City Under One Roof is a title that sounds like a metaphor, but it’s an accurate description of the town depicted in Iris Yamashita’s debut novel. In tiny Point Mettier, Alaska (which could be a stand-in for real-life Whittier, Alaska), all the residents live in the same condo building, and during the winter they can barely leave it. When Anchorage detective Cara Kennedy arrives to investigate body parts that have washed ashore, she is trapped when an avalanche closes the only tunnel that connects to the mainland. As she investigates the death, Cara learns that many residents have secrets – and so does Cara herself.

For the complete review, click on the link below.

City Under One Roof starts out with a teen finding a severed hand and foot on a local beach in Alaska. It gets more interesting when you find out the town in Alaska is very removed from most of the state, and accessible only through a tunnel, and when the weather gets bad, it is very isolated. The residents of the town live in a large condo building, where a lot of residents have secret pasts, and are not who they claim to be. The story is told through three protagonists - Amy, the teen that found that body parts, Cara a detective on leave with her own personal reasons for investigating the crime, and Lonnie - a young woman that lives in the building and has seen more than she should have.Lonnie has spent time with a psychiatric facility, and is very damaged. I liked hearing about the various residents, their secrets, and the budding romance between Cara and a young detective in Point Mettier, Alaska. I would love to see these characters continue in a series. Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy!

This book is told from the perspective of three unique women who all have their secrets and motives. The characters in this story are memorable and their individual stories are all intriguing and full of hidden agendas. I appreciate how Yamashita was able to discuss mental health issues and challenges without making the women seem "crazy" or unreliable. The Alaskan town that this story is set in and its permanent residence also provide enough suspense to keep you reading.

I had the opportunity to interview Yamashita for the Feminist Book Club and the segment will be live in the near future.

THIS BOOK. I binge read this in two days. It will definitely end up being in my top ten of the year, and for sure in the top three of thriller/crime. It was kind of like a mix between the Icelandic show Trapped + something much more sinister – and set in Alaska! I can’t believe this was a debut from the author (though she is an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter. Which makes sense because this felt super cinematic and believeable!) I really hope this ends up becoming a series. I loved it so much!!
Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a Police Mystery. I really loved the setting of this book. This book took me a little bit to get pulled into the storyline because the beginning was slow to get really going. The beginning slowly built the characters backstories and made the setting come to life. The ending was full of suspense and fast pace. I loved the mystery and the suspense in this book. This was a solid read. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (Berkley Books) or author (Iris Yamashita) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

Debut author Iris Yamashita says City Under One Roof was inspired by a documentary she viewed more than twenty years ago about the city of Whittier, Alaska where all of the residents lived in a single building. She knew there had to be a story to be told in such an intriguing setting.

Whittier, Alaska is about sixty miles southeast of Anchorage, at the head of Passage Canal. It is situated between the spectacular mountains and an ice-free port, surrounded by three glaciers. It serves as the gateway to the Prince William Sound wilderness. Snowfall in Whittier averages twenty-two feet per year, but every summer tourists visit the city, many arriving aboard cruise ships. The city is also accessible via the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel through Maynard Mountain. At two-and-a-half miles long, it is the longest highway tunnel in North America, built to withstand temperatures up to -40 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures and winds of one hundred fifty miles per hour. In 2000, the one-lane tunnel was made passable by cars in addition to trains, each navigating the tunnel in both directions. The tunnel is aired out between trips with jet turbine ventilation. The single lane of vehicle traffic travels directly over the slightly sunken railroad track, and there are safe-houses within the tunnel -- small buildings that can be used in the event of a severe earthquake, vehicle fire, or other emergency.

Whittier was once known as Camp Sullivan. During World War II, the U.S. Army built the port and railroad to transport soldiers there. Following the war, two high-rise buildings were erected and the Army continued operating the port until 1960. In 1964, the 9.2 magnitude "Good Friday Earthquake," still the largest on record in the U.S., caused over ten million dollars in damage, triggered tsunamis, and claimed forty-three lives. It also rendered one of the city's two large buildings uninhabitable. Incorporated in 1969, the city still boasts a three-person year-round police force and volunteer fire and rescue squad. The city's two hundred and seventy-two or so citizens all reside in a fourteen-story condominimum known as Beghic Towers Incorporated which also houses the hospital, school, and city government offices.

