Book Review: "The Sanatorium" - Modern Mystery with Gothic Flair

The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

Rating: 3.5/5

Genre(s): Gothic, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Crime, Adult

Synopsis: In Sarah Pearse’s debut novel, “The Sanatorium,” Detective Elin Warner has arrived at Le Sommet, a former sanatorium now a luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps, to celebrate her brother’s engagement. Upon her arrival, Elin has a lot on her plate: her mother’s recent death, a difficult case at work that caused her to take time off, the unpacking of childhood trauma, and big decisions to make about her relationship. But Elin’s vacation is anything but relaxing when people, including her brother's fiancé, start to disappear. Completely isolated due to weather, Elin must find the missing persons and solve this mystery before things get worse and more people get hurt.

Review: Overall, this is a gripping mystery with several interesting twists and an intriguing setting. This novel has all of the traditional mystery tropes: a sudden disappearance, isolation from the outside world, hidden motives. The standout of this novel for me came from the setting itself. A sanatorium turned into a luxury hotel? Doesn’t get any more creepy than that! Pearse does a wonderful job at setting the scene and describing the geography of the hotel and the Swiss Alps themselves. The creep factor is definitely there.

For me, this novel started out strong, but the plot got a little convoluted and unbelievable as the novel went on. For starters, Elin was a little hard to connect to for me — Pearse does an admirable effort of giving Elin a complex backstory with childhood trauma, estranged family, looming relationship decisions, and complications at work, but I just couldn’t find her super relatable, and she constantly made not smart choices during her investigation and seemed to freeze up in terror a lot, all of which called into question her reputation as an experienced detective.

The writing is mostly well done; Pearse handles cliffhangers and pacing admirably. There were a few spots where some of the dialogue felt weird or forced, and a lot of actions were repeated (like sweating or being tired), and while they were probably done intentionally to make the characters more human, it sometimes read as if we were just running out of verbs.

One of the main things that mainly lost me toward the end of the novel (hence the mid-range rating) was the plot. Using the history of the sanatorium was cool, and I was on board for that. In fact, I wish that was utilized more as the main motive. But Pearse adds another level to the motive that seems a little unnecessary. Without spoiling the twist, I will say that I think it was done in an effort to make the character seem more human and give another layer for character texture, but the result (for me) was that it seemed like a weird and cliche motive to justify the brutal murders that happened in the story. There were also some unbelievable elements to the plot that just seemed kind of unrealistic (for example: following a trail of nail polish chips to lead to several clues).

Overall though, this novel is worth a read, especially if you enjoy serial killer mysteries, female sleuths, and Gothic ambiance.

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This Book Review was originally posted on Instagram on March 19, 2023.