A Book A Week

After the tease of cooler weather a couple weeks ago, this week it seems like the autumnal air is finally here to stay. I've been trying to sprinkle in a few spookier reads among my usual genres, and have been eagerly awaiting Sarah Pearse's novel The Sanatorium since it was released. It was hard not to be sucked into the world that Pearse has conjured.  A decommissioned sanatorium turned luxury hotel is the kind of setting that just brims with the creepiness that I crave during this time of year. Throw into that the promise of a mystery, and I was completely sold. 

Le Sommet has been strategically positioned amongst the dense forest and steep mountain peaks of the Swiss Alps, giving it both a sense of grand majesty and unyielding isolation. In the early days of its operation, this setting helped the sanatorium stay out of sight and out of mind, a place where society could hide away the people who couldn't function within it. All these years later, that kind of treatment has been halted and the building that housed it relegated to an abandoned vestige of the past. But the former Sanatorium is being given new life, renovated into a minimalist hotel that combines the historic location with more modern amenities. Even as the hotel opens, however, it isn't without controversy. The architect of the redesign has gone missing, vanished without a trace. 

Elin Warner has recently taken some time away from her job as a detective. The pressure was becoming too much to handle and negatively impacting her performance. This break is intended to help her replenish her mental and emotional health. She's surprised to hear from her estranged brother and is even more surprised when he invites her to visit the recently opened Le Sommet to meet his new fiancee Laurie. Elin is hesitant to go, but without the excuse of work the keep her home, she sees no real alternative. Her arrival to the austere establishments coincides with a blistering storm, mirroring the foreboding unease she feels. 

Things with her brother aren't much better than they've been before, and she can't help but question his intentions for inviting her there. The next morning, Elin awakes to learn that Laurie has disappeared in the night.  Her experience as a detective kicks into high gear as she begins investigating the strange disappearance. The more she looks into things, the direr the situation seems. Even worse, the winter storm has cut off all access to the outside world. What Elin could never imagine is the sheer scope of the danger she and the rest of the guests at the hotel have just placed themselves into. You see, unbeknownst to anyone else, another woman has gone missing. With her out of the picture, the knowledge of this place and its history have vanished too. Now Elin will have to dig deep into her own investigative prowess to uncover the truth before it is too late. 

Sarah Pearse's debut novel The Sanatorium offered the promise of a classic locked-room mystery set in a brilliantly unsettling location. Indeed the opening of the novel perfectly sets the scene and adds to the dread with a mysterious figure hooded in a historical gas mask from a hundred years ago. But then, all pretense of a spine-chilling mystery is dropped in favor of a family drama that had me scratching my head. Surely this wasn't the same book I had just begun to read! Don't get me wrong, there are portions of this novel where glimmers of that opening suspense shine through, but for the most part, the book is more the main character grappling with her own drama than actively investigating a mystery. What should have been a chilling examination on the sins of the past turned out to be a slow unearthing of family secrets that made reading this book more of a chore than it needed to be. I've seen that Pearse has written a follow-up novel featuring her heroine, but after trudging through this one I don't know that I'll be rushing to pick it up. Simply put, The Sanatorium just wasn't for me. 

For more information visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads. 

(2021, 40)