Did you read The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse and have ALL the questions about the ending? And what’s with that epilogue – who is following Elin around the Sanatorium? Come check out my spoilers and plot summary for The Sanatorium and then let’s discuss this baffling case of multiple murders in a Swiss alps resort and the equally baffling ending! Check out this Spoilers and Plot Summary for the Sanatorium!
The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse. Published February 2, 2021 by Pamela Dornan Books.
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The plot summary below will contain spoilers. If you want to read my spoiler free review of The Sanatorium, you can find it here.
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THE SPOILERS AND PLOT SUMMARY FOR THE SANATORIUM
- Plot Summary for the Sanatorium
- Who was the killer in the Sanatorium?
- WHAT WAS THAT FINAL CHAPTER? The Sanatorium ending, explained — or at least the possibilities explored!
- BREAKING NEWS: Yes, there will be a sequel to The Sanatorium. Elin will be back! Will we find out who’s is stalking her? Maybe not…
Spoilers and Plot Summary for the Sanatorium by Sarah Pearce
Elin and Will arrive at Le Sommet, a resort in the Swiss Alps. She’s a British police officer and they are meeting her brother, Isaac, and his partner Laure. Elin and Laure knew each other growing up, and now Laure is the assistant manager at Le Sommet and she and Isaac are engaged.
Adele, a hotel cleaner at Le Sommet, finds a copper bracelet outside one of the rooms. When she leaves work she is attacked by someone in a gas mask.
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.
The next morning Isaac says he can’t find Laure. Then a skiier discovers the body of Daniel, the missing architect.
Elin talks to Isaac about where Laure could be.
Elin also tells her brother about a case that is preoccupying her: the murder of two teenage girls. An anonymous tip led the police to a suspect: Mark Hayler. Elin went to question him and he ran. She chased him along the beach and into the surf and he hit her with a rock and got away. After that, she took a leave from work.
Elin sees what she thinks is blood on the rug in Isaac and Laure’s room, but Isaac says Laure cut herself shaving.
Elin seems slightly suspicious that Isaac has something to do with Laure’s disappearance. She tells Will that she thinks Isaac might have killed their brother Sam, who drowned when Sam was eight, Elin was twelve, and Isaac was ten.
Sam’s death was ruled an accident, but Elin has had flashbacks about seeing Isaac with blood on his hands.
This plot point will be important later:
Will convinces Elin to try to relax at the spa. As Elin leaves the pool area alone, someone pushes her from behind into a freezing outdoor plunge pool. Flashing back to Sam’s death, she panics but manages to climb out. Will tells her she must have slipped.
The resort is evacuated due to the storm and avalanche risk. Isaac refuses to leave as Laure is still missing. Adele is found dead in the pool.
Due to a small avalanche blocking the road, the police can’t come, so Elin secures the scene and collects evidence on their behalf.
People tell Elin that Laure and Cecile seemed at odds. Lucas confesses that he and Laure had a short fling and that he had been receiving anonymous, threatening notes.
Someone wiped much of the resort’s CCTV footage, but there is footage showing that Laure was following Elin at the spa. She wonders if Laure is the one who pushed her and is also the killer of Adele and Daniel. Files from Laure’s computer reveal that Laure was providing information to a journalist on an expose on the resort.
Laure texts Elin asking to meet. Instead, Elin finds Laure’s body. They also find a flash drive and a copper bracelet at the scene. The hotel CCTV cameras are down and the weather is still too bad for the police to get to them. Elin thinks Lucas and Cecile are acting strangely.
Elin connects numbers engraved on the copper bracelets to some old medical files on the flash drive.
Another hotel employee, Margot, goes missing. Elin tracks her phone within the hotel and she and Will go looking for her. Margot escapes and Will gets stabbed.
Isaac and Elin discuss Sam’s death. Isaac says it was an accident and that Elin was the one with him at the time. Elin finally remembers the details of her brother’s death and in doing so recalls that Margot dropped something when she was struggling with Will.
She finds what Margot dropped – an envelope with old medical records and gruesome old photos of medical experiments on women. One entry has the same number as the copper bracelet. Elin suggests that Margot was avenging the deaths of five relatives who were sanatorium patients in the 1920s.
