Unfortunately this one really wasn’t for me. I didn’t find myself connecting with the characters enough to really care about what was going on.

This book could have been a short story. Not much happens and it drags on and on and is very repetitive. I've been really enjoying Nordic literature of late, but this one just missed the mark for me. I pushed through because it was an ARC, but honestly I didn't really care about what happened to the characters. The main characters' past was a bit too vague for me. What was her injury really? And I only read it a few months ago and can't really remember that much about it. The atmosphere had the potential to be promising, but that was the most interesting part. Sorry, this one was just not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for an ARC of this release.

This was a very atmospheric book with a satisfying ending. I traveled to Iceland for the first time recently so the setting was really attractive to me. While I did predict the ending, there were lots of twists and turns that led to it and I did enjoy it

Melissa Larsen’s The Lost House is the perfect atmospheric Nordic Noir thriller for those who like their mysteries heavy on setting and suspense. Normally, I do not like the Nordic Noir sub-genre of mysteries as being too dark, too eerie. But Larsen was able to keep my pages turning with an absorbing story-line and full set of characters.

The main character, Agnes, was a bit over the top with her addiction and anxiety, but that type of character suspense did feed into the frigid, unforgiving landscape of Iceland. Agnes is the granddaughter of an alleged murderer of his wife and baby over 40 years ago in a small village in Iceland. Agnes travels from California, popping pills to deal with pain from an accident, and arrives in a blizzard – of snow and secrets. She is ostensibly in Iceland to help produce a pod cast on the history of the murder (and prove her grandfather innocent once and for all), but upon her arrival another young woman goes missing from the same small town and the old secrets start coming out as the podcaster, Nora, delves into both the murder and the missing person case.

Such a fun winter read! Blizzards, freezing temps, frozen bodies! The plot was easily figured out as to who was the murderer/abductor. And Agnes’ addiction to the pain pills meant that she did some outrageous behavior – do people in California not know you need gloves? But somehow, I liked Agnes and cheered for her as she blundered around in the snow and cold. Even while she is screaming in pain, she finds the energy to start up a new relationship with a woman she meets during the investigation for the podcast. It is really no wonder that Nora gets frustrated with Agnes. The reader does, too. That frustration seems to fit in perfectly though with the chilly and dangerous setting.

My rating: 3.5 of 5

This ARC title was provided by Netgalley.com at no cost, and I am providing an unbiased review. The Lost House was published on Jan. 14, 2025.

The Lost House is a slow burn thriller/mystery set in Iceland in the dead of winter.



The synopsis hooked me, a young woman returning to her ancestral home in Iceland to meet with a podcaster who is covering the gruesome murder in her family and hopefully find out once and for all if her grandfather is a murderer or not. Consider me, sold!



I enjoyed the story, especially the setting, interesting set of characters and the true crime aspect. Taking place in the dead of winter in Iceland with a lack of sunlight, daily, talk about eerie.



Unfortunately, it was too slow paced for my preference, repetitive at times and felt like there was so much information included that didn't really contribute to the story the combination unfortunately made the story drag a bit too much.



Thank you to Netgalley, St.Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for this ARC.

The Lost House - Melissa Larsen
Pub date: January 14th 2025
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐.25

Thanks to @stmartinspress & @netgalley for this ARC copy!

The plot of this book looked very interesting and I was excited to read it.

The first 80% was just meh for me. It didn't have the action I was looking for. I really enjoyed the last 20% as it was packed with action.

I don't know if it was the writing I didn't like but something was not gelling with my reading style.

#thelosthouse #melissalarsen #readsof2025 #arccopy #netgalley #stmartinspress #books #bookstagrammer #bookstagram

If you're a fan of cold case shows, this book will be right up your alley. The story delves into a 40-year-old cold case that's being resurrected for a podcast, stirring up much more than just memories of the past. As the story unfolds, it intertwines with a present-day missing person case, taking you on a thrilling rollercoaster of events that culminate in a jaw-dropping conclusion.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a bit of a slow burn, but I love Nordic Noir thrillers and found it to be atmospheric and enjoyable! I liked that we had two mysteries to follow. Did Agnes' grandfather really kill his wife and daughter 40 years ago, and what happened to Asa? I do wish the podcast element had played a little bigger of a part and that Agnes' leg injury had not been mentioned so prominently. The twists and turns were good and had me wanting to keep turning the pages!

Thank you, @netgalley, @stmartinspress, and @minotaur_books for the #gifted e-arc!

In this Nordic Noir Thriller, Nora goes to Iceland in search of answers to her family’s very dark and complicated past. Agreeing to interviews by Agnes, a podcaster and astute amateur investigator, the past and the present begin to intertwine, leading Nora, a deeply flawed and damaged protagonist down rabbit holes she may never escape.