Yamashita set City Under One Roof in fictional Point Mettier, Alaska, modeled after Whittier but with some distinct differences, including additional pedestrian tunnels such as the one used by the town's children to get to their schoolroom. In the story, the shell of one building, destroyed by the 1964 earthquake, remains standing and the diverse group of two hundred and five residents all live in the Davidson Condos, known as the Dave-Co where the post office, a church, an infirmary, and a general store that sells "touristy tchotchkes" are situated. There is also an inn within the structure. Winter lasts for about eight months with temperatures as low as minus thirty-five degrees, and Alaska is thrust into darkness for nearly the entire day for several months of the year. Life in a place like Point Mettier does not appeal to everyone, and the permanent, long-time residents are there for very speciic reasons. Some love the scenic setting, the isolation, or living within such a closeknit community. But most are running away from something or someone, including her protagonist.

In fact, when Yamashita visited Whittier while researching the book, she discovered that when the tunnel only accommodated train travel, one of the female residents was protected by the train conductor who prevented her abusive ex-husband from boarding and traveling to Whittier. A disproportionately high number of women in Alaska have endured domestic violence, in part because of the scant police enforcement of laws and restraining orders designed to protect them in remote regions. She explores the theme of fictional Point Mettier functioning as a safe haven for victims by incorporating that history into the story. Even now that vehicle traffic flows into Point Mettier, the toll booth operator tells Cara that he maintains a list of "no-gooders" to watch out for, but acknowledges that other than checking identification and attempting to dissuade them with stories about the tunnel shutting down there is little he can do to prevent them from entering the city.

Yamashita relates the story from three perspectives. People who travle through the tunnel have the sensation of falling down a rabbit hole and ending up in a strange and crazy wonderland full of quirky characters. Cara Kennedy is an "otter," which is what the townspeople call outsiders. She is a detective with the Anchorage police who arrives in Point Mettier because she is investigating what might be a murder case. Yamashita likens her to Alice in Wonderland, chasing clues as to why body parts have been washing up on the area's shores. As the book opens, in fact, Amy Lin, a local teenager, has stumbled upon a hand and foot. More than a year ago, Cara and her husband, Aaron, decided to take a much-needed vacation with their young son, Dylan. They rented a cabin in Talkeetna near Denali National Park and on the third day, Aaron took Dylan, along with his camera gear, on a morning hike to see snowshoe hares. They never returned. Cara wants to investigate whether their disappearance could be linked in any way to the body parts. When an avalanche closes the tunnel, she is forced to remain in Point Mettier. She teams up with Chief Sipley and the town's only police officer, Joe Barkowski, but does not reveal significant details about what prompted her to travel to Point Mettier. Cara is a highly skilled police professional who has sustained a horrible tragedy. She is determined to get answers, and willing to take whatever risks are required in order to do so. She is also likable and empathetic, particularly as Yamashita gradually reveals more details about the events that compelled her to visit Point Mettier.

Seventeen-year-old Amy Lin has lived in Point Mettier for fourteen years with her mother, who operates a business serving "barely passable" Chinese food that Amy Lin is tasked with delivering. She has recently learned that the details about her family's history and origins that she always accepted as true were actually manufactured by her mother. That knowledge has stirred up perplexing feelings and emotions for her, even though the revelations have given her a new understanding of her mother and her motivations. Day-to-day life in Point Mettier is challenging for Amy Lin due to a lack of activities, even though there are occasional school field trips. She is certain that were it not for Internet access connecting the little town to the rest of the world, she would not survive. There is nothing perplexing, however, about her feelings for her boyfriend, Even Spence Blackmon, who moved to Point Mettier about seven years ago with his younger brother, Troy, and their mother, Debra, who is one of the schoolteachers. Amy and Spence sneak off, along with the other local kids, to the remains of the next-door Walcott Building which used to house a bowling alley, auditorium, movie theater, and indoor pool. When Even and his family go missing, Amy is determined to find them. She is intuitive, observant, and resilient -- the white rabbit to Cara's Alice, according to Yamashita.

