The Sanatorium

“Elin soon got the sense that he didn’t see her the way she had always seen herself. The effect was almost dizzying: it made her want to live up to what he saw in her, or what he thought he saw.” 

Will, unlike Elin, tends to see the best in people. Elin believes that Will loves her so much that he sees someone great in her, even though she has a negative self-image. This quote builds the characters of both Elin, as a somewhat negative person, and Will, as a more optimistic person. 

“How do you go about unpicking someone from your life when they’re the thread tying every part of you together?” 

So much of Elin’s life has been about Sam’s death. She even chose her career as a detective because she wanted to get to the bottom of Sam’s death. She is holding on tightly to Sam’s memory, partially because she has developed her entire personhood around getting justice for her brother, and she wouldn’t know who she is if she finally let go of him.

“It’s strange, she thinks, how for her, claustrophobia doesn’t only exist in spaces outside herself, but within her, too. That horrible sense of being trapped inside your own body.” 

Elin’s claustrophobia is an example of her struggle with anxiety. She relates the feeling of anxiety to feeling claustrophobic, but inside herself. This quote contributes to the novel’s larger theme “The Struggle and Stigma of Mental Illness.” 

“In a way, she’s always known this moment was coming. What happened has never gone away. She’s forced it to the furthest reaches of her mind, but the knowledge has always been there—like a clot, sitting benign inside your vein, just waiting for the moment to come unstuck and wreak havoc.” 

Adele recognizes her killer and knows exactly why she’s being killed. She resigns herself to her fate, having endured torture at the hands of this person for a couple of days. These are the last thoughts the reader sees from Adele before her death. Pearse’s decision to tell this part of the story from Adele’s perspective helps the reader empathize with her plight, gives the reader information that the other characters don’t yet have (that a killer is on the loose), and hints that the killings have a singular motivation.

“And it had worked. In that water, every fear she’s never been able to label took over: a fear of being submerged, slipping below the surface to somewhere unreachable. Alone.” 

Following being pushed into the plunge pool, Elin’s fear of being submerged in water resurfaces; a remnant of the trauma of watching Sam die as a child. Her fear of the water becomes significant again later in the novel when she must save Lucas from the pool. 

“He’s hammering on the window, fists pounding so hard the glass is vibrating. Snow is being blown sideways, blurring his face. All she can make out is dark, closely cropped hair, heavyset features.” 

While this quote describes an upset Axel, Pearse intentionally doesn’t identify the character to keep the momentum of the novel moving forward. Pearse doesn’t give the reader many outright answers early in the novel and almost always ends a chapter on a cliffhanger so the reader feels compelled to keep reading. 

“‘That mask’—Cecile follows her gaze—’I recognize it from the archive. It was used here, in the sanatorium. A breathing aid.’” 

Cecile identifies the black mask, found on Adele’s body. The mask is the same one used by the killer. Here, we see Cecile planting clues to hide her own guilt. 

“I know what you’re going to say: Why didn’t I jump in, pull her out? I keep asking myself that, replaying it. If I’d just jumped in then, she might have had a chance.”

Axel, the hotel employee who found Adele’s body in the pool, laments about his inability to save her. This is a parallel to Elin’s experience as a child when she watched Sam fall to his death. Both characters wish they could have saved the deceased person, but were helpless to do so. Both reacted in fear, and experience guilt because of their inability to act heroically. This moment foreshadows Elin saving Lucas later in the novel; she breaks the cycle of inaction finally, signifying the beginning of her healing process. 

“I had all these plans, like Lucas. Children. Family life… None of it happened. It takes time to mentally readjust.” 

Cecile laments about one of her greatest regrets in life, endearing herself to Elin. Cecile perfectly plays the innocent, long-suffering sister to the mogul. Pearse intentionally averts suspicion from the character to prolong the tension concerning the murderer’s identity.

“The shirt no longer looks like a part of him, but something other, like Sam had already gone, had no right to lay claim to it.” 

Elin remembers what it was like to see Sam’s lifeless body lying in the rock pool, an image that has haunted her for her entire life. Elin has flashbacks about this incident often, having struggled to resolve her feelings about that day for her entire life. This inner turmoil is a major motivator for Elin’s character throughout the novel. 

“‘Look at what happened to Adele. You think Laure could be capable of that?’ He bites down on his lip. ‘Christ, Elin. She was your friend.’” 

