The Retreat: The new top ten Sunday Times bestseller from the author of The Sanatorium (Detective Elin Warner Series, 2)

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A superbly atmospheric crime debut. Deliciously creepy and clever, it’s everything you could want in a thriller. Very highly recommended!”

Elin tells Steed that Creacher is in prison but that some people thought he was innocent. They also find a Grim Reaper cloak. Elin freaks out and runs out of the cave. This time Elin and her partner Steed are called to a luxury resort off the South coast of the UK to investigate the death of a young woman in the night. Early signs point to an accident but there is just something not right. The island has a sinister feel and a dark past and she believes there is ,ore to it, things are just not adding up. And then another body is found, from the same group of guests at the resort. In the midst of a wild storm, they are cut off from the mainland, Elin and Steed have their work cut out to work out what is going on before there is another body. The writing was sloppy and lazy. The characters were shallow and indistinguishable, the pacing was off consistently. The story unraveled on the spot, because it just had to work somehow. Therefore, there was no way for the reader to anticipate anything as the plot wasn’t build throughout the story. Barbed branches pull at his shirt. One catches his arm, snags the soft skin on the inside of his wrist. Blood flares – a ragged line of tiny red beads bursting through his skin. Elin swims over to the island and hears a gunshot. The guests have barricaded themselves in the lodge and she can’t get inside. Haha finally someone has some sense!The company of people that the killer seems to target consists of family members, Hana her sister Jo and her boyfriend Seth, their cousin Maya and their sister's boyfriend Caleb and the secrets and resentments between them has its own air of mystery adding more intrigue to the the murder investigation!

Pearse goes from strength to strength in The Retreat. The suspense inexorably builds to a stunning climax.An added treat is the return of Elin Warner, who is a fascinating character one can only root for.” But there shouldn’t be anything too traumatizing in the latest case she’s caught, out at an island retreat off the South Devon coast where she lives. Never mind that her fiance Will designed the resort, or that his sister Farrah is a manager there. A young woman, seemingly inebriated, has fallen off a cliffside. CCTV shows that it was likely accidental, but the more Elin investigates, the less sure she is that it wasn’t murder. There’s something about this island that feels deeply off, a feeling that’s affirmed for her by the resort employee who originally discovered the woman’s body:If Sarah Pearse’s sensational debut The Sanatorium summoned the dangerous spirits of Gothic storytellers past, her new novel The Retreat recalls the one-by-one-by-one nerve-shredding of Agatha Christie at her darkest. Pearse is one of those rare contemporary writers—alongside Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, and Alice Feeney—both reviving and refreshing the traditions of mystery fiction. A fresh, daring, irresistible thriller.” Hana says she’s all alone now and Maya comforts her. Obviously Maya killed either Bea or Jo or both and it has something to do with the fire. Caleb agrees that his father was a murderer, but he was trying to change until Ronan encouraged him to make the bad investment. Ugh, I can’t with these explanations. Deliciously paced with rich worldbuilding, The Retreat teems with questionable motives, unspoken frustrations, and hair-raising cliffhangers. Pearse’s latest thriller is a reminder that beneath the glimmering exterior of the places and people we love, vengeance often lurks. I absolutely could not put this book down!” A past crime resurfaces that's connected to the island but also to the present killings so it keeps you guessing!

Another strike: this time harder, faster, but it barely registers, and neither does Thea’s second scream – blistered, cut off, like it’s clotted in her throat – because Ollie’s already running. Hana just hasn’t been the same since the death of her beloved husband. While some members of her family think the trip will be a good distraction for her, others are more accepting of and patient with her grief. But as more and more of her party start dying, and a storm begins to bear down on the island, Hana must rouse herself to cooperate with Elin’s investigation while attempting to grapple with her own unresolved emotions in the face of so much new and unrelenting trauma.

Outside the cave, Elin says she will call the detective who worked the Creacher case. She also wonders if the cases are connected, why the perpetrator started up again after so many years. Steed wonders if it’s a copycat. Once again, Sarah Pearse has situated her novel in a deeply atmospheric and vivid setting. The island locale in question is bathed in suspicion, shadows and darkness. It is also tragically beautiful as it houses a wellness retreat. Pearse does a fine job of carefully describing her location base. I felt like I was stood on the same ground as the lead character and the occupants of this shady island. Pearse is one author who is brilliant at setting the scene and immersing her readers in the surroundings of her book. Fans of The Sanatorium will appreciate Pearse’s eye for detail in the location aspects of The Retreat. It truly does magnify the intensity of the events in this novel. Just like The Sanatorium, The Retreat tells a twisty, chilling and tense tale in a location so vividly imagined, you feel like you’re there too, among the guests. Long may Sarah Pearse continue to ruin the idea of luxury-resort travel for us all…”