Lonnie Mercer is Yamashita's Mad Hatter. She wears a different colored beret every day, speaks in what Yamashita describes as "word salad" (strings of free-flowing, internal word associations) and has an undisclosed mental disability. She lives in fear of being sent back to the Institute where she was forced to live for a time after her mother was killed by an abusive boyfriend. She orders the same thing from Amy Lin's mother every day -- fried rice -- and is devoted to her pet moose, Denny. Chief Sipley looks after Lonnie and instructs her not to speak to Cara, ask her any questions or answer any questions Cara might pose, reminding her, "You don't want to end up back at the Institute, do you?"

Yamashita surrounds her three main characters with an eclectic group of supporting players, including the innkeeper, the manager of the general store, a gang of criminals whose headquarters are located in a nearby village, and a lonely lounge singer who was once a successful recording artist in Japan. Point Mettier is, of course, a central character in the tale, as well -- brooding, claustrophobic, and holding the secrets of its inhabitants. Yamashita's prowess as a screenwriter translates well to a lushly descriptive narrative that brings to life not just her compelling characters, but also the fascinating little town of Point Mettier and the surrounding area. She convincingly details how a place as naturally beautiful as the region can also be eerily menacing and frightening. She effectively melds her characters' emotional struggles with the procedural aspects of Cara's investigation, keeping the action moving forward at a fast pace and accelerating the tension as Cara and Officer Barkowski grow closer to each other and to identifying the individual whose partial remains were discovered by Amy Lin.

In City Under One Roof, some of the mysteries explored are wrapped up in a cohesive, satisfying manner. However, as the story proceeds, Yamashita introduces intriguing additional details pertaining to others and refrains from providing a tidy ending to those plots. Indeed, City Under One Roof is just the first entertaining installment in what promises to be a riveting and atmospheric series featuring Yamashita's colorful and eccentric cast of characters.

As someone who can’t live without modern urban amenities, I’m fascinated by the remote wilderness dwellers who share their stories on TikTok — some of them drive 5-6 hours for monthly grocery runs. This book taps into that dynamic, but it’s really a crime thriller.

When human remains wash up on the shores of Point Mettier, Alaska, Anchorage detective Cara Kennedy is on the case — motivated by personal reasons. The one tunnel in and out of town gets shut down by a blizzard, and the detective finds herself stranded there indefinitely.

I’m always looking for crime books with that extra layer — multidimensional characters, unique settings, crazy twists, but a good amount of legal and police chatter. It’s hard to find all of these in one book, but “City Under One Roof” pulls it off with a particularly satisfying ending. The small town characters in this one are SO GOOD and truly made this book for me.

This book really just took me for a ride. I loved the build up, the character development, and the writing. I would definitely read more from this author!

A detective investigates a case related to a personal tragedy. In order to do so, she’ll have to face one of her greatest fears and deal with the residents of a small town who all share a building. Author Iris Yamashita puts her screenwriting talent to work in her entertaining, compelling debut novel City Under One Roof.

Cara Kennedy has spent a year trying to get herself back on track with life. A detective on leave from the force in Anchorage, Alaska, Cara knows it’s not easy to get over the disappearance of her husband and son in a horrific hiking accident. Even though she finally received evidence of their death, she still grapples with how she lost her family in such a dramatic fashion, why it took so long to find them, and who is responsible.

When she gets word of a possible crime that might be related to the death of her husband and son, Cara jumps on the first chance to visit the tiny town of Point Mettier. Never mind that no one in Point Mettier knows she’s technically on leave from the force and that the only way to enter the town is through a tunnel under a mountain. Even with her claustrophobia on high alert as she makes that journey, Cara is determined to find out whether the events in Point Mettier are connected to her.

