When experienced homicide detective Casey Duncan first moved to the secret town of Rockton, she expected a safe haven for people like her, people running from their past misdeeds and past lives. She knew living in Rockton meant living off-the-grid completely: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval. What … she didn’t expect is that Rockton comes with its own set of secrets and dangers.
Now, in A Darkness Absolute, Casey and her fellow Rockton sheriff’s deputy Will chase a cabin-fevered resident into the woods, where they are stranded in a blizzard. Taking shelter in a cave, they discover a former resident who’s been held captive for over a year. When the bodies of two other women turn up, Casey and her colleagues must find out if it’s an outsider behind the killings or if the answer is more complicated than that…before another victim goes missing.
Casey Duncan returns in another heart-racing thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.
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This was the first book I read by Kelly Armstrong, but it wouldn’t be the last. Great suspense and characters.
Armstrong is best known for her Otherworld series of urban fantasy. This is not that. The second in what I hope will be a long series, it features a former homicide detective currently living in a town for lost people. No one knows of it’s existence except those paying or needing to disappear.
When a woman is found after being presumed dead over a year ago, there’s more questions for protagonist Casey Butler than there are suspects.
Armstrong’s style is quick and easy to consume, which is good because you won’t want to stop reading until the last page.
This is the second in the series about homicide detective Casey Duncan living in a town one has to pay to live in located in the Yukon. You do not have to read the first in the series but I would suggest you do just for the backstory on the continuing characters. Rockton is set up for people to disappear and once you are approved as a resident by an unseen council a fee is paid and you enter the off-the-grid community which consists of a sheriff, a detective, a deputy, and community members doing an assortment of jobs in the town which can include the town’s militia. This book begins with searching for a town member who appears to have run away into the forest which leads to the main story of kidnappings and murder. The pace is steady throughout and you will be caught up in the machinations of the town’s people and people that live in the Yukon forest. There are moments that you will ask yourself did I just guess wrong as yet another twist occurs. In the end you will have to answer the question is darkness really absolute.
Love this series These are not the kind of books that I used to read and I happened to read the first book of the series and I was hooked. I have Read everyone sense.
Another fantastic installment in this series. Some really great and interesting characters, and continued building complexity of the ones we already knew. Love this so much!
I am having such a good time with this series! The interactions Casey has with the star residents of the 200 person population of Rockton, her relationship as it grows with Eric, and how intelligent and intuitive Casey is, all combine to make a fast-paced read. This installment in the series has so many twists and turns that just when you think you have figured out who the bad guy really is, BAM, you’re wrong, it’s possibly someone else. Looking forward to the third installment.
I anxiously awaited the sequel to city of the lost and this book does not disappoint. I love the characters and the relationship between Casey and Dalton. M
An exceptional mystery that had me on the edge of my seat!
Great Characters! Love the Yukon Wilderness as a character in this series
Casey Duncan has been living in the secret town of Rockton for a few months now and has learned that it’s not all it was supposed to be. Rockton has its own secrets and dangers. When she and deputy, Will Anders, go after a resident who’s run into the woods, a storm hits and they take shelter in a cave where they find a woman who was a resident who went missing and has been held captive for well over a year.
I loved this book and didn’t want to put it down. It grabbed my attention from the start and kept me hooked until the end. It’s well-written with characters you love getting to know whether you like them or not. Full of intrigue and mystery, this book will have you on the edge of your seat at times while at others you’re laughing out loud or in tears. It definitely runs the gamut of emotions. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series. I highly recommend both book and series which I suggest you read in order.
It’s been years since I read the first book in this series, but I decided it was finally time I returned to this series. I didn’t remember all the details from what happened in book 1, so that made the start a bit rough as I didn’t remember everyone, but it was easy enough to get back in the series especially as the story progressed and I remembered more of book 1. I normally don’t read thriller books, but this is one series I do like. While it’s definitely dark and gritty and has scenes that can be uncomfortable to read for me, there aren’t too many vivid or graphic details, which helps.
This book starts with Casey and Will chasing an escaped resident who got cabin fever, they get trapped in a snowstorm and have to seek shelter in a save. In that cave system they find a women who has been hold captive there for a long time. They free her and take her back to Rockton. Now it’s up to them to figure out who put her in that cave. More clues slowly come to light, but it’s still a slow process and only by the end they figure out whose behind it.
They don’t have technology out here in Rockton which adds for an interesting dimension when solving these crimes. A lot of it replies on them talking and finding physical clues to who is behind this. For a long time I didn’t have any suspects. There are clues and hints, but there are a lot of possible candidates and at the same time no one seems right as we don’t have any information that points to a specific person. Until a certain clue which made everything fall in place for me. It took the characters a bit longer to figure it out. I have to say I like the twist and the way it makes sense and how previous clues are now seen in a different light. The ending is quite suspenseful.