Elin finds a secret tunnel. She and Lucas go to investigate and find the killer’s lair. Margot is there, injured and dying. She turns to Lucas to say that Margot was working with someone else, but Lucas has disappeared.
Elin goes to Cecile for help and they search Lucas’s office for clues. Cecile confesses that Daniel’s body was actually found in the hotel but that Lucas dumped it so as not to get bad publicity.
SPOILERS: Who was the killer in the Sanatorium?
After talking to Ceclie, Elin realizes who the killer is. She rushes to the pool area where she finds Lucas, injured.
The killer is … CECILE. When Cecile was sixteen, Daniel raped her. Lucas knew and did nothing. The rape destroyed Cecile’s life. She became pregnant as a result. Terminating that pregnancy left her unable to have children.
Margot contacted Lucas and Cecile about her relatives who had been treated and abused at the clinic in the 1920s. Lucas buried the information as it would have been bad publicity for the resort.
Cecile then killed Adele because Adele helped Lucas cover up Daniel’s murder.
Cecile enlisted Margot’s help in murdering Laure. She killed Laure because Laure found out what Cecile was doing and threatened to expose her.
Cecile wanted to get caught for Daniel’s murder so she could “tell her story.”
Cecile and Lucas struggle and fall in the pool. Elin watches, terrified and thinking about the day her brother died. But she jumps in and saves Lucas. The police arrest Cecile and Lucas.
Do you think Cecile’s motivation for killing Laure and Adele made sense?
I can accept that Cecile waited years and years to get her revenge. She killed Daniel, who raped her. But then she killed Adele because Adele helped Lucas hide Daniel’s body, which meant that Cecile got away with murder. She wanted to get caught to get her story out.
Then she killed Laure, and then was going to kill Lucas, and I guess Elin would have been next? I don’t know – it was all a bit farfetched for me. Personally, I liked Margot as the killer a lot better. I guess she was helping Cecile, but still.
What WAS that final chapter of The Sanatorium? The Sanatorium Ending Explained (or not!)
In the epilogue of The Sanatorium, Elin and Will finally leave the hotel but as they board the funicular, someone follows them, someone who admits HE (or she?) was the one who pushed Elin into the plunge pool.
Was it Isaac, Elin’s brother, meaning he was the one who killed Sam?
Was it Hayler, the guy from Elin’s case back home? Is he now going to kill Elin? WTF?
Or was it someone else following her? (Be sure to check out the comments and decide if you are Team Isaac or Team Hayler or Team Someone Else. What do you think?
Yes! Elin is BACK in a sequel to The Sanatorium
So some of us in comments thought that, given that weird last chapter, there had to be a next book.
Good news: we may just find out who was following Elin.
Bad news: if you didn’t like Elin before (and there are a lot of people in comments who didn’t) she’s back in the next book.
Here’s the synopsis of The Retreat.
An eco-wellness retreat has opened on an island off the English coast, promising rest and relaxation—but the island itself, known locally as Reaper’s Rock, has a dark past. Once the playground of a serial killer, it’s rumored to be cursed.
Detective Elin Warner is called to the retreat when a young woman’s body is found on the rocks below the yoga pavilion in what seems to be a tragic fall. But the victim wasn’t a guest—she wasn’t meant to be on the island at all.
When a guest drowns in a diving incident the following day, Elin starts to suspect that there’s nothing accidental about these deaths. But why would someone target the guests, and who else is in danger? Elin must find the killer—before the island’s history starts to repeat itself.
Sounds familiar, right? Luxury resort with a dark past and Elin on the case! Elin does seem to find a lot of bodies in expensive wellness retreats.
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!
Insights About Elin From Sarah Pearse
Also I recently listened to a podcast featuring Sarah Pearse, and I am here to say she seems LOVELY. I would love to have a cup of tea with her!
Here are some insights for those of you who aren’t fans of Elin (she didn’t bother me nearly as much as she did some of you lol. But I do get where you are coming from and so does Sarah!)
