The Blood Which Snow Hides -- Reviewing The Lost House (mystery/suspense book)

A popular true-crime podcaster—with secrets of her own—who focuses on unsolved crimes. 

A confused, late-20s woman—recovering from a terrible accident, and grieving a pair of losses—whom the podcaster approaches about the latest story she wants to share with her eager subscribers.

 

An angry father, who doesn’t really understand his daughter—her choices, who she is—but is dead-set against her participation in the podcast, knowing what it will do to their family.

 

A grandfather—now dead—forced to leave his beloved hometown in Iceland some forty years ago and relocate to far-off California with his young son, following the tragic deaths of his wife and infant daughter.

 

And the small Icelandic town—Bifröst—where the tragedy still, somehow, feels fresh. 

 

And... where another horrible event may even now be taking place.

 

The stage is set for Melissa Larsen’s latest mystery/suspense, The Lost House.

 

 

When a little boy found the bodies of local schoolteacher Marie and her baby girl, Agnes, buried in the snow four decades ago, the townsfolk of tiny Bifröst were quick to blame the husband/father, Einar Pálsson. 

 

Why? Because everyone knew Einar and his beautiful, younger, Danish wife weren’t the picture of marital bliss, and Einar, well... he’d always had a short fuse.

 

So, despite the lack of enough evidence to convict him, Einar had chosen to leave his home and take his remaining child, Magnús, far away from the angry glares and open hostility.

 

Agnes Glin—named for the infant who would’ve been her aunt—has heard that story many times. Not from her grandfather or father—who both refused point-blank to speak of it—but from articles, books, and even social media, when the perpetual and lurid fascination with one of Iceland’s most-famous unsolved crimes is again piqued.

 

“The Frozen Madonna and Child”... that’s how people refer to it, her family’s personal tragedy.

 

But Agnes has never believed her grandfather did it.

 

When podcaster Nora Carver reaches out to her—offering an expenses-paid trip to Iceland—Agnes, still reeling from her grandfather’s recent death and very much needing a change of scenery, agrees to go and be interviewed. She has a score to settle with the people of Bifröst... for the sake of her grandfather’s memory.

 

But when she arrives, in a land so completely different from the California beaches she grew up around, she begins to wonder if her decision was entirely wise.

 

There is snow—so much snow—and the air has a sort of biting cold she’s never experienced. Making matters worse, her brain can’t seem to get acclimated to the brevity of daylight hours, followed by endlessly-long, dark nights.

 

Even though Nora is as friendly and enthusiastic as a puppy, none of the locals are too pleased with Agnes’ presence... in part, because her appearance—so much like Marie’s—is a constant reminder of the tragedy which still stains the town.

 

There’s also the fact that another young woman—similar in looks to both Marie and her granddaughter Agnes—has just gone missing... in this unforgiving landscape of frigid Bifröst snowstorms.

 

Agnes worries her own unwanted arrival may’ve caused a copycat event... or that she’s triggered the real murderer into repeating their original killings.

 

Either way, there’s a young woman—alive, dead, or soon-to-be-dead—out there, all alone, in the cold... and no one seems willing to give up any of the town’s secrets, to try and save her.

 

But maybe Agnes can... or at least she’ll probably die, trying.

 

 

Some books are very straight-forward... wham-bam, you’re in—and out—of the plot, didn’t have to do much work, and just went along for the ride.

 

In others, there’s a boatload of baggage to unpack... so much that you start to feel like perhaps you need therapy.

 

The Lost House falls in the latter category. 

 

Agnes—much like her father and grandfather—has STUFF to work through. Family stuff. History stuff. Interpersonal stuff. Relationship stuff. Guilt, blame, hard feelings, misunderstandings, physical pain—you name it, she’s a hot mess.

 

And, just like in real life, some of that stuff is pertinent to the action at hand... and some isn’t, but it’s not readily obvious to Agnes which is which. That conundrum ramps up the psychological tension in palpable ways.

 

The author also shows a good feel for the sort of insular community often found in small, remote towns... an “everyone-knows-everything-about-everyone-else (but-would-never-dream-of-making-an-outsider-privy-to-any-of-it)” mindset.

 

With The Lost House, Larsen delivers a chilling mystery-suspense in a place we haven’t seen a dozen or more times, already... populated by characters who, fittingly, also feel more like freshly-driven snow than the same-old, same-old. And that makes for a book you want to dive into.

 

Whether you live where it snows or not, The Lost House is a fine choice for some cozy-indoors-winter-reading.

~GlamKitty

[My sincere thanks to St. Martin's Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are, as always, entirely my own.]