The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse
Genre: Crime
This is the best book I have read until now in 2021. It is full of atmosphere and "theatrical like" surprises. There is a nice main character trying so solve her own mystery when stubling upon another in a hotel in the Swiss mountains. She (Elin) is the one people look to in order to feel safer and get answers. Because people are shut inside a luxurious hotel after avalanches and with no ability to get help for a while from the police or doctors. And they need help from the police!
It is a big group of tourists there. Elin comes with her boyfriend Will to celebrate Isaac`s (her brother) engagement with Laure in the hotel that used to be a sanatorium. Elin is already in a nervous state when coming and then Laure seems to go missing. A dead body is found in a hotel pool with a mask over its face. The person has been physically hurt and a strange box with a scary content is found close by.
Elin has worked in the police and leads the investigation. At the same time she is suspicious of her brother Isaac hiding a terrible secret that she is determined to get to the bottom of.
Elin is a determined, sensitive and idealistic person. She finds answers and gets herself in great danger. So many people seems to be hiding things. And a killer is out there, confident and scary in a horror kind of way!
The story is mainly told through Elin. The book is well written and has some scenes that really makes the story come alive! The theatricality is quite scary. Though it is not so much of it.
I liked that the main character is fragile combined with beeing brave and caring! The mix of characters are interesting. The book is hard to put down!
The way it ended made me wonder if a new story with Elin as main character comes. I think I would read it.
