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 … 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.
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Excellent! The reviews were consistent in stating the book was hard to put down. I totally agree. I kept reading because, wow, what’s going to happen next? Casey is an impressive character, and Diana, well, she is a wreck. Running from their lives to Rockton, a city that no one knows exists, seems outrageous. It turns out to be exactly what both of them deserved, but in totally different ways. I love how Kelley Armstrong has developed these characters. I immediately purchased the second and third installments in this series.
I’m listening to the audiobook version of City of the Lost right now (a reread for me) and really enjoying it (the narrator is fantastic). I absolutely love the unfolding of the romance in this tense thriller!
I friggin’ LOVED this book. I’m not normally into romantic suspense that’s a multi-book series about the same characters. Usually that means an obnoxiously slow burn romance that leaves the suspense plot to carry the full weight of the book (which doesn’t make this romance lover happy). But Kelley Armstrong doesn’t take that tack. The romance isn’t front and center, but it’s exceptionally well layered in, and gives sufficient payoff in this book such that it’s actually the SUSPENSE plot that’s got me already downloading the next one. It’s RARE that one of those has me invested enough that I’d probably read it even without the romance. But unlike many others in this genre, the investigation kept me invested and interested and guessing–because the world she’s created provides ample fodder for entertainment and layers in addition to your typical procedural mystery. And the nature of the premise is such that literally everybody is a suspect and you’re kept guessing until the very end. If I had three thumbs, they’d all be up. When can we see this turned into a TV series?
Not Usually my kind of books that I really really love this Siri. Every one of these books was great.
Casey Duncan is a good detective who has secrets to bear but when those secrets start to creep back up she finds a way to get out of town while saving her best friend. Casey has been best friends with Diana since they were young and feels it necessary to look out for her when her abusive ex-husband finds her. Diana has heard of a town called Rockton that you can apply to when you need to get away. Casey doesn’t figure that she would get in but since she’s a detective and Rockton needs one due to a murder, her application is accepted. The thing is… It’s like a witness protection program, once your there you can no longer have any contact with your past life and you can’t leave the town without the approval of the council.
I love the characters in that Kelley Armstrong has in her books. She is always able to establish these wonderful characters and their personalities and how they do and don’t work together. This book is no different. Casey and Eric are my favorite characters she has come up with (with Cainsville Gabriel and Olivia a very close second but that is in tomorrow’s post). I think the city of Rockton has some great imagery within the Yukon, definitely makes me want to move there, the forest, the caves, the city itself and how it all works so that the citizens are able to live off the grid and still have a tight knit community. Just amazing! It’s an easy to read page turner that you won’t want to put down until you’ve finished it. Actually almost all of her books are but out of all of Kelley Armstrong’s series this is my favorite series.
I highly recommend this book and while you’re at it there are 4 books out now counting this one and a new one due in the beginning of February this year. If you like the first one, get the series, I wouldn’t steer ya wrong.
I’m slightly obsessed with this series now.
I found a New Author!!!!!
This is just the right level of scary for me! 🙂 I’m loving this series so much.
Armstrong is a fabulous writer but I think this is my favorite series – City of the Lost is first in the Casey Duncan series and its a unique and thrilling read. Duncan helps her friend and they end up in the Canadian wilderness – more information would be spoilers. Can’t say enough about this series – its unique with strong female characters and fast paced!
It was a book that I found hard to put down,there was something happening on every page some books have boring pages but this one ever did.
I just discovered Kelley Armstrong and really enjoy her writing. This series is about a village for those needing to hide from society and presents some surprising and interesting social questions. She draws three-dimensional characters with secrets and doles them out slowly. Very well done and enjoyable!
The premise of this series is a stretch–a group of people hiding in a wild and remote country in a community overseen by absentee landlords. However, once you accept the premise the action is almost non stop and the flawed detective who reluctantly joins the community to provide a level of law enforcemnt is someone you root for to be successful. Very original story and a fun read.
Good mystery with twists!
Casey Duncan has a secret. She killed a man when she was in college. While she was never caught, the man was a grandson of a mobster so she expects it to catch up with her one day. Casey’s best friend, Diana, is on the run from an abusive ex-husband. When the ex catches up with Diana again, Casey is thinking that it may be time for them to disappear again.
Diana has heard of a town called Rockton that takes in people like Diana who need to escape. Rockton is deep in the Canadian wilderness and you have to apply to get in. Casey isn’t the type of person who’s normally accepted but she has something they need, she’s a homicide detective and Rockton has had a murder.
