Name: Maggie Gordon's review of The City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong
Item: The City of the Lost
Rating: 3
Author: Maggie Gordon

Kelley Armstrong

"Casey Duncan is a homicide detective with a secret: when she was in college, she killed a man. She was never caught, but he was the grandson of a mobster and she knows this crime will catch up to her. Casey's best friend, Diana, is on the run from a violent, abusive ex-husband. When Diana's husband finds her, and Casey herself is attacked shortly after, Casey knows it's time for the two of them to disappear again. Diana has heard of a domestic violence support town made for people like her, a town that takes in people on the run who want to shed their old lives. You must apply to live in Rockton and if you're accepted, it means walking away entirely from your old life, living off the grid in the wilds of Canada: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, no computers, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council's approval. As a murderer, Casey isn't a good candidate, but she has something they want; she's a homicide detective, and Rockton has just had its first real murder. She and Diana are in. However, soon after arriving, Casey realizes that the identity of a murderer isn't the only secret Rockton is hiding - in fact, she starts to wonder if she and Diana might be in even more danger in Rockton than they were in their old lives. An edgy, gripping crime novel from a bestselling urban fantasy writer, City of the Lost boldly announces a major new player in the crime fiction world"--

The City of the Lost

Maggie Gordon

Melissa Palmer

Book #42 Read in 2016
City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong

Much different than Armstrong's paranormal fare, City of the Lost is the first in a planned series centered around Casey Duncan, a hardened detective. Casey and her friend Diana head to Rockton, a town where people go to escape from their past or skeletons in the closet. Casey is going to be the town's new detective and with a few immediate murders, she will stay busy. This book has a police procedural gore to it but the mystery is well written and will keep readers guessing to the end. It was a good read. I will continue the series. I received this book from Amazon Vine in exchange for a honest review.

Denaiir

the setting in the North was great, but I didn't care for the characters that much and I didn't know it was a romantic thriller, which is not my thing. Well-written, just not for me

Colleen

3 Stars

*A twisted mystery that is engaging but spread too many directions*


I came across Watcher in the Woods on Netgalley and was intrigued. But when I realized it was the fourth book in a series, I decided to check out the first book.

The story focuses on Casey Duncan, a homicide detective being targeted by a mob family. Her best friend Diana is on the run from her abusive ex-husband. In order to escape, they find a secret town in remote Canada that is entirely off the grid and designed for people who want to disappear. But they aren’t in town for long before they realize that perhaps they aren’t as safe as they thought.

The premise is interesting but aspects of the story were a little farfetched. There wasn’t any particular element that was over the top, but when they were all combined it was a bit too much to be believable.

The story started off darker then kind of petered out. It had the opportunity to be creepier and more atmospheric. Seriously, with a setting like this – a remote, secret town in a desolate location with a possible murder amongst them - this definitely could have built up heart-pounding tension. The plot was engaging, but I wanted a bit more from it.

Parts of the story were too fraught with drama without enough character development to back it up. There was potential for a story with more depth. Instead there was a lot of back-and-forth dialogue and drama that felt more like filler and distractions that value added content. It was hard to keep track of the secondary characters. The way they popped in and out of the story was distracting.

The ending felt rushed but I enjoyed the story overall. It kept me engaged. And it leaves room for the sequels. I’ll probably check out the next book at some point; I’m hoping it shows growth from its predecessor.

 
RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 4 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

City of the Lost was a serial that was eventually collected into a novel, and I could not tell from reading it that it was originally split up! Unsurprisingly, long-time author Kelley Armstrong's pacing is spot on for her mystery novel set up in the Yukon. Casey Duncan is a cop with a complicated past. She was beaten and raped by men after a former boyfriend, and when she confronted him about abandoning her to such violence, she ended up shooting and killing him. No one attached her to the crime, so she was able to move on with her life. 

However, her past catches up to her just as her best friend's abusive ex-boyfriend shows back up, so the two apply to get into a town composed of people trying to get away from serious problems. They get accepted and Casey becomes a new police detective in a town being plagued by a series of murders. 

The whole mystery town is a bit hard to swallow at first, particularly given the fact Diana, the friend, appears with information about it rather suddenly. However, the setting works well. The place is filled with complicated people and an intriguing mystery. The romance in this novel was actually fairly well done. Unsurprisingly, Casey and Eric Dalton, the town sheriff, develop feelings for one another. However, unlike every other book in popular fiction lately, there's no love triangle, no "whoops, I kissed this other guy while pining for you", and when there are misunderstandings between the two, they do this weird thing and talk about it. 

