The Lost House

November 11, 2024
The Icelandic village of Bitfröst contends with two crimes, 40 years apart, in this atmospheric outing from Larsen (Shutter). In 2019, software developer Agnes Glin is nursing a broken leg in California when she accepts true crime podcaster Nora Carver’s invitation to come to Iceland for an interview about Agnes’s grandfather, Einar Palsson. Four decades earlier, Einar was accused by Bitfröst gossips of killing his young wife and their baby daughter. Though he was never charged with the crime, his move to California shortly afterward was considered proof of his guilt by locals. Now, Einar has died, and Agnes must once again try to reconcile the sweet man she knew with the monster his neighbors saw. Shortly after Agnes arrives in Bitfröst with ambitions of clearing Einar’s name, a young woman from the village goes missing. Suddenly, Agnes and Nora have a new case on their hands—and the more they dig, the more Agnes suspects the mystery is linked to her grandmother’s death. Larsen seamlessly interweaves Agnes’s path toward self-discovery with her and Nora’s investigation, deriving satisfying emotional beats from somewhat familiar Scandi-noir parts. The result is sufficiently chilling.

December 15, 2024
A sleepy Icelandic town provides the setting for two horrific crimes 50 years apart. Obsession prompts Agnes Glin to journey from California, where she's lived her whole life, to remote Bifr�st, Iceland, in response to an offer from passionate true crime podcaster Nora Carver. Agnes' grandfather, Einar P�lsson, was the chief suspect in one of Iceland's most notorious unsolved cases, the murder of his wife, Marie Hvass, and their infant daughter, Agnes Einarsd�ttir, immortalized in a haunting photograph as the "Frozen Madonna and Child." This horror has cast a shadow over the Glin family for decades. Because her own near-fatal surfing accident has necessitated a long recovery and led to what Agnes considers a broken existence, Nora's offer feels like a lifeline, as well as a chance to learn the details of her family's past and clear her grandfather's name. Even as Agnes adjusts to this new, utterly alien environment, the little community is rocked by another provocative mystery with echoes of the 1974 murder that branded Einar. Out for a night of heavy drinking with some friends, a local student named �sa vanishes. Nora believes that her disappearance is related to the mystery surrounding Einar. Agnes, initially worried that Nora's interest in this new case may distract her from the 1974 crime, ends up pulled into the baffling disappearance as well. With its measured pace, psychological depth, and vivid portraits of people and places, Larsen's atmospheric thriller resembles Nordic noir, though the author is American. The combustible combination of hard-charging Nora and skittish Agnes adds tension in a twisty novel full of surprises. A haunting whodunit with effective undertones of menace.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2025
Devastated after her beloved grandfather Einer's death, Agnes seizes the opportunity to honor his memory when true-crime podcaster Nora Carver invites her along to visit the farm he abandoned in Iceland after his wife and daughter's grisly murders. Their deaths, Iceland's most sensational murders, are officially unsolved, but the general consensus is that Einer escaped justice. Agnes is determined to use Nora's deep-dive investigation to prove his innocence. But, when she arrives at her family's isolated property, a fresh mystery complicates the investigation: a college student named Asa has disappeared after attending a recent party in the "murder house." Agnes digs into the memories of neighbors who insist that Einer is guilty, but her determined questioning uncovers a terrifying link between Asa's disappearance and the long-cold murders. Larsen strikes the right notes here for fans of Scandinavian thrillers, contrasting the forbidding environment with intense relationships and revealing the village's crimes through the lenses of loneliness and family dysfunction. A winning recommendation for readers seeking a snowy thriller with LGBTQ+ themes and a satisfying, redemptive ending.

COPYRIGHT(2025) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 15, 2024

Forty years ago, Agnes's grandfather was a suspect in the murder of his wife and daughter and fled to California with his son. After his death, Agnes hopes to find some answers and agrees to meet a true-crime podcaster in the remote town of Bifr�st, Iceland, where the murders occurred. Larsen's (Shutter) latest receives a 75K-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.