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.)
Sarah also seems aware that Elin is “somewhat controversial” and “perhaps a little intense” and I loved that she didn’t get defensive about it. A lot of authors would have been offended.
In the podcast, Sarah had some interesting thoughts about how female detectives in police procedurals get pigeonholed into a very masculine sort of characterization and wanted to try to work against that.
She also hinted that in book two Elin will have to reckon with her own memory and how reliable it is. IS ELIN SAM’S KILLER? Will she have to arrest herself? Anything seems possible!
Talk to me in comments! What were your thoughts about this one? That did you think about the ending of the sanatorium? I have seen varied opinions! And be sure subscribe to comment replies – you can subscribe to all comment replies or just to the replies on your individual comment.
Join the Spoiler Discussion for the Sanatorium!
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Love this discussion!! Ok so I’m very late to the party but this book drove me nuts. It’s Laure! Oh no it can’t be, Laure’s dead! It’s Margot!! Oh no she’s dead too!! It’s LUCAS. Oh guess he’s about to be dead then? The final Cecile reveal was unsatisfactory as her behaviour just made no sense. She did what, why? Don’t get it. And the epilogue? Wtf? So was there an unrelated psycho in the loose coincidentally (the Hayler or AN Other theory) or there was yet another murderer/in cahoots with a murderer/covering up for a murderer at the hotel (the Isaac theory.) And Elin was so unbelievably irritating – endless fumbling for answers with a foggy brain. Why was half the book written in italics too. The literary equivalent of the 3 beat klaxon in a film: this is important! Duh dun der!! I won’t read another one. It’ll probably turn out to be Elin herself having killed her brother now endlessly recreating his death in a dissociative fugue. Makes as much sense as anything else.
Hi Krissie,
I’m always at this party, sitting here with a big glass of wine waiting for more people to stop by and join me. I will read book #2 and let everyone know if indeed Fugue Elin killed her brother. Anything is possible 🤣🤣
I’m also late to the party, but I feel I had to react after finishing this book. I read it in Dutch (my mother language) and it was promoted as a thriller in the tradition of Stephen King and Agatha Christie (authors whom I both love). No supernatural elements, which I had kind of expected giving the setting and the reference to Stephen King. No problem, as I like a good murder mystery/thriller but this one felt all over the place. The plot twists were way too many and the ending felt very rushed.
But let me get to the reason I’m leaving this comment: the epilogue. I wanted to share what I thought about it because I strangely enough haven’t come across this theory. I didn’t interpret it as a person that was watching Elin, but as fear itself. The fear is behind her, but very close, ready to strike when she lets her guard down and least expects it. I think that Laure didn’t push her into the pool, but that Elin saw her on the security images reaching out to her, presumably trying to talk to her while she was alone. It was Elin’s fear, her overwhelming fear of water and drowning (Sam), that pushed her into the water when she felt Laure’s hand on her shoulder, not Laure. She managed to conquer that fear when she dived in the swimming pool to save Lucas, but that’s the thing with fear, it can always come back and paralyze you.
Did anyone feel the same way about this? Very curious to know other people’s feelings about this theory.
Hi Evelien!
Curious to hear what others think of your theory! So you think that the following wasn’t literal? Sort of one of Elin’s (many) demons lurking around her?
To me this theory makes as much sense as Hayler following her to Switzerland and somehow staying hidden through an evacuation, or her either of her brothers following her. I am actually extremely curious as to who or what is following poor Elin. I found one review of book two, which comes out in July (that lady on Goodreads who reads everything got her hands on it) and it sounds like the mystery does not get solved in book two.
But never fear I will still read the book and make a spoiler discussion post so we can refine our theories…
Like many of us I think, here I am after googling “sanatorium ending?????” Ha! I haven’t seen anyone mention this theory yet – my immediate thought with the epilogue being followed by that particular article was that the mad doctor behind all the experimentation was the one stalking Elin on the train. But maybe that doesn’t work since he would be in his 100s now and that’s a bit ambitious to go on being murdery? Although…does the book ever specify what year the present is set in? I guess Find My IPhone dates it somewhat…maybe a descendant then? There was a lot of talk of subjugating women medically to take away their power – if Dr. Creepy’s grandson were hanging round the hotel seeking “justice” for his disgraced Pop Pop, preying on women (and perhaps mutilating the bodies of ones who just happen to die there) it would make sense for him to want to target a woman with a powerful career like Elin to put her in her place, or something.
