The House of Lost Horizons: A Sarah Jewell Mystery

The World of Hellboy: Standalone Books

by Chris Roberson (Story by), Mike Mignola (Created by), Leila del Duca (illustrator)

A locked-room murder mystery puzzles paranormal detective Sarah Jewell and her associate Marie Therése when a weekend trip on a private island off the coast of Washington goes astray.

Trapped by a storm and surrounded by myriad suspects who have gathered for an auction of occult items, the intrepid duo must unravel the supernatural mysteries surrounding the guests in the hopes of uncovering the murderer! But all the while bodies keep piling up, and at any moment Sarah or Marie Therése could be next!

Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson return to the world of Hellboy, accompanied by acclaimed artist Leila del Duca and colorist extraordinaire Michelle Madsen for this paperback collection of the thrilling five-issue series!

Collects The House of Lost Horizons #1-#5.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Mystery, Comics, Horror, Fantasy, Supernatural, Historical Fiction

136 pages, Hardcover

First published February 22, 2022

About the author

Chris Roberson is the co-creator with artist Michael Allred of iZombie, the basis of the hit CW television series, and the writer of several New York Times best-selling Cinderella miniseries set in the world of Bill Willingham’s Fables. He is also the co-creator of Edison Rex with artist Dennis Culver, and the co-writer of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D, Witchfinder, Rise of the Black Flame, and other titles set in the world of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. In addition to his numerous comics projects, Roberson has written more than a dozen novels and three dozen short stories. He lives with a teenager, two cats, and far too many books in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

An Agatha Christie inspired locked room murder mystery peripherally set in the Mignolaverse. Sounds like a natural fit but this was just boring and drawn out. Everyone has secrets they hide for absolutely no reason and don't matter to the story at all just to stretch this out. Roberson has been phoning in his writing for the last several years.

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot is silly, and that's a shame, because there is a lot of it, and because the book misses two important ingredients of a whodunnit - atmosphere, and good characters.

The whole story could've been told in a much more thrilling way, now it just plods along.

Sarah Jewell doesn't do a lot of actual investigating, she stumbles unto things, and people tell her things which they easily could've told her earlier except for plot contrivance reasons.

The art is flat and a bit uninspired, and doesn't help in the atmosphere department.

Give this one a miss, perhaps.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring and largely a waste of time. This could have easily been done in 3 issues, but for some reason, was drawn out to 5. The connection to Hellboy is minimal. I guess Mike Mignola is trying to cash in?

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hellboy mashed with Agatha Christie -- what's not to like?

[Bill Coffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd corner of the extended Mignolaverse, occupied by parlor mysteries with a dash of the supernatural. Almost like if Miss Marple took on jobs that were too tame for the BPRD. It’s not bad, but there are more compelling tales to be told here.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

You'd be hard-pressed to tell how The House of Lost Horizons ties in to the Hellboy universe (I guess Sarah Jewell turned up in a story somewhere? Maybe Witchfinder?), but the tale is a fairly satisfying closed-door mystery on its own. Sarah Jewell and her companion arrive at an island mansion during a crazy storm, only to find out the antiquities auction taking place there-in has experienced a murder. "I'll take the case!" she cries.

Smarter sleuths might identify the killer early on - I was in the dark until the reveal. The characters were all unique, with intricate, disparate motives. Jewell and her companion are provided very little backstory, so they're the least interesting characters involved. A solid closed-door mystery like this one goes down easy, but if you're looking for big, strange Hellboy fun, this isn't exactly it (though there are some supernatural aspects).

[Benjamin Barham · Rating 3 out of 5]

In order for this to be an effective read you need to already understand who Sarah Jewell is. There is no set up or characterization for our protagonist pair AT ALL before being thrust into a m y s t e r y. A locked room mystery, which I don't think is something we've seen in the Hellboy universe so far. Wish it would have had a little more Mignola in the mix. In the end the supernatural element was kind of milquetoast.

Chris Roberson still isn't a good writer and does the source material a disservice.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice expansion piece for the Hellboy universe

[Lata · Rating 3 out of 5]

A locked room mystery greets Sarah Jewell and Marie-Therese Lafleur when they arrive on an isolated island during a heavy rainstorm at the behest of Sarah’s childhood friend, Lillian Whelstone (nee Makepeace). The family lawyer has been murdered in the locked study, apparently while he was preparing things for Lillian's auction of her dead husband's supernatural artifacts.

There are other people staying at the mansion also; they're there for the upcoming auction, but they start getting bumped off, with Sarah and Marie-Therese having to work fast to figure out who is behind the murders.