Larsen has a unique style of writing which at first felt disjointed due to many partial thoughts and incomplete sentences. Much more than usual. But then I fell into the rhythm of how this author wields language, and the rhythm of her writing revealed dimensions of her characters while also telling me the story.

The characterization is robust, the writing while dense doesn’t go off on tangents - everything is important to the story being told. The plot and development of story, is thorough, well-thought out, and moves at a moderate pace. The past is morbid and tricky, the present is fraught with danger, and slippery.

The Icelandic setting is beautifully rendered, icing the reader’s bones.

I felt very satisfied by this read.

4/5 stars

Melissa Larsen had me chilled to the bone as I read this thriller set during a bone chilling winter in Iceland. I cringed with every step Agnes took throughout this read. Agnes has traveled to Iceland to help her determine the truth about her grandfather’s suspected involvement in a murder before she was born. Her love for her grandfather was so touching and the family dynamics were fascinating.
While there Agnes struggled with her injury to her leg, her conflicted feelings about her grandfather, her attraction to someone new and her interest in a missing student. Larsen keeps the reader turning the pages as fast as they can as the pacing gathers speed and relates unbelievable pain while traveling towards the unexpected conclusion. Agnes was one determined women for sure.
Melissa Larsen shared that she also had a second injury to her knee after slipping on ice while doing research in Iceland. Her descriptions of the pain Agnes felt made me shiver many times…job well done.
I totally enjoyed this read and are looking forward to future reads.
Many many thanks to Melissa Larsen, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing me with an arc of this just published read. Don’t miss out on this read.

This book promised so much, yet was so very slow.

I was so excited when I saw this book. It sounded like a great way to read about a different culture, and get a murder mystery on top of it. Instead, the characters fell flat, and the story seemed to be too drawn out. Near the last 10 percent of the book, it did pick up, but by then, I was burned out.

While this book holds promise, it was too slow for me. I hope other readers love it!

Rating: 4/5
I received an eARC for my honest opinion.

Agnes is on a mission to clear her grandfather’s name for once and for all. 40 years ago, her grandfather was accused of murdering his wife and infant daughter, after no arrests or conviction he left Iceland for America. When Nora, a true crime podcaster, asks her to speak up on her grandfather's unsolved case in Iceland, she jumps on the plan to see what she can do to help clear his name but when she gets there, she finds out that another girl has gone missing, and they have no leads. With the help of Nora, Agnes gets to solving this twisting and turning mystery.

I really liked this suspenseful murder mystery. I loved how the author wrote this chilling, winter book. You will feel the cold of the snow, feel the ice-covered roads. I loved that the author wrote about the different places that Agnes’s father played and where her grandfather used to live. I liked how this thriller/mystery checked all my boxes; the plot was thrilling and suspenseful, I loved that it was twisting and turning and that it felt you on the edge of your seat. I liked that the author made sure that the side characters didn’t feel like side characters to me. I found the depth of the darkness in this book to have been done right. The characters were well written, and the author writes them, they will feel like they’re people who you know and are real. I found Agnes the easiest to connect with and I loved that she was determined to the truth no matter what.

I received the audio for this book as well and I thought the narrative Saskia Maarleveld did a perfect job. She has the best voice to bring this thriller to life for the readers and will keep you on your toes/edge of the seat.

I would like to thank NetGalley, St. Martin Press and Mcmillian for the opportunity to review this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc of this. Sometimes I rate higher than I really feel and this is one of those times because I thought it was well written and didn't deserve dragged down by my personal issues. But holy crap I couldn't stand Agnes and it took me awhile to realize why she annoyed me so much. Partly it's because she's such a sad sack (with reasons) or that I don't like unreliable narrators (which she is) but also because like Agnes I suffered a leg injury that left me learning how to walk again and joints filled with synthetic tendons, pins and screws through the knee. I could have been Agnes and I see in her a dark reflection of me (I avoided the narcotic dependence she has but that might be down to the fact the nursing home cold turkeyed me when they sent me home vs me being stronger than Agnes)

Agnes, against the wishes of her father, Magnus, has gone to Iceland where he was born because Nora, a true crime podcaster, is doing the story of the Frozen Madonna, a young mother found with her drowned baby frozen in her arms and she, herself, had her throat cut. This is Agnes's grandmother and her Aunt Agnes for whom she was named. Einar, her grandfather was the only suspect which was why he left Iceland to raise her father in California. Agnes believes in her grandfather's innocence (but does her father) and wants to go to Iceland to the farm house her father grew up in just to prove her grandfather innocent.

Once there, she's swept up by the charismatic Nora and meets her host, Thor who was a bit older than her father and now owns the family property. he remembers the case. Ingvar who was her father's age and has a prospective on the man she's never seen and then there's Oskar, Lilja and Asa, the latter of whom has gone missing, making a counterpoint for the old Frozen Madonna case with a fresh horror as she disappeared after being at the farm house.