My theory might be totally bananas but it’s definitely what first popped into my head with that last article.
And here’s Caitie coming up with a theory none of us have ever thought of!!!
I feel like anything is possible, honestly. And I don’t know if you saw my comment that book two doesn’t even seem to answer the question, so perhaps Elin’s mysterious stalker is going to continue to stalk her through multiple books? maybe we will at least get more clues…
I wondered if the one following her in the epilogue was Sam – the dead brother? I found it confusing as I couldn’t work out if it was meant to be sinister or not but I did think it could be a non literal follower just a presence.
Hi Bridget! There are a LOT of comments on this post, so I will sum up for those of your joining us. The main theories are 1) Hayler (the bad guy back from Elin’s job who for some reason followed her) or 2) Isaac, who killed Sam and is coming after Elin because she might remember that he did it or 3) some sort of supernatural presence or 4) someone else.
There is a second book in the series coming out early this summer, but from the one review I read it looks like this person/presence is NOT going to be revealed, which is pretty annoying.
Glad I found this thread. Just finished the book last night and searching for thoughts on the epilogue! My immediate reaction was that it was Sam, as a sort of guardian angel, pushing her in the water as a sort of warning to her. I enjoyed the book, and I’ll not over think it!
Ooh, you are Team Supernatural. You aren’t the only one!
I just finished it. It was recommended by a friend. I was really disappointed in it. The ending was terrible. Seriously, leaving everyone in the dark about who is following Elin. Too many unanswered questions. Very disappointing.
You are not alone, Donna 🙂 A lot of people in comments felt the same way. I agree that the ending was a bit disappointing but I still plan to read book two and hope someone else is with me!
So as a autistic female I loved Elin she is so clearly autistic coded at the least. She reminds me of Holly Gibney in Stephen Kings books also a autistic female who some readers hate (eye roll). I first thought Issac is the stalker as surely she would have spotted Hayler unless in disguise. Or as her memories are so buried perhaps someone else.
Hello Tash and thanks so much for sharing your perspective! I had not thought of that. I know some readers found some of Elin’s actions hard to understand, though I’m constantly defending her in these comments. I have not read the Stephen King book with Holly. Have you tried The Maid by Nita Prose? Several readers thought Molly, the main character, was autistic. I listened to an interview with the author, who clearly didn’t want to put any label on Molly, except to say that she had this unique take on the world. I have a spoiler discussion of the Maid here if you end up reading it.
I think we are all so curious to find out who the mystery stalker is!
So here’s a question…who is Jeremy — the skier who found Daniel’s body? The author went to great lengths to describe him. His dad was in the hospital, he’d been through a divorce, and has a son, Sebastian. He was only mentioned in that chapter. Maybe that is who is on the train?
Ooh a new theory. Jeremy was a very fleshed out character for someone who is going to disappear from the book. When I read book two I will tell you. If he’s in that story I think you are onto something!
Great idea for the novel but the ending just wasn’t believable and this mystery person at the end was completely ridiculous. I wasted so much time on this novel when I could have been watching paint dry instead.
Haha I guess you will not be reading the next book? I’m going to do it! I am the weirdo who liked Elin well enough and I will report back to everyone.
I love this whole thread; and thank you for starting it! That last chapter rattled me and I had to read it twice! I am def team Isaac… even though it makes me sad to think 🙁 but I feel like that would be the biggest plot twist after alll that happened in this cool… for Isaac to have really killed Sam and he was manipulating Elin and preying on her fears all along. Then again… it could have been exactly what Isaac said, I hope this is actually true, and it’s a completely different suspect. I just don’t know how it wills be Hayley and her not know he was in the hotel. Lastly! I am confused about the “push”… I thought Elin saw on the video that it was Laure??