Another author recommended Kelley’s latest Rockton book and I decided to start from beginning of the series. I’m so glad I did. City of the Lost was gripping and enthralling and so different from anything else I’ve read. Well written, multi-dimensional characters with secrets galore. No one is who they seem to be at first sight, but nothing is contrived. ( )

A great start to the Rockton series. I am glad that I finally read this book (it has been sitting on my shelf for close to 8 years) as I have already started reading the Haven's Rock series and it is nice to see how these characters met and their stories started. ( )

This is an awesome crime fiction, I read this last year and was just the perfect time of year to pick it up again.
The writing is smooth and keeps you enthralled in the story. The characters are well written and you get just enough to be informed but not info dumped.
The premises of this book is a hide away place for people trying to escape from various a things such as, battered women getting away from their exes, white collar criminals that want to escape their crime, and so on so forth. A town so far off the grid you have no cell service or internet available. These people pay to get off the grid and keep their secrets hidden. It's as safe as can be that is until bodies start disappearing and as Detective Casey starts getting closer to figuring things out or so she thinks, shit starts hitting the fan.

Highly recommend

I love the world building, the characters and the story. I have nothing bad to say about this at all. :) ( )

(2016) Casey Duncan, a homicide detective, joins her best friend in going to ground in an out of the way town in the Yukon of about 200 similar people who are hiding from some deep dark past. Off the grid, she becomes a deputy sheriff in the town and immediately is involved in trying to solve an apparent serial murder in the town. Only read this because of the other book I read by Armstrong, ?A Rip Through Time? which was so good. This one, not so much. I was able keep going thru the 400 pages, but not nearly as strong as the ?Rip...? book. Too much romance angle in what would otherwise have been a more solid mystery. Needed a good editor. 325 pages would have been so much better.bibliosanctum.com: Wow, you'll have to excuse me, but I think I'm having myself another one of those ?Why have I waited so long to read this author?? moments. Yes, believe it or not, it actually took me this long to finally try Kelley Armstrong (despite the fact others have been telling me about her awesomeness for years). I also find it a little ironic that even though I'm more of a speculative fiction reader, it wasn't any of her fantasy or paranormal books that finally caught my eye, but her newest mystery thriller/suspense novel City of the Lost, a book that was originally published serially in six parts. Anyway, the moment I read its description, I just knew I had to check it out.Meet Casey Duncan, a homicide detective with a dark secret. In college, she killed a former lover, who was also the grandson of a crime lord. While the police didn't have the evidence to catch who really did it, the mob knows and they never forget. Casey's past finally catches up with her more than a decade later, when she suddenly finds her life in danger. At around the same time, Casey's best friend Diana tells her that she is worried about her violent ex-husband, who has recently managed to track her down. After Casey discovers Diana brutally beaten and bloody on her bathroom floor one night, she knows that the two of them will have to do something about their situations�and fast�or they'll both soon wind up dead.It is Diana who finds a possible solution, letting Casey know about a remote community in the northern wilderness where people can go to disappear. Anyone who wants to leave their old lives behind can apply for entry�which includes abuse survivors like Diana, but also folks who are trying to run from their mistakes, hide from the law, or just don't want to be found. That's how the two friends ultimately end up in Rockton, a small town in the Yukon Territories where there's no phones, no internet, no mail�but plenty of secrets. As it turns out, Casey's application was almost rejected after a thorough background check revealed that she might have killed a man in college, but the town council is desperate; Rockton has just had its first real homicide, so they feel the local sheriff could use the help from a real homicide detective.While I usually leave audiobook comments until the end of my reviews, I feel like I have to make an exception here simply because this was such a phenomenal listen. I also don't doubt that a huge part of my love of this book was due to the format and the incredible performance by the narrator Therese Plummer. This is the first audiobook I've ever listened to her read, and I am beyond impressed with her voice acting. She reads beautifully, pulling me into the story so that I hung on to her every word. Her timing, accents, and inflections were all perfect, and the way she dramatized the suspenseful scenes had a way of making feel like I was right in the story, or sitting around a campfire listening to a tale told by an extremely talented storyteller.Of course, Kelley Armstrong's writing had a lot to do with creating the atmosphere as well. While there's no clear speculative fiction element in City of the Lost, I also think that parts of this book can qualify it as horror. After all, there's a possible killer on the loose, and there are also things lurking in the forest you don't ever want to meet. The author has created an ideal setting for a psychological thriller, emphasizing the isolation of Rockton. Even without the murders making everyone in town nervous, there's a real sense of danger and helplessness that hangs over all aspects of life in a remote community like this so far away from civilization, knowing that if the worst happens, you are on your own.Yet at the same time, there's a quiet, exquisite beauty about that kind of isolation. It's a simple but relatively carefree life in Rockton, and the people around you may be quirky but they have their charms. Despite feeling the pressures of her investigation, Casey is also always taking the time to appreciate the wonders of the wilderness around her. I've always wanted to visit the Yukon, and the descriptions in this book reminded me why.I really only have one criticism, and it's a very minor one. There's a romantic arc in this book, and around the two-thirds mark the plot stalls as we switch gears to focus on the romantic drama. Still, the romance is super sweet, the kind that I'm sure made other people wonder why I had this stupid, dreamy-looking grin plastered on my face as I was walking around listening to this one on my headphones. The love story might have been a bit much, distracting from the mystery and suspense, but it was also really nice.By now, I think it's obvious that I loved City of the Lost, and I seriously couldn't be more pleased with my very first Kelley Armstrong novel. If you love twisty mysteries and psychological thrillers, I would highly recommend this one, especially the audio version narrated by Therese Plummer. This one made me an instant fan of both author and narrator. Will definitely want to read/listen to more!

Clearly I'm an outlier with my opinion on this one, but there were two main things that ruined this novel for me. I could happily suspend my disbelief at the bizarre plot and series of truly wack choices characters made. I could not, however, get over the blandness of the MC or the personality of her love interest.

Perhaps it's a pet peeve of mine but "being too nice" and "loyal to a fault to sh*tty people" are lame character trails to give an MC. Especially a female character. That, for me, is right up there with "beautiful but doesn't know it" and "adorably clumsy" in terms of most condescending stereotypes. Bleh.

And while I used to have a higher tolerance for male love interests who are royal jerks when I was a teen reader, these days my patience has run dry. Demanding, rude, cold, righteous, manipulative, physically aggressive, poor teamwork skills, derogatory, uncompromising....why are these seen as attractive traits? Oh, right, because he has a tormented soul, a dark past, and because deep down he cares so much about his duty! Uh, nah. Not working for me.

It's a shame because the setting of the novel (as far fetched as it is) checks a lot of my boxes, and I do love a good survivalist/living off the land novel. But we barely see these aspects anyways, with most of the novel devoted to the murders and mysteries. ( )