They’re also odd enough to warrant investigation on their own. A severed hand and a foot wash up on the shore of Point Mettier, sending the community into a frenzy. The entire town lives in the building of the Davidson Condos. Although tourist season brings its fair share of people, only a core group—just above 200—lives in Point Mettier year-round. Crimes are petty at best. No one commits murder, and they certainly don’t do it to such a gruesome degree.

At first, Chief Sipley, the police chief, and his younger partner, Joe Barkowski, are grateful for Cara’s presence. It seems almost fortuitous that she arrived just when they needed someone. But Cara hasn’t been forthcoming about her leave of absence, and when the chief and Joe find out it leaves them wondering whether they can trust Cara. Which she figures out is more or less the vibe for the whole town. Everyone has secrets, and everyone knows that they can only trust each other as long as their secrets can carry them.

Mixed into all this is teenager Amy who lives in the town under the thumb of her overbearing mother. At 17, Amy feels like she’s old enough to do what she wants, but that’s hard when her mother and the entire town knows what she’s up to. The fact that she has a boyfriend is a big enough secret for her to hide from her mother; then Amy finds herself caught up in the mystery of the murder victim, and things get even more complicated.
Author Iris Yamashita writes with an ease and deft not seen in the work of some debut authors. She clearly knows what she wants from her story and characters and how to get it. Her plot points link to one another in a tight chain of events that remains taut from start to finish.

If the book can be faulted anywhere, it’s in the fact that even though more than 200 people live in Point Mettier readers are only fully aware of a handful. While this handful consists of everyone important to the story, at some point it’s easy enough to forget that anyone else lives in the Davidson Condos. Were it not for the forced proximity of the characters because of the Alaskan weather, readers might mistake the setting of the book for any small town.

Regardless, the book has an almost noir feeling to it with only the best elements of that genre reflected here. The observations of Point Mettier resident Lonnie are excellent in their wordplay. The appearance of another minor character in various points of the book who also shows up at the end may not have been necessary, and the ending might make some wonder whether a sequel is coming. If it is, most readers won’t be disappointed.

From my blog: Always With a Book

As soon as I was pitched this one, I knew I had to read it. A crime fiction thriller set in a tiny Alaska town – yes, please! And to know that this is just the beginning of a new series, I knew I had to check it out and I’m so happy to say that it totally exceeded my expectations!

I love a good locked-room mystery and this one is that and so much more! Talk about atmospheric, claustrophobic and just the right amount of creepiness to make this thriller the perfect winter read! The author certainly knows how to use the elements of nature to her advantage. In some ways, this book reminded me a little of the NordicNoir I love in that I could feel the desolation and chilliness that this small town had, especially once that tunnel is shut down due to a blizzard and everyone in Point Mettier is basically isolated until the weather clears and the tunnel can be opened up again.

The story is told from three different perspectives, and I love that each one is so different from the others. It really gives a balanced feel to the overall story and keeps things quite interesting. Cara is there to investigate the remains that turned up but now that she is stranded there until the storm subsides, she finds out that the residents of Point Mettier all have their secrets, herself included. I loved finding out what drove all these residents to this small town and learning how they live year-round in this isolated area. Such a fascinating way of life! And I loved learning that this fictional town of Point Mettier is based on the real Alaskan town of Whittier…now I want to go visit this town!

This is a fast-moving book and I found I had a hard time putting it down. I loved all the characters we met in this first book – such a unique, quirky bunch of people that have each other’s backs. I had my theories as to what was going on, but of course, I never quite got there. And I love that there we are left with a few threads that aren’t quite tied up…leaving us quite eager for that next book!

This is a compelling mystery with a fascinating setting: an isolated island town in Alaska enterable by only one bridge? This is the setup for an inventively claustrophobic mystery that immediately introduces the reader to a cast of quirky, complex, and compelling characters, at once sympathetic and complicated, and suspicious and suspect. I had a really good time getting to know this novel's protagonist and the unique community in which she found herself stranded. Highly recommended!

Review for Bookbrowse:

When a disembodied arm and leg wash ashore in Point Mettier, Alaska, most residents assume they belong to someone who died by suicide. But Detective Cara Kennedy, who comes to the town from Anchorage to investigate, suspects there's more to this story.

