The Sanatorium

Elin’s brother and the oldest of the three Warner siblings, Isaac is a former computer sciences lecturer at the University of Lausanne. He is engaged to be married to Laure and is the only immediate family that Elin has remaining. From Elin’s perspective, Isaac left home and failed to return even while their mother was sick, and he missed the funeral when their mother died. Elin believes that Isaac is guilty of killing their youngest brother, Sam. In reality, Isaac did everything he could to revive Sam after the young boy fell to his death in the rock pool. Elin’s negative perception of him has caused a strain in their relationship, which is part of the reason that Isaac stays in Switzerland away from her and their mother.

Isaac’s view of Elin doesn’t start out very positive, either. He thinks of her as overbearing and negative: “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 I left, why I left Mum too” (277). However, from his reaction to Laure’s disappearance, and his willingness to reach out for connection to Elin, it becomes clear that Isaac is just a traumatized by Sam’s death as Elin is. 

Laure is Isaac’s fiancée and Elin’s childhood friend. She works at Le Sommet as an assistant manager and was planning to have a party there to celebrate her engagement to Isaac. Laure seems to be an organized and confident woman, but there are indications that she wasn’t faithful to Isaac, and she disappears of her own accord for unknown reasons before being murdered. 

The owner of Le Sommet and a famous developer, he is a rockstar in the real estate world and is following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, who designed the sanatorium on which Le Sommet sits. Lucas is wealthy, but he dresses rather down-to-Earth and looks nothing like the archetypical businessman. Lucas was a sickly child, suffering from a heart condition that kept him in the hospital a lot. When he wasn’t in the hospital, he was being bullied by his peers for being small and looking unwell, which gave him something to prove.

Lucas seems to have dedicated his entire adult life to proving that no box can define who he is. He is extremely image obsessed and hides the truth about the murders connected to the hotel for fear that they will ruin his hotel business, just as he hid the truth about the horrible things that took place at the sanatorium: “I didn’t see why something that happened so long ago should affect what this place had the potential to become” (368). Just like the hotel he built, Lucas Caron is all about the public image, even if it’s a mask being used to cover up an ugly truth.

Cecile is Lucas Caron’s sister, and the manager of Le Sommet. She is a former competitive swimmer. Cecile puts forward an image of a brow-beaten sister, doing whatever she can to please her boss and brother Lucas. Underneath that façade, she is a ruthless killer, obsessed with revenge and making a statement through the grotesque and cruel murders of people she feels have wronged her. Cecile is a survivor of sexual assault at the hands of Daniel Lemaitre, her brother’s old friend, and her father’s favorite young man. Instead of being supported through that, her parents dismissed her rape allegation against Daniel and decided to take her to abort the fetus that was conceived and never talking about it again. Her brother, Lucas, ignored that the incident even happened, and went so far as to ignore her reason for killing Daniel Lemaitre.

The lack of support in Cecile’s teen years contributed to the development of her antisocial behavior. Her parents and brother were obsessed with image, and so she knows how to project an image of the upstanding, well-put-together lady, which created the perfect camouflage for her murderous side. She justifies hurting other people because her brother neglected to protect her when she needed him, and she convinces herself that what she’s done was for a righteous reason. 

Will is Elin’s boyfriend who travels with her to Switzerland. Will is a foil for Elin: Where she is impulsive and reckless in her need to be a hero, he is practical and logical, prioritizing her health and safety above everything else. He comes from a tight-knit family, while Elin’s family is broken and distant. Will represents everything Elin hopes her life can be. He is a voice of reason, doing his best to pull Elin back when she’s about to make a dangerous decision. Even though he worries about Elin’s safety, he also supports her career and tries to be on her side when she’s working on the murder investigation at the hotel.

At times, Will gets frustrated with Elin when she obsesses over Sam’s death, or Isaac, or when her anxiety seems to get in the way of them having a good trip. However, his patience even during his frustration suggests he is an accommodating person who values being sympathetic to the needs of others. Similarly, he respects Elin enough to trust her when she decides to look for Margot and refuses to abandon her even when he is afraid.