My first Sarah Jewel and Marie-Therese story; this was fun, though a pretty simple mystery. I liked the time period and the spooky house, "trapped" fractious visitors, and the supernatural aspects of the case.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one grabbed me with Mike Mignola’s name. Love that guy’s work, though it stands to mention, only from the older comics featuring a certain red horned protagonist and the artwork seen online.
This was nothing like it. To be fair, this has a billing of being Created by Mignola, meaning presumably the concept? It’s from a larger Mignola comic universe? Something like that. But that’s it. Mignola does neither art nor story for this book and it shows.
Mind you, it’s a perfectly decent story in and of itself, a quaint golden age mystery that reads like an Agatha Christie pastiche but with a bunch of supernatural elements thrown in.
You get an eclectic bunch of people trapped by a storm at a posh estate of a collector of esoteric mystical objects and then some of them turn up dead. Time to get sleuthing. That sort of thing.
The art is ok, the colors are great. The chapter cover art is done by a different person and is quite awesome and does kind of echo Mignola.
Overall, a decently entertaining quick read with one main story and one short story/a prequel of sorts. Nothing special, but fun.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've not come across these character in Hellboy yet but I expected so much more. This was a generic, vanilla, by the numbers who done it with an extremely minor supernatural elements. This could have been a Nancy Drew book. The main characters, Sarah Jewell and Marie-Therese', could be interesting, but they just seemed too saccharine and unbelievable. The art by Leila Del Luca was fine but seemed very similar to the writing, mostly cookie cutter. Overall, with the connection to Mike Mignola and Hellboy, I expected so much more and this book didn't deliver.

[Luke Shea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming if light little Agatha Christie riff with a supernatural twist. Locked room murder mystery, a group of fancy characters with secretive motives accusing each other of murder in the parlour of a mansion, the whole bit. Fun! And it's set in the San Juans, which is a place near and dear to my heart. I like Sarah Jewell and I'm delighted she gets to spin off and be her own person in her own era and milieu.

[Etain · Rating 3 out of 5]

That, once again, was a bit of a missed opportunity. It somehow has too much happening and not enough happening, my that I mean there's lots of exposition and murder but very little actual investigation. People just kinda keep random secrets for no reason and don't really have any connection to each other. For such well trodden ground as "murder mystery" it really doesn't stick the landing.
It also sort of has a theme about systemic oppression but doesn't really capitalize it in any way. Disappointing
3.5/5

[Larakaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic whodunit with a special twist. Enjoyed reading it but a little less stereotypical stuff would have been better, like the names of the characters. Love the artwork by Leila del Duca.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent 1920s supernatural murder mystery graphic novel. Loved it!

[Kamaryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay! No what I expected but I wish there was more for sure!

[D.T. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The artwork was lovely! The mystery made sense in the end, but it wasn’t very satisfying. It felt like it was going through the motions: a character seems suspicious. whoop. misdirect. And I honestly think they forgot about Saito in the end. her whole thing was being bored and above everything. if you're so bored, why are you on this freaky island???

I do want to acknowledge writing mysteries can be difficult, especially with keeping suspense and not making it easy to figure out the real killer/villain. I love mysteries, but I don't know if I could write a convincing one myself.

2.5

[Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Worked For Me:
- The primary cast is diverse, and the two protagonists are both women
- I really enjoy well-executed locked-room murder mysteries for both the intrigue they generate and the craft they require to produce well.
- The work includes plenty of bonus materials, such as character sketches and cover designs.

What Didn't:
- One of the joys of locked-room mysteries is seeing the pieces come together. It's even better when I can guess the solution before the big reveal. With that said, I felt blindsided by the eventual reveal (even if the pieces of the puzzle did come together in the end); in short, I never would've guessed the twist.
- The inclusion of The Longest Night, the tail end of a different "Sarah Jewell Mystery," felt superfluous. Since it was only the end of the case and none of the build-up, I didn't feel nearly as invested.
- (nit-pick) Sarah Jewell and Marie-Therese's are only ever described as "travelling companions." I'm listing this as a nit-pick (and this certainly isn't queer-baiting) because they are never shown or implied to be more; that doesn't mean I didn't want it to be so.
- (nit-pick) The inclusion of the paranormal in a locked-room mystery is a difficult proposition. In the hands of a lesser author, it could easily be used to hand-wave plot-holes and destroy the mystery. That didn't really happen in this work, thankfully, but its inclusion just wasn't to my taste (especially at the beginning of the work when it wasn't clear if the supernatural was an accepted part of the world or a cover used to explain away misdeeds).

Conclusion:
The story was an enjoyable-enough read. It didn't blow me away, and I can't say the "mystery" portion of this locked-room mystery gave me everything I wanted. With that said, it still offered a diverse cast, a fun setting (both location and time period), and did an admirable job integrating the supernatural. With that said, if you're craving a locked-room mystery with a supernatural bent, this one is probably worth a look.

