I was intrigued by the setting. A scary mountain hotel during a blizzard.

OUTLINE:

Half-hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks, Le Sommet has always been a sinister place. Long plagued by troubling rumors, the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel.

An imposing, isolated getaway spot high up in the Swiss Alps is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But Elin’s taken time off from her job as a detective, so when her estranged brother, Isaac, and his fiancée, Laure, invite her to celebrate their engagement at the hotel, Elin really has no reason not to accept. …

Then the murders began.

Super hyped, I thought this would be another intriguing psychological thriller whodunit. Surprise after surprise.

But it’s actually not well written. Heavy handed. Zero subtlety.

Also, Elin Warner must be the very worst detective on earth.

Almost everyone likes The Sanatorium, but I’d concur it’s a lousy book with a bad ending.

I really liked the first Backman book I read, so started to reserve more from my library.

He’s popular. So it takes weeks to get any of his novels.

Us Against You was published 2018.

It’s set in a small Swedish town — Beartown — that is hockey crazed.

In some ways, that reminded me of small towns in the USA that care far too much about High School football.

One of the star players is convicted of rape. Other players move to a rival town team in protest.

Beartown’s team could be disbanded.

Overall I’d say Us Against You is good. Not great.

But I will continue with Backman.

In post-Reconstruction United States, Black Buck or “Black Bull” was sometimes used as a racial slur.

Black Buck is also a critically acclaimed debut novel by Mateo Askaripour. (2020)

Askaripour was a successful tech-sales guy. By age-24, he was managing a team of 30 people and earning a six-figure salary.

Had problems turning into a full-time author. No agent. No book deal.

He tried and failed for several years.

Finally he wrote this book about a successful BLACK tech-sales guy.

Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Midtown office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya, and eating his mother’s home-cooked meals.

All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the thirty-sixth floor. …

Amazon

Today he’s a literary star, already writing the TV screenplay.

I quite enjoyed the first half of the novel, but QUIT at 50%. Got fed up with the story when things started to go wrong.

Click PLAY or watch an interview with the author on YouTube.

I enjoyed the first book by Black Crouch I’d read – Dark Matter. (2016)

Recursion is my second. Another weird and wild science fiction novel.

This time it’s a world where an increasing number of people are suffering False Memory Syndrome.

Some vividly recall their lives differently. Different spouse. Different kids.

It drives some to madness and suicide.

Turns out a scientist named Helena Smith has discovered a way to go back in time to correct mistakes they made in the past.

However — as in the Butterfly Effect — the timeline of humanity changes. Sometimes drastically.

But people can still recall their former live(s).

As a plot device it’s interesting. But makes no real sense.

I enjoyed it and plan to read more Crouch.