Kelley Armstrong is one of my favorite authors but I missed this series when she first released it. On the plus side, that means I can now binge read the series without having a long wait between books. 🙂 I loved this book and it’s a prime example of why Kelley Armstrong is among the top of the list of authors I love to read. The interaction between characters is great, I especially loved the way Casey got along with Eric Dalton, the sheriff of Rockton. The book’s well-written with well-rounded and believable characters. There’s plenty of intrigue and action with a few surprises along the way. I highly recommend this book.
A combination of a “who done it” and a suspense novel in a haunting and
unique environment. Plot and characters turn together faster than you can finish each page. Solve the murders in a remote hidden off the grid village in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
(3.5) I have read Kelley Armstrong in the past. Some I enjoy some are just ok. The premise for this book sounded exciting. Some of it was down right creepy. The main issue I had was it dragged in some spots. I wanted to say enough already sheriff. I get that F**k is your main word of choice. Casey had to piece the relationship together and I think she did with class. The deputy was just one of twist I didn’t see at the end. There were a lot of twists and turns that made this a good read. Caseys piecing of the mystery and murders just really seemed out of the blue to me, but then maybe that is a good thing I wasn’t led down the road, I was surprised.
City of the Lost is a crime thriller; the first in the Casey Duncan Series. This book has everything I need: a frontier town teeming with flawed characters, a kick-ass female detective, buckets of suspense, and a secret northern setting that appeals to my “I long to live in a cabin” dream. (Except for the cannibals, or whatever it is, that’s lurking in the woods fifty feet beyond the back door). Casey has two possible love interests: Deputy Will Anders, a handsome ex-military man (the nicest guy in the world), and Sheriff Eric Dalton, a bush cowboy, who is as comfortable on a horse as on an ATV. He’s rugged, real, and raw; a man of few words, but each is intelligent and true.
First-person present tense doesn’t usually agree with me, but I’m so far inside Casey’s head, I don’t notice. I’m living each moment with her as she unravels, not only the serial murder case, but the mysteries behind her workmates: Dalton and Anders. She is intelligent and bold, a risk-taker who stands up for herself, and others; even those who might not deserve it.
Armstrong’s writing is clear and pithy. “We reach the cave. The opening is a gash in the rock, maybe three feet wide by eighteen inches high.” I race through 465 pages in a few days because I want to know where this is going. There’s no sentiment or obvious word-wrangling, but Armstrong’s poetic voice surfaces in her ability to direct the reader’s experience via sensory images and detail. Her straight-forward dialogue suits each character down to the expletives, and is skillfully under-painted to draw you inside each nuance of sexual tension or tricksy conversation. A pause is not just a pause; a kiss is not just a kiss. And Rockton is not just any old northern city.
Hidden in the Yukon, the City of the Lost has been engineered for folks who need to escape society for various reasons including white-collar crime. It’s off the radar; invisible from the air. Seventy-five percent of the town’s populace is male, which makes being a female in Rockton rather tricky. Everyone has secrets and no one is who they appear to be. Some folks have even lied about their past to get through the screening process. (They don’t accept murderers and rapists.) So, when people begin to disappear, Dalton recruits Casey to sort through the chaos. I won’t tell you why she agrees to go, or what she discovers in the end, but it’s a story worth knowing.
I read a lot of books. But what I absolutely love is finding a book that knocks your socks off. This book starts off with a bang and keeps on going. The characters have depth and such interesting back stories. A very believable story line with nice twists and turns. Loved it! I will happily read more of the Casey Duncan Novels.
Soooo much fun! What an original idea, which is becoming more and more rare. I love that the lead character is a strong woman who understands her own motivations. She’s not a damsel in distress, she’s not struggling to come to terms with her past. She’s already come to terms with it. Being a good friend leads her to a place she never thought she’d be, but it turns out to be exactly where she should be.
The descriptions of the location and the inhabitants of the town are detailed enough to draw you in, but still leave some mystery to keep you reading. No one is exactly who they present themselves to be. Part of the “mystery” is figuring out who is lying to protect themselves from their past and who is lying to protect themselves from a murder wrap.
Really well done, I immediately snapped up the next two books in the series and binged on them all. Sometimes, reading a series back to back to back like that gives me the opportunity to see the weaknesses of the character development and get bored with repetitive plots, but this didn’t happen. Can’t wait for more!
Loved this book!!!!