The cast of oddballs and misfits in Iris Yamashita's City Under One Roof rent apartments in a single high-rise complex known as "Dave Co," where everyone knows everyone else's business. These strange folks do not greet Cara warmly as she begins poking around and asking questions about the washed-up body parts. The locals of Point Mettier wish to be left alone, happy to assume the appendages belong to a soul lost to depression at sea. As the mystery unfolds, Yamashita shifts between multiple points of view, covering the perspectives of Cara; Amy, a teenager working with her mother in their local Chinese restaurant; and Lonnie, a troubled woman with a pet moose who has spent time in a mental institution and seems to know a few too many secrets surrounding the mysterious death. Through these unique characters and the novel's suspenseful plot, Yamashita explores multiple themes, including immigration, family bonds and mental illness.

Amy navigates tension with her mother, who is strict and hard-working, always focused on maintaining their restaurant. When Amy, who knows relatively little about her Chinese heritage, wants to do a DNA test for an extra credit project at school, her mother becomes unsettled and frustrated. After uncovering a secret that could threaten their immigration status, Amy finds herself in the position of needing to protect them from being deported as out-of-town detectives are snooping around. It's easy to sympathize with Amy's teenage angst and her struggles to understand her identity, especially with the added complications of feeling out of place as an immigrant, her uneasy relationship with her mother, and the possible legal troubles they both face.

Lonnie, meanwhile, suffers traumatic childhood memories of witnessing her mother's death and the institution she was sent to live in afterward. While she cares deeply for her moose companion, Denny, she isolates herself from the Point Mettier community because she doesn't trust anyone. The voices in her head tell her that everyone talks behind her back. I applaud Yamashita's effort to bring mental illness to light, but representing it clearly and accurately is imperative to breaking stigma, and that is not always done here, as Lonnie's condition seems more associated with a generic idea of mental illness than something realistic. Her symptoms could be connected to schizophrenia, but they are indistinct at times. For example, her fixation on certain words causes her to get lost in word association, but it is unclear whether this is due to her thoughts or auditory hallucinations. However, her experiences invoke compassion, and her story is made evocative and intriguing through her memories and the secrets she keeps related to Chief Sipley, the local chief of police.

As Cara seeks to uncover the truth behind the beached body parts, she is wrestling with grief over the sudden loss of her husband and son on a camping trip, and her quest for answers drives her work. She thinks their deaths might be connected to the case in Point Mettier, but she must overcome her clouded judgment to prevent personal motivations from distracting her. She also must try to not be sidetracked by her growing feelings for local police officer J.B., who is aiding in the investigation.

City Under One Roof is filled from cover to cover with compelling stories from engaging characters. As Yamashita conveys, all the members of this community have complicated backstories, and not everyone likes everyone else. However, they check on each other's well-being, keep each other's secrets, and protect one another from strangers and threats. Yamashita weaves their experiences and perspectives together to drive the mystery, and as it unfolds, the reader cannot help but become attached to this odd community and the sense of familial loyalty between all the inhabitants of Dave Co.

4.5 stars

"Everybody pretends about something, but Lonnie knew that when people pretended too hard to be nice, they couldn't live very long at Dave Co."

City Under One Roof is told from three different points of view.

First, we have Amy who is the teenager who found the severed hand and foot. She and her mom live in Point Mettier, and they own the local Asian restaurant.

Then we have Cara who is a detective from Anchorage who comes to investigate the case. But everything is not as it first seems with Cara and she has a secret of her own. When she gets stuck in Point Mettier due to the tunnel closing after an avalanche she decides to solve the case herself with the help of the local police authorities J.B. and Chief Sipley. Cara is also suffering from PTSD from something that had recently happened to her.

Lastly, we have Lonnie who is known as Moose Lady as she has adopted a moose named Denny who she has taken care of since he was a baby. She in a way has become the town's responsibility with everyone looking out for her and making sure she is safe. Lonnie deals with the world in a very interesting way using words to make sense of the world around her and definitely has a tragic past and is always afraid to go back to that past.