[Eule Luftschloss · Rating 4 out of 5]

trigger warning
grief

1929: Sarah Jewell and her travelling companion are visiting an old friend. On their arrival on the privat island they're told there has been a corpse, and since the ferryman only dropped the two women off to disappear again immediately, and the storm has taken out telephone and radio, there is no way to get help. There has been a murder.

We get the sense of an ongoing series, and I don't know if it is one, but I haven't found anything on GR so far. Sarah Jewell is used to solving crimes, in the vein of all sleuths in crime novels who somehow always wind up in the vicinitiy of a murder. Only in this case, there is a paranormal twist to the case, which I have enjoyed.

After the main event, we have a short story with the same protagonist, where we come to view the conclusion of a case, again in an isolated setting with a limited cast of characters.

What surprised me was the diversity in the cast. Well, everybody seemed to be able-bodied and was thin, but we have a nice mish-mash of cultures in the main story, and different traditions of magic were acknowledged without valueing one more than the other.

I really liked this and would love to read more about Sarah and her friend. Additionally, I am wondering if they're really friends, or maybe more, because two women travelling alone were always called "travelling companions", regardless of the real nature of their relationship.
There can never be such a thing as too much queer in my book.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The House of Lost Horizons" offers a generic supernatural locked-room mystery. We have a group of mystics and relic hunters isolated on a storm-struck island in the Pacific Northwest. They've gathered for an auction of mystical artifacts from the estate of a recently deceased mining magnate. And someone is killing them in manners that defy conventional explanation.

The Sarah Jewell in the title is a Hellboy spinoff twice removed, a plainspoken American investigator of weird happenings from the turn of the last century. Unfortunately, she's not very interesting, both in terms of character or visuals, and "House of Lost Horizons" fails to build sufficient menace or eerie happenings to make us care about the story.

We meet a group of esoteric hangers-on, but the proceedings are largely predictable, at a slow pace to boot. There are a few nice character moments, but most people are who they seem, and there wasn't a point where I was invested in the mystery.

On a positive note, the art by Leila del Duca works to distinguish the characters and advance the story. But it's in service to a forgettable plot.

[Václav · Rating 2 out of 5]

The House of Lost Horizons: A Sarah Jewell Mystery
(2,9 of 5 for underperforming Poirot's style murder in the house)
Not everybody has the storytelling genius of peak Mike Mignola (not even himself now), so I don't set the bar there. However, the Hellboyverse has its bar higher than usual, that's true. But this book is even below the standards for a decent generic comic book. The story is simplistic, and the chain of events feels cheap; I struggle to feel the weight of Sarah's character or the chemistry between her and her partner. Plot is as basic as you can go, just sprinkled with a little of "Hellboy realia". I didn't read a worse "murder mystery" for long years. Sadly, even the art doesn't go far. Unlike some of the cover arts, the story art is bland and uninteresting, and as the story doesn't manage to create any atmosphere/mood, the art doesn't either.
And if you think that, then I am biased, I may be. As I won't like to admit that Hellboyverse has its bitter apples, if it weren't connected to it, I would rate it even a bit worse.
PS: the short story is only better in that it is actually much shorter

[Joseph R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sarah Jewell, an occult investigator from the Hellboy universe, travels in the middle of a rainstorm to a mansion on an isolated island. The ferry heads back to the mainland just as Lillian, the one who summoned Sarah, comes to get a message back to the mainland. The storm has knocked out telephones and radio communication and they need more help. Someone in the house has been murdered! The guests are all there to bid on occult items that Lillian's deceased husband had collected. Everyone seems suspicious and more people start getting killed. The story is a homage to Agatha Christie after all (or a blatant ripoff). The addition of occult elements only makes the mystery feel more creepy and more dangerous.

The story is fun and the art is fine, with some nice creative flourishes. The ending neatly tied things up but then one of the characters tagged a PC interpretation on what happened, making the reader do a double take--"Did I just get lectured at?" Other than that ham-fisted moment, it's a good story.

Mildly recommended.

[Tom Ewing · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it still only gets his regulation 2 Stars this is one of the better Chris Roberson contributions to the Mignolaverse, a 1920s locked room mystery which tries and mostly succeeds in getting round the “how do you do a locked room puzzle in a world where the supernatural exists?”

But one of his better efforts doesn’t mean it’s actually good. The dialogue is spark-less and expository, though, the storytellng a plod, and Sarah Jewell herself a less interesting figure than almost anyone she interacts with (which is saying a lot; they’re a pretty beige crew). I’ve enjoyed Leila Del Duca’s work a lot on other comics: maybe 1920s fashions don’t suit her style but the art here felt stiff and dispassionate compared to something like SLEEPLESS.