All in all, this was a really solid mystery/thriller, and I am looking forward to additional additions to the series.

Where would you go if you suddenly had to disappear? In her new thriller, City of the Lost, our New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author Kelley Armstrong delivers us to Rockton, a secret little town in the far north where the hunted go to hide. And where a hunter has now come to play. Casey Duncan once killed a man and got away with it. But that's not why she's on the run. Her best friend's ex has found Diana again, despite all Casey has done to protect her. And Diana has decided the only way she'll ever be safe is if she finds the mythical town she's heard of where people like her can go to hide. Turns out the town really exists, and will take Diana, but only if Casey, a talented young police detective, comes too. Imagine a hidden town, isolated in the Yukon wilderness, where everyone is pretending to be someone they're not. Even good people can get up to some very bad stuff. The laconic town sheriff dispenses his own frontier justice, but he's more accustomed to sobering up drunks in the horse trough, than attempting to solve the series of brutal murders that has rocked the town. As much as he hates it, he needs Casey. As for Casey, coming to the far North may have started out as a sacrifice she was willing to make for her best friend. But maybe, just maybe, she needs Rockton as much as the town needs her. From the Hardcover edition.

City of the Lost

Fraser Simons

Part murder mystery, part romance, part thought experiment. I enjoyed this quite a bit. It’s an interesting idea, this privately owned and isolated town meant for victims. 

What corruption looks like and what group dynamics look like with the setup make the setting novel, at least to me, but I haven’t read many crime novels; especially not Canadian murder mysteries, which seem to be a big market up here that I wasn’t aware of at all. 

The cast of characters felt well developed and well written but it is just very refreshing to read a woman writing well developed female characters. There’s some male authors who do it well but I always find a marked difference and this is no different. The narrative allows for the author to subvert a lot of tropes and it makes the murder mystery particularly interesting and twisty, I found. 

The only drawback for me was that there’s so much going on with the first novel in the series that some of the more interesting stuff you’d like to be expounded upon doesn’t, simply because there’s no time for it between the setup, arrival of town, the murder mystery and establishing the cast and developing them enough that they don’t feel like they don’t matter enough to consider them in the murder. 

It’s a page turner and I got hooked fast. Definitely going to continue with the series and hope more of the town and residents and the threads of corruption and what not get even more developed.

Detective Casey Duncan has a dark past, and it's about to catch up with her. When her best friend Diana is attacked by an abusive ex, the two women realise they have to disappear, fast. And they need sanctuary. Diana's heard of a hidden town that's so remote it's almost impossible to reach. A town that desperately needs a new detective. Casey has barely arrived in Rockton when they discover a body. A man's been murdered - butchered - and there's no time to waste. Casey's job won't be easy: everyone in town has a secret. Meanwhile her boss, Sheriff Eric Dalton, is a brooding, troubled man who's hard to read and very hard to please. With no chance of help from the outside world, Casey will have to rely on her own wits to solve the case. But she's running out of time. Rockton's killer is on the hunt, and this deep in the wilderness, no one is safe

City of the Lost HB

It may have been less than a year since I last read this book but it's just as brilliant second time around. This is especially impressive considering that the book is a thriller and often mysteries lose their impact when you know whodunnit. Turns out this book is just as good even then. That is because Armstrong has written some fantastic characters and created a world in which I am fully invested.

I really enjoyed reading about Casey once more and I am fully ready to begin reading more of her story in the next book.

Becky

danielle bush

When first going into this book for some reason I thought it would have some kind of paranormal thing going on.. and while I was wrong I still really enjoyed it.. 
Casey Duncan is a woman who is both running from her past and running straight for it.. When it finally catches up with her, she finds herself looking for the town where people go who don't want to be found..

This book follows Casey Duncan, a detective with a secret in her past that could ruin her life. When her and her boyfriend are attacked and he is badly hurt she decides to look into something that her friend has talked about. A town full of people that want/ need to dissappear. When Casey arrives she finds herself jumping head first into a case. She needs to quickly learn everything she can about the town of Rockton and its residents.. including what brought them to this town in the first place.. 
I love Casey, she is super smart, stubborn, and very determined. The town of Rockton and its secrets kept me fully Invested in the story. I had no idea what was going to happen from one page to the next.. I cant wait to start the next book and see what Casey and Rockton are up to next..

