The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

 

Detective Elin Warner and her partner Will have come to Switzerland to celebrate her brother's engagement.  Issac and his fiance, Laure, have invited them and other friends to come to a new hotel high in the Swiss Alps to help them celebrate, but Elin and Will have been invited to come early.  Elin and Issac haven't seen each other in several years and haven't been close lately.  Elin is still heartbroken over the death of their brother, Sam, when they were children and still has questions about his death she wants Issac to answer.

But things don't go well.  The hotel is beautiful but stark like the weather and the surrounding mountains.  A blizzard blows in and soon it's announced that the other guests won't be able to make it there.  Then Laure goes missing.  Most of the other guests make it out of the hotel but the last bus on which Elin and Will were planning to leave isn't able to make the trip because an avalanche has closed the road.  Everyone from that bus is stuck until the road can be cleared.

When bodies start showing up, the Swiss authorities who can't get there, enlist Elin's help.  She is hesitant but as she starts the investigation she starts to feel the excitement of what she is best at.  The first body is a maid in the hotel, then others start to die.  Can Elin find the killer before others die?

Sarah Pearse is an English author who spent years in the Swiss Alps during her childhood.  Her knowledge of the area is demonstrated in the feel of the book with its cold snow and ice and the remoteness of the hotel.  This is her debut novel and it received many awards.  She has turned this book into a series and there are currently three books.  Elin is a tortured soul with issues from her childhood and that mystery along with the current one are given answers, some of which the reader won't be expecting.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.