Review: Murder at Haven’s Rock by Kelley Armstrong

October 12, 2022 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: Murder at Haven’s Rock
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Casey Duncan/Haven’s Rock
Source: Netgalley. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Genre: Thriller, mystery.
Explicit? No.
Trigger Warning: Murder, depiction of killing wounds.
Summary: New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s Rockton Novels had one of the most unique towns in crime fiction. Murder at Haven’s Rock is a spinoff, a fresh start… with a few new dangers that threaten everything before it even begins.

Haven’s Rock, Yukon. Population: 0

Deep in the Yukon wilderness, a town is being built. A place for people to disappear, a fresh start from a life on the run. Haven’s Rock isn’t the first town of this kind, something detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, know first hand. They met in the original town of Rockton. But greed and deception led the couple to financing a new refuge for those in need. This time around, they get to decide which applicants are approved for residency.

There’s only one rule in Haven’s Rock: stay out of the forest. When two of the town’s construction crew members break it and go missing, Casey and Eric are called in ahead of schedule to track them down. When a body is discovered, well hidden with evidence of foul play, Casey and Eric must find out what happened to the dead woman, and locate the still missing man. The woman stumbled upon something she wasn’t supposed to see, and the longer Casey and Eric don’t know what happened, the more danger everyone is in.

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Book List 2022 · Reviews

Review: The Deepest of Secrets by Kelley Armstrong

July 24, 2022July 24, 2022 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: The Deepest of Secrets
Author: Kelley Armstrong
Series: Rockton
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Source: Netgalley
Trigger Warnings: Violence, buried alive.
Summary: It’s not always easy to live in the hidden town of Rockton, something Detective Casey Duncan knows firsthand. Tucked away in the Yukon wilderness, the community survives—and thrives—because the residents’ many secrets stay just that—secret.

But what happens when these secrets start to come out? Overnight, no one is safe. It’s not a question of if your secret will come out—but when.

Casey and her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, need to find the culprit while protecting those who have been thrust into the spotlight. For a place built on privacy and new beginnings, Rockton isn’t handling these revelations very well. People are turning on one another, and when one of the loudest complainers turns up barely alive, it’s clear that their trickster is actually a murderer.

The threat of exposure is reaching its breaking point, and no one knows what’s going to happen next.

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Book List 2021

Release Week Part 2: A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong

February 11, 2021 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: A Stranger in Town

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Rockton (Book 6)

Release Date: February 9, 2021

Genre: Mystery, horror

My Thoughts: This book. This book. I can’t believe it ended like that but at the same time I really can’t tell you how it ended because I don’t believe in spoilers.

This book was filled with tension, and anticipation that gripped me as I flipped through the digital pages and pretty much left finger imprints on my tablets. I would say this was the most mysterious book of all of the Rockton series, as several different storylines entwined.

When they stumbled across the tourist in the forest I really found myself agreeing with Dalton’s opinion about whether or not people should even be allowed in the Yukon wild. The town and its working are explored even ore in this book, who gets in, who gets out.

We also found out how hostiles were created, and it was intense (apparently that’s the watchword).

Thank you to Kelley Armstrong and her publisher for giving me a free copy of this book.

Book List 2021 · Reviews

Release Week Part 1: A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong including questions with Kelley.

February 9, 2021February 9, 2021 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: A Stranger in Town

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Rockton (Book 6)

Release Date: February 9, 2021

Genre: Mystery, horror

Summary: Detective Casey Duncan has noticed fewer and fewer residents coming in to the hidden town of Rockton, and no extensions being granted. Her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, presumes it’s the natural flux of things, but Casey’s not so sure. Something bigger is happening in the small town they call home.

When an injured hiker stumbles from the woods, the sole survivor of a hostile attack, it’s all hands on deck. Even a member of the elusive Rockton council comes in to help. This council member also comes bearing news: Rockton is being shut down due to the hostile situation.

Casey and Eric must now race to save the town that has allowed residents to have a fresh start, away from the mistakes of their past, while also getting to the bottom of this latest attack.

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Book List 2021

Countdown to A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with Alone in the Woods

February 8, 2021February 9, 2021 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: Alone in the Woods

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Rockton (Book 5)

Genre: Mystery, horror

Summary: Every season in Rockton seems to bring a new challenge. At least that’s what Detective Casey Duncan has felt since she decided to call this place home. Between all the secretive residents, the sometimes-hostile settlers outside, and the surrounding wilderness, there’s always something to worry about.