Judy Hudgins

Casey Duncan is a homicide detective with a secret: when she was in college, she killed a man. She was never caught, but he was the grandson of a mobster and she knows that someday this crime will catch up to her. Casey's best friend, Diana, is on the run from a violent, abusive ex-husband. When Diana's husband finds her, and Casey herself is attacked shortly after, Casey knows it's time for the two of them to disappear again. Diana has heard of a town made for people like her, a town that takes in people on the run who want to shed their old lives. You must apply to live in Rockton and if you're accepted, it means walking away entirely from your old life, and living off the grid in the wilds of Canada: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, no computers, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council's approval. As a murderer, Casey isn't a good candidate, but she has something they want: She's a homicide detective, and Rockton has just had its first real murder. She and Diana are in. However, soon after arriving, Casey realizes that the identity of a murderer isn't the only secret Rockton is hiding—in fact, she starts to wonder if she and Diana might be in even more danger in Rockton than they were in their old lives. An edgy, gripping crime novel from bestselling urban fantasy writer Kelley Armstrong, City of the Lost boldly announces a major new player in the crime fiction world.

A Thriller

Wren Hardwick

95%: Audio Book | Narrator: Therese Plummer
05%: Book came in the mail because the audiobook from the library couldn't stay on my physical shelf so I can read it over and over and over and over again. 

Kelley Armstrong does it again. 
How does she write pure gold all the time? Does she have Rumplestiltskin enslaved to her will? 



Casey is a character you relate to. Not because she kills someone (hopefully) but because she lives with the guilt. It was a few years back but it did change her, but it doesn't control her. She has a career she loves, a guy on the side, a friend she trust and she does lead a pretty happy life. She has feelings and she reacts like a normal person. She isn't stone she isn't too emotional... She's someone you're going to love reading with. 

Casey was attacked. After a series of unfortunate events, she ends up killing someone. And no one but her friend Diana knows about it. 

Diana, Casey's closest and dearest friend, is on the run from her abusive-crazy lawyer ex-husband who just seems to REALLY need Diana in his life so he can literally just hit someone and control them. Casey, being a homicide detective threatens his freedom with a file on a girl he had previously beaten. The terms? Leave Diana alone forever. 

He does this. And then he doesn't. 

Casey's past catches up with her. 

Diana mentions she heard of this town where people go to hide for a while and to get away from the problems that they got themselves mixed in with. Casey agrees to leave everything to go with Diana for her protection. 



Only the town needs Casey more than she needs it. See, there's this murderer out and about and killing people and the two cop-like guys, Dalton and Anders, are in need of a - you guessed it - a homicide detective. But the more Casey digs into the town the more she unravels the town and its inhabitants, the more dangerous it becomes for her physically and emotionally. 

Oh and there's something about cannibals and body parts and things. Because it isn't a Kelley Armstrong book without a little gore to drag you deeper into her story. 

The only reason I didn't finish this with audiobook was because the book came in the mail and the audiobook was in my car. Aka I was lazy and the book was closer. PLUMMER WAS AMAZING and I will be looking into more things that she has narrated. I hung on her every word. She pulls you in even more than you already were by the story itself. 

*claps slowly*

Sarah Sammis

Jacqueline Bzdyk

Heather M

Tessa Francis 

Veronica Reitmeier

Alison Fincher

Ashley Janssen

Christine W

Tara Harder

Kayla Bruce

Carley Whitehead

Where would you go if you suddenly had to disappear? In her new bestselling thriller, City of the Lost, our New York Times and Globe and Mail bestselling author Kelley Armstrong delivers us to Rockton, a secret little town in the far north where the hunted go to hide. And where a hunter has now come to play. Casey Duncan once killed a man and got away with it. But that's not why she's on the run. Her best friend's ex has found Diana again, despite all Casey has done to protect her. And Diana has decided the only way she'll ever be safe is if she finds the mythical town she's heard of where people like her can go to hide. Turns out the town really exists, and will take Diana, but only if Casey, a talented young police detective, comes too. Imagine a hidden town, isolated in the Yukon wilderness, where everyone is pretending to be someone they're not. Even good people can get up to some very bad stuff. The laconic town sheriff dispenses his own frontier justice, but he's more accustomed to sobering up drunks in the horse trough, than attempting to solve the series of brutal murders that has rocked the town. As much as he hates it, he needs Casey. As for Casey, coming to the far North may have started out as a sacrifice she was willing to make for her best friend. But maybe, just maybe, she needs Rockton as much as the town needs her.

Maggie Gordon &
The City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong

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The City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong