Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In bestseller Armstrong's explosive follow-up to 2021's A Stranger in Town--her seventh novel set in Rockton, an off-grid Canadian Yukon refuge for people looking to disappear--Det. Casey Duncan and Sheriff Eric Dalton, her common-law husband, see their evening disrupted when someone posts a sign accusing Deputy Will Anders of committing homicide before coming to Rockton. Though it's true Anders shot his army unit's commanding officer while in a fugue state, Rockton runs on secrecy: nobody knows anyone's real identity or personal history, and revealing such information is forbidden. After a group demands Anders's exile and implies everyone who disagrees is hiding something equally heinous that warrants exposure, Casey and Dalton realize they must work quickly to find and punish the culprit before they lose control--particularly since the council that remotely governs Rockton wants an excuse to shutter it. Avalanching complications ensue. Armstrong shrewdly weaponizes her series' conceit against her characters, pairing demagoguery with paranoia to amplify tension and maximize stakes. The mystery feels manufactured, but the tale still thrills. Rockton fans will be well gratified. Agent: Lucienne Diver, Knight Agency. (Feb.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Deep in the Yukon, off-the-grid Rockton exists to keep the secrets of its residents secret. Now someone is spilling them all, and Det. Casey Duncan (with her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton) must find out who is responsible, or the town will tear itself to ribbons. With a 50,000-copy first printing.
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A detective in a remote Yukon town shrouded in secrecy has to figure out which resident has turned traitor. Rockton (population 171) was founded in the 1950s as an intentional community designed to support idealism, a place where people could find refuge from McCarthyism and the like, but in the present day it's turned into something totally different. Since everyone in town uses a false name, the town leaders, known as the council, have used the place as a haven for criminals, and not just those guilty of white-collar crimes. Under the council's misdirection, a certain price can buy a resident paperwork that suggests their reason for seeking shelter is something more like embezzlement than murder. Only a select few citizens know the truth, like Sheriff Eric Dalton, who's given limited knowledge of certain high-risk residents that he shares with Casey Duncan, his detective and common-law wife, on a need-to-know basis. In spite of the criminal pasts of some residents, Rockton's Yukon setting and the town's emphasis on shared responsibility mean that the residents have to work together for a common goal: survival. But someone is determined to stir things up when they hang up a sign revealing Deputy Will Anders' actual criminal history. Casey and Dalton take the case personally since Anders is a longtime friend, but Casey's certain that the root of the problem is the council and its plan to shut Rockton down. Casey has to find out which of the locals has defected to the side of the council in a place where no one is who they say they are, even as whoever's behind Anders' outing keeps upping the ante. While the characters worry that this is the end of their hometown, Armstrong is just hitting her stride. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