While on a much needed camping vacation with her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, Casey hears a baby crying in the woods. The sound leads them to a tragic scene: a woman buried under the snow, murdered, a baby still alive in her arms.

A town that doesn’t let anyone in under the age of eighteen, Rockton must take care of its youngest resident yet while solving another murder and finding out where the baby came from – and whether she’s better off where she is.

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Book List 2021

Countdown to a Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with Watcher in the Woods

February 7, 2021February 8, 2021 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: Watcher in the Woods

Series: Rockton (Book 4)

Genre: Mystery, Horror

Summary:

The secret town of Rockton has seen some rocky times lately; understandable considering its mix of criminals and victims fleeing society for refuge within its Yukon borders. Casey Duncan, the town’s only detective on a police force of three, has already faced murder, arson and falling in love in less than the year that she’s lived there. Yet even she didn’t think it would be possible for an outsider to find and cause trouble in the town she’s come to call home.

When a US Marshal shows up in town demanding the release of one of the residents, Casey and her boyfriend, Sheriff Dalton, are skeptical. And yet only hours later, the marshal is shot dead and the only visible suspects are the townspeople and her estranged sister, in town for just the weekend. It’s up to Casey to figure out who murdered the marshal, and why they would kill to keep him quiet.

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Book List 2021

Countdown to A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with This Fallen Prey

February 5, 2021February 5, 2021 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: This Fallen Prey

Series: Rockton (Book 3)

Genre: Mystery, Horror

Summary:

In This Fallen Prey, the next installment of New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s thriller series, Casey Duncan is about to face her toughest job as police detective in Rockton yet.

When Casey first arrived at the off-the-grid town, an isolated community built as a haven for people running from their pasts, she had no idea what to expect, with no cell phones, no internet, no mail, and no way of getting in or out without the town council’s approval. She certainly didn’t expect to be the homicide detective on two separate cases or to begin a romantic relationship with her boss. But the very last thing she expected was for the council to drop a dangerous criminal into their midst without a plan to keep him imprisoned, and to keep others safe.

Of course Oliver Brady claims he’s being set up. But the longer Brady stays in town, the more things start to go wrong. When evidence comes to light that someone inside Rockton might be working as his accomplice, helping him to escape, Casey races to figure out who exactly Brady is and what crimes he’s truly responsible for committing.

In the next page-turning entry in Kelley Armstrong’s gripping series, life in Rockton is about to get even more dangerous.

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Book List 2021

Countown to A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with A Darkness Absolute

February 2, 2021 Ashley LPLeave a comment

Title: A Darkness Absolute

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Rockton (Book 2)

Genre: Mystery, Horror

Buy: Indigo here.

Kobo

Summary:

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.

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Book List 2021

Countown to A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong with City of the Lost

January 31, 2021February 2, 2021 Ashley LP3 Comments

Title: City of the Lost

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Series: Rockton (Book 1)

Genre: Mystery, horror

Buy:

City of the Lost on Kobo

Summary:

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.

Review: City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong

February 3, 2018May 27, 2018 Ashley LP2 Comments

Title: City of the Lost

Author: Kelley Armstrong

Genre: Suspense, Thriller, Mystery

Summary: 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.

Reviews:

This is my third time reading this book. I still “Oh my god” and flail at the right times, or attempt to hide from what’s going on even though I’m holding the book in hand which is quite a feat as I’m sure you can imagine.

Kelley Armstrong has never done me wrong, and this series is no different. It is electric, fresh, and so well written I wish she would lend me just a tiny bit of her writing mojo so that I could write something just half as good as this.

This book has characters who are all entirely independent and different from each other, but share a very human commonality; they are in situations beyond their control and trying in spite of it. Their vulnerability does not become weakness, instead it becomes something that gives them strength.

I could gush for hours about Casey, and Dalton, but frankly, I think you would get sick of it. But I love them so much. And Anders.

The setting is a Canadian one, but a Canada unfamiliar to someone like me. It is wilderness, and beauty and danger all rolled into one. It is solitude and isolation. This world is an adventure, rife with adversity and yes, in this case, murder.

The wild awakens something in people that might not have been there before in this novel, or was it always there? And it just needed a push? That is the ultimate question.

Do yourself a favour, and pick this book up. You won’t regret it.