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danubooks 's review for:
The Lost House
by Melissa Larsen
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
She is compelled to discover the truth about her family's past
Forty years ago a violent murder ripped apart the fabric of a small Icelandic town, The bodies of a young mother, beloved local teacher Marie, and her infant daughter Agnes were discovered in the fields outside of Bifröst four days after they went missing. It was clear that Marie was murdered; her throat was cut wide open. Suspicion immediately fell upon her husband Einar, a professor at the local university, and although he was never charged with the crime he was quickly branded a murderer in the court of public opinion, ultimately having no choice but to take his remaining child, a nine year old boy named Magnús, and leave Iceland to start a new life in California. Nora Carver, a true crime podcaster who has recently had success in contributing to a cold case being solved, has been fascinated by the crime which became known as "the Frozen Madonna and Child" for years and has chosen it as the subject for the upcoming season of her show. She is in Iceland, in Bifröst, to begin her investigation and has reached out unsuccessfully to Magnús for an interview. Magnús's daughter Agnes, however, has agreed to travel to Iceland to spend time there and be interviewed by Nora, much to her father's chagrin. Agnes is at a very low point in her life. The grandfather whom she loved deeply and who lived most of his adult life under a cloud of suspicion, died a year ago; shortly thereafter, she had an accident which shattered a leg and which led to multiple surgeries and PT but from which she still suffers from significant pain. She is out of work, addicted to pain pills, and her girlfriend Emi and she broke up three months earlier. Growing up, it was her grandfather Einar to whom she was closest (her parents divorced, her mother remarried and moved across the country and her father is emotionally distant). Agnes believes that he was innocent of having murdered his wife and child (her grandmother and aunt), but it is a subject which neither Einar nor Magnús would ever discuss. She arrives in Bifröst to discover that a new drama has arisen there, the disappearance of university student Ása from a party held at the farmhouse where Einar and his young family had lived decades earlier. Nora is looking into that crime as well as the one involving Agnes' family, and there does seem to be a connection between the two. Emotionally fragile and out of her depth in a town which still believe in her grandfather's guilt, can Agnes find out the truth of what happened forty years earlier? Could the grandfather she loved deeply and who was the main source of warmth and love in her life actually be guilty after all?
Set primarily in the bleak winter landscape of a small Icelandic town, where everyone knows everyone else (and their family stories as well), there is an element of Nordic Noir to this latest novel by Melissa Larsen. The main character, Agnes, is a bit of a mess; in near constant pain unless she takes the pain pills to which she is clearly addicted, adrift after the loss first of her grandfather and more recently Emi, and at odds with her father over her decision to travel to Iceland and participate in Nora's podcast. Magnús does not feel that anything good will come of the investigation (he has always believed his father to be guilty of killing his mother and baby sister), and continues to be a disapproving figure to Agnes as he has been for years. As Agnes meets the locals....Thor, a distant relation who owns the house where Nora and now Agnes are staying; Ingvar, the man who as a young boy was a student of Marie and was the one who discovered her body; Óskar and Lilja, friends of the missing Ása who have not been entirely candid with the police...she becomes caught up in the current mystery even as she tries to make sense of what she is learning about Einar from those who knew him and have judged him guilty. As much a search for identity as it is an intriguing puzzle, my attention was grabbed at the very beginning and did not waver until the end. Possible villains in both the past and present are revealed and the damage left behind on a community years ago by one crime even as they struggle to deal with another in the present is explored, as the plot gradually unfolds. Readers of Larsen's previous book Shutter (which I also enjoyed and highly recommend) and authors like Hannah Morrissey, Vanessa Lillie and Carol Goodman as well as those who enjoy Nordic Noir should pick up a copy of this haunting story. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for allowing me access to The Lost House in exchange for my honest review.
Forty years ago a violent murder ripped apart the fabric of a small Icelandic town, The bodies of a young mother, beloved local teacher Marie, and her infant daughter Agnes were discovered in the fields outside of Bifröst four days after they went missing. It was clear that Marie was murdered; her throat was cut wide open. Suspicion immediately fell upon her husband Einar, a professor at the local university, and although he was never charged with the crime he was quickly branded a murderer in the court of public opinion, ultimately having no choice but to take his remaining child, a nine year old boy named Magnús, and leave Iceland to start a new life in California. Nora Carver, a true crime podcaster who has recently had success in contributing to a cold case being solved, has been fascinated by the crime which became known as "the Frozen Madonna and Child" for years and has chosen it as the subject for the upcoming season of her show. She is in Iceland, in Bifröst, to begin her investigation and has reached out unsuccessfully to Magnús for an interview. Magnús's daughter Agnes, however, has agreed to travel to Iceland to spend time there and be interviewed by Nora, much to her father's chagrin. Agnes is at a very low point in her life. The grandfather whom she loved deeply and who lived most of his adult life under a cloud of suspicion, died a year ago; shortly thereafter, she had an accident which shattered a leg and which led to multiple surgeries and PT but from which she still suffers from significant pain. She is out of work, addicted to pain pills, and her girlfriend Emi and she broke up three months earlier. Growing up, it was her grandfather Einar to whom she was closest (her parents divorced, her mother remarried and moved across the country and her father is emotionally distant). Agnes believes that he was innocent of having murdered his wife and child (her grandmother and aunt), but it is a subject which neither Einar nor Magnús would ever discuss. She arrives in Bifröst to discover that a new drama has arisen there, the disappearance of university student Ása from a party held at the farmhouse where Einar and his young family had lived decades earlier. Nora is looking into that crime as well as the one involving Agnes' family, and there does seem to be a connection between the two. Emotionally fragile and out of her depth in a town which still believe in her grandfather's guilt, can Agnes find out the truth of what happened forty years earlier? Could the grandfather she loved deeply and who was the main source of warmth and love in her life actually be guilty after all?
Set primarily in the bleak winter landscape of a small Icelandic town, where everyone knows everyone else (and their family stories as well), there is an element of Nordic Noir to this latest novel by Melissa Larsen. The main character, Agnes, is a bit of a mess; in near constant pain unless she takes the pain pills to which she is clearly addicted, adrift after the loss first of her grandfather and more recently Emi, and at odds with her father over her decision to travel to Iceland and participate in Nora's podcast. Magnús does not feel that anything good will come of the investigation (he has always believed his father to be guilty of killing his mother and baby sister), and continues to be a disapproving figure to Agnes as he has been for years. As Agnes meets the locals....Thor, a distant relation who owns the house where Nora and now Agnes are staying; Ingvar, the man who as a young boy was a student of Marie and was the one who discovered her body; Óskar and Lilja, friends of the missing Ása who have not been entirely candid with the police...she becomes caught up in the current mystery even as she tries to make sense of what she is learning about Einar from those who knew him and have judged him guilty. As much a search for identity as it is an intriguing puzzle, my attention was grabbed at the very beginning and did not waver until the end. Possible villains in both the past and present are revealed and the damage left behind on a community years ago by one crime even as they struggle to deal with another in the present is explored, as the plot gradually unfolds. Readers of Larsen's previous book Shutter (which I also enjoyed and highly recommend) and authors like Hannah Morrissey, Vanessa Lillie and Carol Goodman as well as those who enjoy Nordic Noir should pick up a copy of this haunting story. Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for allowing me access to The Lost House in exchange for my honest review.