I like reading about this small isolated town of Rockton and getting to know more about the residents. There is quite a bit about Mathias, Isabel and Petra in this book as Casey has quite a few interactions with them. There is the whole situation with Diana that’s quite complicated. The women who has been found in the cabin, who plays a big part in the investigation. And some interesting developments and reveals regarding Val. I like how we see more of the residents and learn more about them as the series progresses.
While each book has it’s own mystery, there are side plot lines about the town and characters that seem to build throughout the series. I like seeing how the characters interact and how things change. How more secrets come to light. How they learn more about the settlers and hostiles that roam the forest around them. How Casey interacts with Jacob. And how Casey and Eriç’s relationship develops. I like that while they got together in book 1 they still have things to figure out. It’s fun seeing a romance go past that first get together stage and see how they have things to work through and also get to see them working together and being together and developing their relationship.
Casey is a great main character to read about. I like how she’s capable and determined to solve this mystery. But she also has her flaws and things she struggles with. She makes a few not-so-smart decisions, but they all feel in character. She sometimes does dangerous things just because she’s so determined to catch the killer. I like seeing how she interacts with the other characters and how she handles certain situations.
To summarize: This was a great suspenseful read. While thrillers are normally out of my reading zone, I make an exception for this series as it’s really good. It does get a bit too dark and gritty and disturbing for my taste at times, but I like how the author doesn’t go to deep into these topics or with too many graphic details. Each book has it’s own mystery, but there are also continuing side plot lines about the characters and their relationships as well as the town and what else is out there that continue throughout the series. It also makes for a good mix between the mystery and other things that happen. I like reading about this town and the residents and seeing how things change and develop throughout the series. Casey makes for a great main character. I like how capable she is and determined to figure out the mystery. She makes some not so smart decisions, but I do feel those are all in character, as she will get herself in danger if she thinks the danger is worth it to catch the murderer. I liked this sequel and I hope to continue with the rest of the series eventually.
I am hooked on the Casey Butler series. The second book in the series is even better than the first. I love the depth of the characters. It is a creepy mystery equal to the Silence of the Lambs.
This is a bizarre title for a thriller, but once you dive into the plot you’ll understand why. Book Two in the Casey Duncan series, this Rockton Thriller, sees the detective and deputy Will Anders succumb to darkness on page two. Only it’s not the usual darkness, it’s “a cyclone of driving snow and roaring wind” that hails them on their snowmobiles and nearly destroys them.
Weather—blizzards, snow, and freezing cold temperatures—is just one of the hazards in and around Rockton. A Yukon town of two hundred residents, 75% male, and peopled by criminals and victims (some of whom are interchangeable), Rockton is a place people come to disappear. Other hazards manifest outside the town limits: grizzlies, cougars, ex-Rockton hostiles (more dangerous than the animals), and the gentler settlers who crave freedom and independence. Sheriff Eric Dalton and his brother Jacob grew up as settlers and understand the subtleties of this life on the land.
Another “darkness absolute” is a black hole in Bear Skull Mountain where Nicole Chavez has been held prisoner for over a year. Is it disturbing? Yes. The encounters in the cave are so well illustrated, I have moments where I find it hard to keep reading. And there is a new key character introduced, a French butcher ex-psychiatrist named Mathias, who is rumoured to be able to make his craziest patients self-mutilate only those parts that fit the crime. Every time he speaks I hear Anthony Hopkins crooning to Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs. This is that kind of book.
A third “darkness absolute” is the black insanity that drives a man to kidnap three women, hold them prisoner until they succumb, and then dump their bodies in the bottom of a cave. What kind of man does that? What childhood trauma created this monster? And can they find him and stop him before he does it again?
But, it’s not all darkness. There are flashes of light as we are privy to the developing romantic relationship between Sheriff Eric Dalton and Detective Casey Duncan–he surprises her with a bouncing Newfie pup and she moves in (so it’s easier for the pup). Of course it is.
Kelley Armstrong does not let us down. As before, her writing is clean and direct, her dialogue true, her underpainting simple, yet effective. A need to know keeps us turning pages. A perpetrator who kidnaps women and stashes them in caves for his own sexual amusement? We wonder when he’s coming for Casey. Because we know he is. He must. And Casey’s not the kind of woman to let her boyfriend rescue her. She’ll manage on her own. This is her show. Narrated by her, we are privy to Casey’s intelligent hashing out of the crime; the possibilities of who could have done what, when, where, why, and how. And we’ll stay with her until the end to know she’s safe, and Rockton’s safe, no matter how disturbing things get.