City Under One Roof - a twisty thriller

City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Publish Date Jan 10, 2023; 304 pages

Thanks to #netgalley and #berkleypublishing for the early copy of this book. The opinions are my own.

First Sentence: "And when did you find the body" - Officer Neworth paused for a moment before adding - "parts? When did you find the body parts?"

THE PLOT

This debut novel is a version of a locked room mystery except it's a town contained in a single building, which is an interesting premise and sets up the idea that most of the couple hundred residents are there because they're hiding something or from someone. The town is overrun with tourists in the summer but basically locks down for the winter and becomes a very self contained community.

An Anchorage cop on leave and dealing with a personal tragedy gets stranded in this little village by a storm. While she's waiting for the roads to clear, she gets involved in a murder mystery. Because of her personal history, she's trying to make some of the clues fit as an answer to her own tragedy which calls her credibility into question. Though the town has a small (tiny) police force, she's by far the most experienced and moves the investigation along in a logical way with only little side trips as she gets mislead. As she learns more about the residents and a few secrets, she begins to figure out the crime.

MY THOUGHTS

City Under One Roof is a good police procedural with plenty of interesting characters. Each chapter alternates between the various characters and I quickly identified (and remembered) them each by their quirks. The lead character, Detective Cara, is a complicated, believable character. There are enough small twists along the way to keep the reader guessing. It's a quick read and well plotted. The ending was a little surprising, but satisfying. A solid mystery, good characters, fast paced, a very good debut. I'll be reading more.

Challenge: COYER 26/54 (almost there!)