The mechanics of it all work fine and there’s a hint of metaphorical bite in the story of the consequences of a rich man’s life of exploitation, but overall another damp squib. A shame as there is absolutely room for a strong leading lady in the more than somewhat blokey Mignolaverse, but on this evidence Sarah Jewell isn’t the one.

[Абрахам Хосебр · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the unpublished memoirs of Sarah Jewel.
Хотіли ми цього чи ні, але це детектив аля Аґата Крісті у всесвіті Геллбойверсу. Сара Джуел у шторм і бурю на ветхому кораблику прибуває на остів Золотих Терм десь в районі островів Сан Хуана. Їй на зустріч вибігає подруга дитячих літ, але біжить вона не від захвату і радості, а тільки для того, щоб повідомити нашу новоспечену міс Марпл про загадкове убивство.
Таємничий дім, дивні персонажі, що прибули сюди задля аукціону рідкісних окультних артефактів покійного власника, ремінісценції з попередньої подорожі Сари у Сіам.
Як ви вже зрозуміли, для мене головним у коміксі є малюнок і тут він не в моєму смаку. Лейла Дель Дука старається що є сил, але передати атмосферу окультної садиби їй не дуже виходить – стіни будинку порожні, артефакти вульгарні - золота ваза з пентаграмою та інші кліше. Також я не фанатію від її зображення міміки та облич, Сара чомусь виглядає значно молодшою, ніж у варіації Міттена, але події комікса мають місце вже після інциденту на Сіамі. Сама історія виглядає затягнутою. Прохідняк.

[Rizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the few Hellboy-universe books to have almost no direct involvement from Mignola, and it definitely shows. The pacing is a bit strange, and there wasn't much horror at all until the end (sort of). The art was also pretty out of place I would say. Not bad, just a bit simple and bright for this world. I don't think every artist who works in the Hellboy universe needs to ape Mignola's style, in fact I prefer when they don't. But this just wasn't a good fit, even if I enjoyed the faces and the period fashion. Still, despite all that, I did enjoy it. It's just a fun little Agatha Christie murder mystery with an expected supernatural twist. If that's all you go in expecting, you'll be satisfied enough I suppose. I don't think Sarah Jewell is unique or interesting enough to justify her own spinoffs, but they keep coming (Silver Lantern Club, Rise of the Black Flame, and now this). I'm not sure why these weren't just more Witchfinder volumes. He could've easily been plopped into this story or the others and nothing would've changed. Whatever, on to Lobster Johnson!

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spooky Fun

I really like this locked room mystery with a twist.
It opens with a bunch of strangers on an island during a storm, and there's been a murder.
Everyone is there four an auction, and everyone is a suspect.
Is a fun mystery, but if felt like the supernatural stuff wasn't explored quite enough. Like everyone has a supernatural aspect, but it's not explained what they have most if the story, even when it's just "we've seen demons before, big whoop" I would have like the main characters to give a "here's what we know" speech way earlier, to establish like if what might be happening.
But this as great. None of my complaints were enough to change my positive view of the book as a whole.

[Ashley (Red-Haired Ash Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3 stars - I liked it

This was an interesting murder mystery with Sarah and Marie-Therese. I like Sarah and her dedication to finding the killer. I do wish we could get more backstory on her though. I was expecting this to go maybe explain why she is a part of the paranormal community but it didn’t. I still enjoyed the murder mystery though. The bonus short story was interesting but I felt like it was just the last chapter in a story. It definitely needed to be longer to actually understand the full context of why they were in this house in winter.

You can also find my reviews at Red-Haired Ash Reads.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The House of Lost Horizons: A Sarah Jewell Mystery
Excellent vintage murder mystery. Fans of Agatha Christie will love this.
#1 - "There's been a MURDER, Sarah."
#2 - "The real question is WHO $was that, and WHY were they screaming?"
#3 - "But with a murderer on the loose, I wasn't about to wander around in the dark unarmed."
#4 - "Well, if you didn't kill them, then who the helll--?!"
#5 - "What, are you suggesting that story is true?"
The Longest Night - "... seems like the blizzard's taken out the phone line, folks."
Error on page 13, should be "you", not "your".

[April Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had potential, but fell kinda flat. The premise was good - take "And Then There Were None" and add sinister supernatural elements. Unfortunately, the execution was a bit blah. It's not a bad story, it's good in parts, but it didn't get to great for me. The characters are fairly two-dimensional, and I didn't find myself connecting to them, and the story felt slightly rushed toward the end. Having said that, it was good enough to make me want to finish reading, and the art was pretty good.