Grab some popcorn, because I've got quite a bit to say. 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. Elin is supposed to be a detective, but she is also mega-traumatized. Things like snow, mountains, trees, people looking at her, people talking to her, glass windows, pools, etc. send her into a near panic attack. When she's not about to have a panic attack she is worried about what people think about her, worried about people lying to her, getting headaches, or getting sick from ordinary objects. The glass. Once again, it overwhelms her. Nausea sweeps over her. The thick slices of sausage are slick with oil, tiny orbs of white fat studding the interior. (The horror of the sausage happens when her boyfriend is simply trying to talk to her at breakfast. Apparently listening to him and looking at sausage was too much to handle. And yes, this type of description is throughout the entire story. At one point making a cup of coffee is described in such intricate detail that I thought surely it must be poisoned or something, but nope, it was just a cup of coffee. She also mentioned the eczema on Isaac’s eye at least three times. I love reading about people scratching eczema on their eyelids. It’s so great.)
Do you want to know why she's so incredibly traumatized and can't seem to handle even looking at breakfast foods? It's not because she was nearly murdered by some evil ne’er-do-well a year ago, or because her mother died six months ago, nope, it's because over 20 years ago her younger brother fell, hit his head, and died. She's been haunted by it her entire life.
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.
So now, to bridge gaps, Isaac's invited Elin and her boyfriend Will, to his fancy engagement party at an elite, remote hotel in the mountains. Elin decides to go because she's going to do it, she's going to confront him so she can once and for all stop thinking about her younger brother's death. (This all makes total sense, perfect timing, Elin.)
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.
It doesn't take long for people to start disappearing and dying. The day after Elin arrives (and can barely even look at her brother), Isaac's fiancé disappears. Laure is just completely gone but no one seems to really be concerned but Isaac and Elin. Will tells Elin not to even think about it. (Sometimes he seems really wise and kind, other times, he's kind of a selfish jerk. You never know which version you'll get.)
Elin tries to forget about Laure disappearing (because it's totally normal to disappear before your engagement party and not take any of your personal belongings) but in the meantime she senses someone watching her and then she is mysteriously shoved into the pool. (It's a plunge pool, though why that is important I don't know. Elin hasn't "seen one in years.") It makes Will mad when this happens because he thinks that Elin is lying just to create drama. (Enter jerk Will.)
It's no big surprise when the hotel has to be evacuated because of the weather and the last busload gets left behind due to an avalanche. And then, of course, a body appears in the pool. It's not Laure, but one of the maids, who people didn't even know was missing. The body is missing three fingers, shows signs of restraint, and is wearing a grotesque mask. Elin sees it and wonders how this horrible "accident" could've happened. Later she notices a sandbag in the pool and *GASP* realizes that this must be MURDER. Dum dum dum!
(It's at this point we're really clued in to what a "smart cookie" Elin is.)
Elin starts investigating. Her idea of investigating is to ignore all the most obvious routes (like the video surveillance) and after she talks to anyone she thinks "hmmm, what are they hiding from me." Literally, in italics after every conversation it would show Elin's thoughts and it was always, "What did that look mean? They must be hiding something."
Once she finally thinks to check, most of the security videos have been wiped, but she does discover it was actually Laure that pushed her in the pool. Nobody seems to really care about this. I guess it's no big when a woman disappears and then reappears to push someone into a (plunge) pool.
Lots of other bad investigating takes place. I'm pretty sure anyone who's seen a couple of episodes of NCIS could've done better. Finally Elin gets a text from Laure telling her to meet her in the pent suite. At this point Elin suspects Laure, but she still thinks it's a great idea to go meet her alone, without telling anyone, without a weapon of any kind. (As I mentioned, "smort!")
Obviously it's a setup. Laure is dead and the killer nearly murders Elin. But that doesn't stop her from prancing off a SECOND time a couple chapters later to confront the killer, by herself, without telling anyone, without a weapon. (Have I mentioned how “brilliant” Elin is yet?)
Oh! In case you're wondering about the random subplot of her brother Sam....turns out it was actually Elin that witnessed the whole thing and was unable to help, so she blocked it out and blamed the whole thing on Isaac. Why did we need this subplot? I don't really know. Maybe to have a reason for Elin acting like a complete basket case?
Elin then proceeds to accuse everyone of being the murderer. It goes something like "you're the murderer." "No wait, you're the murderer." "Just kidding, it's definitely you!" She's wrong on all counts. Next she proceeds to expertly follow a trail of Hansel-and-Gretel-like nail polish flakes to a secret tunnel where she discovers....the murderer has been murdered! She has a partner! GASP!
I will say this, I never could've predicted the motive. Why? Because it was so convoluted and ridiculous! The killer ends up being Celise Caron, the owner's sister. She's mad at her bro, the owner, for not admitting that his friend raped her when she was young. So now she's killed the friend, (the first murder) and has to keep killing until she's caught so she can explain what her brother did to her and he can be punished. (Seems like a "smart" plan, the perfect villain for our "smart" detective.) Celise also decided to rope an employee into the murdering madness because this employee's long dead, many generations past, relative was experimented on at the old sanatorium. (I'm pretty sure I guffawed out loud at this part. Maybe we should all start avenging our great-great-great-aunts/uncles/grandparents/etc.)
Oh! On that note, Elin doesn't even think to look into the sanatorium's past until the very end, even though the victims are wearing gas masks, their fingers are displayed in the same cases used to display are other old artifacts, and there are bracelets with numbers on them. (Obviously patient numbers. That was apparent from the first second.)
Why did they chop off three fingers of each victim and display them in a box? Who knows? It was never explained.
Why did everyone ignore the fact that Laure pushed Elin into the pool? Well, because, according to the epilogue, it was actually some creepy stalker guy! There's going to be a sequel! Why did Elin think it was Laure and not realize it was creepy stalker guy? Add that to the many mysteries of this book.
I do understand behind every book is an author who worked really hard. I think in this case her editors wildly let her down. Though, it seems like she'll probably make a lot of money on this one, so I guess it doesn't really matter.
In conclusion, this is one of the most ridiculous books I've ever read and I cannot recommend it to anyone. I honestly kept reading because it was like a train wreck I couldn't turn away from. I had to see what preposterous thing would happen next.
