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An imposing, isolated getaway spot high up in the Swiss Alps is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But Elin’s taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept. The whole novel is very creepy and sinister. The murders are brutal and graphic. The sanatorium’s history was one of the most disturbing parts along with the use of past medical equipment. The hotel has a sterile and clinical feel. It is stark in contrast to the snowy mountainous setting.
So in 1854 Brehmer established an institution for the treatment of tuberculosis at Gorbersdorf in the mountains of Silesia. By 1859 after considerable difficulties he had built a Kurhaus ("spa house" or "health resort") with 40 rooms, entertainment rooms and kitchens.[efn_note]William N.Rom, Stuart Garay, Tuberculosis, Little, Brown and Company, 1996[/efn_note] I liked the concept, but the execution was flawed. The main character isn't very likeable, the pacing is very slow at the start, and the author uses too much misdirection which only serves to draw out the story and make the climax fall flat. Now Elin has somehow got it into her head that her older brother, Isaac, murdered her younger brother. This is supported by random facts thrown in about temper tantrums and cruel memories about Isaac. But there are also memories of him holding Elin's hand at night when she was scared. Even though Elin hasn't seen him in 10 years she thinks he's totally evil.
Is bed rest still required?
Sarah said she didn’t want the book to be a police procedural. She wanted Elin to be a “normal” person. (She is a police officer, but I she’s guess off-duty and out of her element in a different country.) This demonstrated that treatment at home is as effective as sanatorium treatment, not only in the initial success rate but also in the subsequent relapse rate.[efn_note]Obituary, Dr Wallace Fox, 2010, The Lancet[/efn_note] 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. I usually avoid all the hyped-up books but every once in awhile I'll give one a go. Sadly, this book proves why I avoid them in the first place. Not sure if I was being clueless but I literally went through every character trying to figure out the killer and was constantly wrong, again love that!
On the subject of turning out to be wrong, Elin is also not a great detective. Part of her trouble is that she keeps second guessing herself. Okay, I get that. Past mistakes haunt her. But you'd think that in ANY of her second guessing, she's realize all of her theories are wrong until the very last minute. Seriously, she went from thinking it was Isaac to Laure to Margot to Lucas and was wrong each time. In addition to fresh air he allowed his patients 'a nutritious diet of mild, fresh animal and farinaceous food, aided by the stimulus of a proper quantity of wine, having regard to the general state and condition of the patient' [efn_note]R.Y.Keers, Pulmonary Tuberculosis a Journey down the Centuries, 1978[/efn_note] Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. And things only get worse when they wake the next morning to find her brother's fiancée is missing. With access to the hotel cut off, the guests begin to panic. There was an urgent text from the detective about Laure and it ended up just being "Never mind, it's not Laure." Why? When Elin and her boyfriend Will arrive at the hotel, a major storm is brewing. Elin feels edgy and nervous as she looks around. When they wake-up the next morning it is discovered that newly engaged Laure has gone missing.
Housing the Victims of the Great White Plague The Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital". OHSU . Retrieved May 9, 2018. Here is my Review of the Retreat and when you’ve read it (or if you don’t want to read it and just want ALL the spoilers) come over to my Spoiler Discussion for the Retreat!
Sanatoriums should not be confused with the Russian sanatoriums from the time of the Soviet Union, which were a type of sanatorium resort residence for workers. At an isolated hotel high in the Swiss Alps, cut off by bad weather and avalanches, a woman is murdered in a bizarre manner and another woman is missing. With the police unable to get to the hotel, guest Elin Warner, a detective currently on extended leave from the British police, has no choice but to start the investigation and liase with Swiss Police. It is a dark and eerie novel, full of twists and turns. I loved Elin and her inner voice, could she trust herself, what did she really want? I was completely lost in the story and read this over a weekend. There’s a solid chance this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t really care. It was literally 20 below and snowed for a solid 18 hours when I read this, so my disappointment is a pretty palpable thing. The story here is about a former sanatorium in the Alps which has been remodeled into a luxury hotel. Elin is supposed to be attending her brother’s engagement party, but bad weather and a little case of a dead body puts a damper on the celebration and with no ability for the police to make it to their location, she must brush off her detective skills despite currently being on leave. Campbell, Margaret (1 October 2005). "What Tuberculosis did for Modernism: The Influence of a Curative Environment on Modernist Design and Architecture". Medical History. 49 (4): 463–488. doi: 10.1017/s0025727300009169. PMC 1251640. PMID 16562331.Göran Schildt, Alvar Aalto - A Life's Work - Architecture, Design and Art, Otava Publishing, Helsinki, 1994. His therapeutic regimen incorporated mountain air; exercise; abundant feeding; including strong Hungarian wine and cognac; rainbaths and ice-cold forest douches requiring the patient to ascend in the woods and stand under a waterfall of specified force and caliber under the direct supervision of Dr Brehmer himself. Maitland, Leslie (1989). "The Design of Tuberculosis Sanatoria in Late Nineteenth Century Canada". Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada. 14 (1): 5–13. hdl: 10222/71570.
After 1943, when Albert Schatz, then a graduate student at Rutgers University, discovered streptomycin, an antibiotic and the first cure for tuberculosis, sanatoria began to close. As in the case of the Paimio Sanatorium, many were transformed into general hospitals. By the 1950s, tuberculosis was no longer a major public health threat; it was controlled by antibiotics rather than extended rest. Most sanatoria had been demolished years before. [ citation needed] Isaac and Laure show Elin and Will around the hotel. They point out Lucas Carron, the hotel owner and his sister Cecile, who helps manage the resort. They mention that the hotel’s architect, Daniel, was a friend of the Carron siblings who disappeared while the hotel was being planned.Now, I have to interject here that the first 20% or so of the book wasn't too bad. The setting is awesome and the story was appropriately creepy. But alas, it just went downhill from there. Mostly due to the characters being ridiculously unbelievable. fivestarread #contemporaryfiction #crime #detectivefiction #familydrama #murdermystery #suspense #thriller Elin connects numbers engraved on the copper bracelets to some old medical files on the flash drive. Thy are there to celebrate the engagement of her estranged brother Isaac. But things take a turn for the worse when a body is found on the hotel grounds, in the middle of a storm. They find themselves cut off and Elin needs to use her skills to try to find the killer before they strike again.