Nora, and with her Agnes, is drawn into that case as Agnes has to face that everyone in Bifrost believes her grandfather is the killer and she might have to admit he is.

I did guess both mysteries but there is a big twist in one of them I didn't see coming and was thrilled by. In fact the last quarter of the book is probably the best part. I did like the book. The mysteries are well done. Agnes' vacillating emotions feel appropriate. What didn't work as well for me is it does get a bit repetitive about Agnes' injury, how her girlfriend left her, how she wants her pills but it's not like I don't think about my old injury often so maybe it shouldn't bother me (but it did, it felt a bit much)

But my biggest quibbles surround Nora. It felt like a few things fell off the radar. At one point Agnes and Nora come into a piece of evidence that should have been turned over to the police (and there are reasons it wasn't story wise) but we don't know why Nora didn't do it. Worse, Nora starts fading out of the story around the halfway point. She does need to be elsewhere for the ending to work but that was easily handled but it felt odd that slowly but surely she goes from being a main player to nearly nonexistent (yes it's Agnes' story but Nora starts with a large role)

Still this is a well written book with interesting mysteries and well worth the read.

I loved the icy cold setting of Iceland as the backdrop for a thriller. The wintry secluded vibes made for a great atmosphere. I also liked how the novel was structured with three parts and a couple of interludes. However, the plot itself moved at a snails pace and felt very slow and repetitive. Not much happened to keep things moving and excited so ultimately this book fell flat for me. Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy!

❄️THE LOST HOUSE❄️ by @melissalarsenauthor was a thrilling puzzle box set in a wintery landscape that gave me chills! Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publishers, @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for the audio and e-ARCs.

🧊🧊🧊

Agnes touches down in Keflavik for the first time after decades of hearing the harrowing story of her family's tragic past. Her grandfather fled Iceland 40 years earlier with Agnes's young father in tow after his wife and newborn daughter were found frozen, the matriarch with a slit across her throat.

Agnes is in Iceland to meet with Nora, a host of the podcast The End who is doing a story on her family and the village they lived in for the 40th anniversary. The two enjoy a tepid reception from a town that has made up their minds that Agnes's grandfather was the killer all those years ago. Can Agnes find evidence that the grandfather she has always known and loved is not a killer?

🥶🥶🥶

This was my kind of thriller! Small town gossip, citizen sleuths, and a locked-in style cold weather landscape made this one shine. The podcast angle is certainly becoming a normal thriller theme and I enjoyed the way the two characters with dueling agendas played against and in collaboration with each other. Loved the ending twist!

My main complaint was that I am over the protagonist as druggie/mental health sufferer that can't ever trust themselves. Makes for good thrillers I guess, but just not my fave. I also probably could have gone without the romance aspect but points for it being sapphic!

I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves cold weather thrillers, dusting off cold cases, redemption ARCs, and Icelandic culture.

Iceland in winter. A derelict house where a murderer allegedly lived. A young woman determined to clear her grandfather's name. Everything stacked up in Melissa Larsen's The Lost House to make it a book that I should really enjoy.

The creepy, ramshackle house and the brutal Icelandic winter weather did draw me in, but those were the only two things that did. The whodunit was not surprising, and the story moved very slowly-- sometimes with too much description.

The nail in the coffin of The Lost House was its characters. This is a book where you must care for the main character, and Agnes never did grow on me. She was a lonely addict riddled with angst-- definitely not my kind of character. Moreover, none of the others could fill in the gap. No, I'm sorry to say that this character-driven reader never did warm up to Agnes, but your mileage can certainly vary.

We follow a woman who heads to Iceland to solve a 40 year old murder that tore apart her family. A woman & infant daughter are brutally murdered & the person blamed was the husband. Agnes wants to clear her grandfather's name & the same week she's there a young woman goes missing. Could the disappearance be connected to her grandma & aunts murder? The setting was so good. A mystery in the Icelandic cold brought the eerie & chilly a5mosphere to life. The murders were heartbreaking but the twist at 5he end was a great surprise

This is an atmospheric haunting mystery that gave me chills. Throughout this gripping story is a strong sense of foreboding. This is a story that will stay with you long after you are finished reading. Chilling, compelling, and suspenseful describe this original absorbing story. Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for my copy.

I enjoyed this true crime podcast novel that is set in Iceland and looks into the cold case of a murdered mother and baby. The story is a slow burn told from multiple POVs. The writing is atmospheric and really pulls at the heart strings as the murdered woman’s granddaughter grapples with being in her family’s home town for the first time.

I’m now going to go back to read Larsen’s debut novel, Shutter and I look forward to her future books!

great book and I loved the action and the romance . I loved seeing the friends and family. I loved that they were able to figure things out. Overall a great book .