Isaac refuses to accept Elin’s theory that Laure was involved in the murders. Anguished by Laure’s disappearance, he is outraged that Elin would consider her a suspect. He reminds Elin of her friendship with Laure to point out how callous she gets when she convinces herself of someone’s guilt. Similarly, Elin assumes Isaac is guilty of killing their brother when they were young. Elin’s assumptions back up the earlier characterization of her as negative and suspicious.

“Why do you think I haven’t been in touch? It’s because it’s exhausting being around you. You want everything done exactly right, all the ducks in a row. It makes me sad. That’s one of the reasons why I left, why I left Mum too.” 

Isaac confronts Elin about her overbearing nature, comparing her to their mother. Elin’s perfectionism is a way for her to feel in control following a childhood trauma in which she had not control.

“I want to explain. Please meet me in the penthouse. 9 a.m. There’s a separate lift so you won’t be seen. Don’t tell anyone or bring anyone. I’m sorry. Laure.” 

Elin receives a text from an unknown number that is presumably from Laure. Elin suspects Laure’s involvement in Adel’s murder, so the text serves as an opening for Elin to get answers, and also a way to isolate her to prevent her from investigating further.

“This isn’t a crime of passion, of revenge over a fling gone wrong. It’s bigger than Laure. Something far bigger, and now she’s back to square one.” 

Elin realizes that she’s been chasing the wrong leads the entire time after finding Laure’s body. As a person who value’s control, she expresses her hopelessness at being “back to square one” in the investigation. 

“This isn’t about the hotel at all. It’s about the past, what the hotel used to be. The sanatorium.” 

The relationship between the murders and the sanatorium becomes clear to Elin as she reviews her notes following Laure’s death. The medical aspect of the murders and the display boxes used to display the victim’s fingers clue Elin in to the sanatorium connection.

“A rumble that’s followed by an enormous boom, reverberating through the air. There’s a roar, a sudden arctic breeze. Her mind immediately lurches to what Will had told her earlier: an avalanche.” 

Elin’s heroics put her into harm’s way, as she goes out to find Margot, even after learning of the threat of a second avalanche. The avalanche appears again in the novel when things at the hotel are taking a negative turn, and it functions as a signal of foreboding for the reader. 

“Has Margot mistaken me for someone else? Her attacker? Then it hits her with sickening clarity.” 

After finding Margot, Elin quickly realizes that Margot isn’t the innocent victim that Elin assumed her to be. The reader discovers this along with Elin, so this moment functions as a miniature climax. Since Margot is not the only murderer, the end of this plot thread is meant to lull the reader into a false sense of security. 

“They didn’t want people to know who they were, because they were doing something wrong. It certainly looks wrong. Far from being a clinical procedure, it looks like a crime scene. Something inhuman. Barbaric.” 

Elin takes in the images from the old Sanatorium du Plumachit, in which masked doctors torture unnamed women, secretly, in illegal experiments. 

“‘You know, Lucas said something when he finally came out of the hospital that’s always stuck with me. He said that he’d had enough of being helpless, people telling him what to do.’ She stops, fumbling over her words. ‘He said, From now on, I’m going to do what I want. To hell with anyone who stands in my way.’” 

Cecile recounts Lucas’ history as a sick child to put Elin onto his scent and keep her off of hers. Using this quote, Cecile makes it seem like Lucas is capable of violence, even murder, if someone stands between him and a goal.

“But that’s it, Lucas. Can’t you see? The point is, it’s still happening. Every abuse of power, every rape, every harassment. It’s still happening.” 

Cecile laments the reality of the abuse of women. She finds similarities between her rape by Daniel Lemaitre and the way the doctors at Sanatorium du Plumachit tortured the German women in the photos back in 1927.

“Yes. I put the victims on display, just like the doctors did with those women in the photographs.” 

Cecile explains the grotesque act of displaying the victims of her murders, comparing it to the actions of the doctors at the old Sanatorium, who took graphic photographs of the women who were tortured there. 

“‘Elin, please. I don’t want to hurt you. We’re alike, you and I. Loners. Fighters. Demanding answers, justice.’ Her hand is shaking around Lucas’s waist. ‘Putting up with selfish brothers. Let me finish what I’ve started.’” 

Cecile sees herself in Elin, comparing their family situations. Cecile uses Elin’s distrust of Isaac to manipulate her into seeing things from Cecile’s point of view. 

“A tiny white feather has worked its way through the seam of his blue puffer jacket. It catches in the breeze, flickering from side to side before coming loose, flying away.” 

The feather, floating away freely on the breeze, represents the freedom Elin feels having repaired her relationship with her brother and faced down a lot of her demons while solving this case.