Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review "The Lost House." I loved the premise of the story. A girl returning to her ancestral home to solve an old murder mystery that affects her family. The author gives very detailed descriptions and the reader can almost feel the bitter coldness of Iceland. What it lacked was a fast pace. The story moved too slowly, which is why I gave it 3 stars.

The description of this book had me looking forward to reading it. However, the execution fell flat for me. I did not like any of the characters except for Nora, the podcaster. The MC kept saying her mind wandered off. The people in the town came off as being very short with everyone. I think if this had been dual POV with Nora, it would have been more interesting. The story dragged on with no real thrills, just trying to solve a cold case and a current missing person. The writing style itself was good and the descriptions of Iceland made you feel like you were there. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.

A moody, atmospheric story that blends psychological suspense with slow-burning tension. The premise is interesting and the author does a good job creating an eerie, almost cinematic tone, and her prose is often vivid and immersive.
The pacing tends to drag in the middle, and the story felt somewhat repetitive. Some of the character motivations felt murky or underdeveloped. The main character’s choices were frustratingly passive, which made it harder to stay invested.
It's a decent read for those that are fans of an atmospheric mystery and slow burn, character driven mysteries.

The Lost House had an intriguing premise—returning to Iceland to uncover family secrets—but it just didn’t fully land for me. The pacing felt slow, and while the atmosphere was moody, the story never really took off. I kept waiting for a big reveal or emotional payoff, but it never quite came.

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

This book was well written and easy to fall into. The mystery was captivating and kept me hooked throughout. I liked Agnes as a lead and thought she really made this book for me. My only complaint is this was a little too dark for me. I am more of a cozy mystery fan, but if this is your type of book I think it was a good one.

Loved this so much. A woman goes to Iceland to participate in a podcast about the murder case of her grandmother and baby aunt years and years ago. The main suspect? Her beloved grandfather who recently passed. Very atmospheric, beautiful writing, good character development and a great whodunnit where everyone is a suspect.

Did not read. Have way too many books on my shelf - need to cut back. Hoping to get to it in the future though.

Atmospheric, haunting, and utterly immersive, The Lost House by Melissa Larsen is a chilling slow-burn mystery that blends family trauma, true crime obsession, and the eerie beauty of an Icelandic winter into a spellbinding tale of buried secrets.

The story follows Agnes, still grieving the loss of her grandfather—and possibly losing herself—when she agrees to travel to her family’s ancestral home in Bifröst, Iceland. Her goal? To clear her grandfather’s name in the unsolved murder of his wife and baby daughter forty years ago. Partnering with a true crime podcaster (who may or may not have her own agenda), Agnes arrives hoping for answers—but is instead pulled into a fresh mystery when a local girl disappears.

Larsen’s writing is sharp, poetic, and perfectly suited to the stark, isolating setting. The tension builds with each chapter, and the dual timelines—the original crime and the present-day unraveling—are masterfully layered. The psychological elements were especially strong, touching on grief, obsession, inherited guilt, and the damage silence can do over generations.

The final twists? Chilling. Satisfying. Unexpected. This one will stick with me.

Highly recommended for fans of The Distant Dead, Tana French, or Ruth Ware’s more atmospheric novels. Just be sure to read it with a blanket—and maybe a light on.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I really enjoyed this book. I'm not one to normally like slow-burns, but this one had some interesting elements. I've always wanted to visit Iceland and I love the cold because where I live, it doesn't really get cold for long. The setting was just perfect.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio for the copies to review.

OK, this cover is amazing, and the setting of Iceland was perfect. The story and the audio were just as good, and I was captivated from the start. It ended up being a one-setting read. Told in two timelines, this was an eerie, atmospheric story, with the past and present coming together in the middle of a snowstorm with an ending that I did not expect.

