible Isaac could be a killer?
The Sanatorium is a psychological thriller which will undoubtably please fans of the genre. The isolated setting, the unpenetrable storm and the lurking rubber-faced hidden menace encapsulated the “base under siege” feeling of the classic Patrick Troughton Doctor Who serials I adore so much. A stone-cold page turner which keeps you guessing to the very last page.
The Sanatorium will publish on 4 February through Bantam in hardback, digital and audiobook format. Pre-order your copy today by clicking this handy wee link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B086M9BLF5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0