Casey Duncan and the Biggest Locked-Room Mystery Ever

City of the Lost: A Thriller - Kelley Armstrong

Meet Casey Duncan, a homicide cop in some random Canadian town who’s hiding a deep, dark secret. A dozen years ago, Casey murdered her sometime boyfriend; she put him down like a rabid dog when she was only eighteen. He may well have deserved it, but…Ever since that day in Calgary, Casey has been pretty much on the run. She must be a bit self-destructive, though, since she likes to tell therapists about killing Brian to see if they’ll turn her in… and this time, the latest one does

That's why Casey's on the run again – except that this time instead of heading for another city, she and her best friend Diana head for a town Diana had heard of in rumors, a place where everyone in town is hiding from something (for a fee, of course).  Diana, who's running from an abusive ex-husband, and Casey join the population of the City of the Lost. That’s how the two end up sequestered in a tiny town deep in the wilds of Canada’s Yukon, among people who are all hiding from someone or something – and a few of whom are also hiding something.

Casey’s admission to the populace of Rockton – she and Diana must pass an interview process – is based mainly on mad skills as a detective. The local sheriff needs those skills, since there’s recently been a string of murders and he's out of his depth. Since the town’s population barely exceeds 200 and the residents of the little village are completely isolated from the outside world, Casey finds herself more or less tasked with solving what may well be the largest locked-room mystery in history. That should be easy – except that she also has to deal with all the lust, betrayal and secrets; all of which are surprisingly abundant around Rockton.

City of the Lost is the first Casey Duncan book by Canadian author Kelley Armstrong, with a second in the works – could it be that Rockton is Canada’s answer to Crabapple Cove, where everyone is a murderer or a victim? Armstrong spins a fairly good mystery,  but one that could have been better. This mystery fan thinks that Armstrong devotes far too much page space to Casey’s relationships, especially her utterly predictable relationship with moody, brooding, deliciously handsome sheriff Eric Dalton. Duncan’s string of emotional roller-coaster rides leaves insufficient space for the aspects of detective work that are actually important to solving the mystery.  For my money, this book would have been improved had Casey had spent more time detecting and less time lusting after her boss.


Armstrong’s bio says she studied psychology and lives in rural Canada. That information left this reader wondering if therapists in Canada are bound by patient privacy like they are in the US: can a therapist really turn in someone for a crime she committed more than a decade ago if the patient doesn’t seem dangerous? Must be a Canadian thing. Oh, and Kelley? Don’t write about stuff if you know nothing about it – yes, I’m talking about spelunking.

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