For a nordic noir, The Lost House certainly checked all the boxes one would expect of a decades old cold case murder mystery set in Iceland. You have a somewhat questionably reliable narrator who is coming off a painkiller addiction, shifty neighbors, secrets spoken in an unknown language, and small town secrets. However, despite all the necessary ingredients, the meal this murder served was a little cold and like most Scandanavian food, a bit bland.

Overall, although enjoyable, I accurately predicted the ending fairly early on so the teists, turns, snd surprise reveals were underwhelming. However, someone who has not read a ton of Nordic thrillers will most likely be on their edge of their seat and find The Lost House much more chilling than I did.

My biggest problem with the book however lay in the slapdash romance of the main character. It felt incredibly forced and would have been better left completely cut out of the book as it neither helped Agnes, nor the investigation.

For fans of cold case murder style mysteries with no police procedural drama. There is LGBTQIA+ representation, but zero spice.

Thank you to NetGalley, Minotaur Books, and Melissa Larsen for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

While I enjoyed aspects of this, it seemed to drag on a tad long for me. I loved the setting, and it almost played its own part as a character. An interesting storyline and some good characters.

Thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Books!

This was just the kind of creepy, Nordic thriller I needed!

Our narrator, Agnes, has live-in California all her life. But now, after the death of her grandfather--who lived his life in the shadow of the murders of his wife and child--Agnes is going to return to Iceland with a true crime podcaster who is examining the still unsolved crime. On this 40-year anniversary of the crime, Agnes hopes to find a way to clear his name--but things go sideways soon after Agnes's arrival.

Really great atmosphere, You'll feel the cold seep into your bones on this one and race forward to reach the ending!

The Lost House by Melissa Larsen was decent. I felt like it was a pretty general book - almost like I had read parts of it before in other books. I won't write the author off just yet though!

I overall enjoyed this book. The story did flow well and I was surprised by the ending. But some of it just seemed dragged out to me.

This unfortunately didn't work for me. I really loved the setting of Iceland, having visited there last year. I liked the visual of the snowy landscape in a remote area as the backdrop for the thriller.

I thought the synopsis sounded really good and I loved the idea of Agnes returning to resolve an open murder case where the locals blamed her grandfather. I think my biggest problem was that there was just too much going on with the plot, while also feeling like not a whole lot was actually happening. The pacing didn't work for me and I wasn't a huge fan of Agnes. Between her emotional subjectivity of the case to her life altering year old injuries that she was dealing with to her recent break up with her long term girlfriend to the insta love situation she found herself in with another character, it just felt like she had a little too much happening that I struggled to invest in any of it fully.

I think the bones of this novel are really good, but the execution didn't work for me personally. There are a lot of good reviews though, so I would still say it's worth a try since others seem to really enjoy it!

Thank you to Minotaur Books and Netgalley for a gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I felt like this book started out pretty great but then the middle started to drag for me. I liked the way that the tension and the story builds. I liked the integration of the podcast and flashbacks. I didn’t see the end coming which is always a good thing for me. I just feel like there was a few too many threads that never got resolved. I also felt like I was never too deeply involved in the story until the very end of the book.

The Lost House by Melissa Larsen is a chilling and atmospheric thriller set in the stark winter landscape of Iceland. The story weaves past and present as Agnes, grappling with grief and trauma, investigates a decades-old family murder while a new disappearance unfolds. Larsen’s writing is haunting and introspective, creating a slow-burning mystery rich with emotional depth. This is a perfect read for fans of Nordic noir and character-driven suspense.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Lost House
By: Melissa Larsen
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Pub Date: 1/14/25
Agnes is a 27 year old woman who has spent the last year recovering from a tragic fall. When Nora, a popular podcaster, reaches out to her about her grandmother and aunt's death in Iceland 40 years before. Not getting the answer she’s looking for from her father, she travels to Iceland to find the truth. Did her grandfather really kill her grandmother and the baby?
This is my first thriller by this author, she had a knack for keeping you guessing trying to figure out who really killed them.