In my novel The Double (mystery/suspense), the bulk of the action takes place at an isolated psychiatric clinic in the Swiss Alps. Rimmed by treacherous peaks, the sole access to the property from the tiny village below is on the creaky, clinic-owned funicular.
Although the setting and clinic in The Double, Les Hirondelles, are fictional, I was inspired by a number of dizzyingly high (and sometimes spooky) places that have been home to the type of high-end clinics and sanatoriums that Switzerland has long been famous for. Though some of the old 19th century tuberculosis sanatoriums have been torn down, or converted into hotels, others have been abandoned to the elements. These abandoned clinics provide an unsettling glimpse of the ravages of time, along with the physical evidence of medical history fading into the mists.
In my mind’s eye, I can see Les Hirondelles, constructed from the abandoned stone mansion that once belonged to a 1920s industrialist, and I can feel the often disturbing and tense atmosphere created by Vidor Kiraly and Dr Gessen, as they pursue their high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse, with Gessen hoping to determine what’s wrong with Vidor before he attacks — and kills someone — again.
Below are some images that inspired the novel’s setting.