At the start of every new chapter, we switch characters as the story moves along to show what is happening and where in the case everything is. By seeing the three different perspectives we can piece everything together slowly and start to discover all these little secrets from people who are in the town that are involved in the story. I grew to care for so many of the different residences and would love to see more from this small town possibly in the future to learn even more about them.

Overall this story has a little bit of everything. You have the small-town vibes of everyone looking out for each other, then you also have the murder mystery and attempting to figure out how everything is connected. Everyone in this town is there because they have secrets and one of the best places to escape from those secrets is in a small Alaskan town that only has one way in or out for most of the year. Because everyone in this town has secrets everyone is a suspect and possibly has a motive for potentially killing the person that's body parts washed up on shore. Even detective Cara has a secret of her own that J.B. figures out and causes him to keep a very close eye on her throughout the investigation. This causes them to work closely together and we see them working on the case and figuring out what happened between J.B.'s knowledge of the residence, and Cara's detective skills.

Throughout this entire book, I had different suspects at different times, and I wasn't able to fully figure it out until almost the end when it became obvious what had happened after new information was discovered. The ending of this book was so good, and the last revelation that was found out I was not expecting at all.

City Under One Roof is going to be one of my favorites of 2023. Perfect for readers who like character-driven stories, small-town vibes, and murder mysteries.

"Like busy bees buzzing, hovering. They were cutting him to pieces."


Quotes are from a finished copy I was sent in the mail by Berkley.

The entire town of Point Mettier (based on Whittier, Alaska) lives under one roof. A previous military expansion, the ‘Dave-Co’, now houses 205 full time residents. There are two take out places, an infirmary, a church, a post office, and a small general store that service this area this area that has winter for 8 months of the year. When a severed hand and foot wash up on the shores of Point Mettier, Anchorage PD is brought in to investigate. While the initial cause of death is being labeled a suicide, Office Cara Kennedy thinks it might be tied to a string of other murders. When an avalanche closes the only way in or out of town, Cara finds herself trapped in the ‘Dave-Co’. Without a way out of town and the town residents reluctant to help, Kennedy is set on finding what secrets they’re hiding. In order to uncover the truth, she’ll need to survive the claustrophobia of staying in a town all under one roof.

I am obsessed with Alaskan based thrillers. Alaska as a whole is extremely interesting to me, and while I’ve only visited once, I would love to explore the state more. But maybe in the summer-time. The way Yamashita has crafted the town/setting is excellently done and probably my favorite aspect of the book. This is a perfect snowy day thriller for sure.

Using multiple POVs, Iris Yamashita did a fabulous job of creating realistic and engaging characters. Cara- a detective suffering from PTSD and struggling to control her own personal grief is one of our POVs. Her view is typical of a police procedural but has the added level of PTSD, which I thought was executed well. Amy, a 17 yr old resident and our second POV, is a typical teenager but is somewhat a complex character. Lastly, we have Lonnie, who’s difficult life has brought her to Point Mettier. Lonnie really stood out to me, as Yamashita did a fabulous job of portraying her mental struggles and the way she views the world. Outside of our three narrators, every other resident/character we meet is quirky and well developed, especially for being for being sub characters. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Yamashita can craft realistic and flawed characters so well, when she’s been nominated for an Oscar as a screenwriter for ‘Letters from Iwo Jiwa’.

While I found parts of the story to be slow, overall this was an interesting thriller. My biggest complaint is that I didn’t know this was going to be a series, and I have so many questions about Cara’s storyline now! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.


City Under One Roof is out now. Huge thank you to Berkley Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books.

Can you imagine living in a city of only a few hundred where everyone lives in the same high-rise? I live in a townhouse and think my neighbors are too close.

I love books that have Alaska as a setting. This one had added intrigue with that setting. A detective from Anchorage comes to the small town to investigate found body parts and is stranded there when the only tunnel into town is shut down due to a storm. I really liked the detective and her interesting back story. I sympathized with her because of the death of her family and the PTSD she is still suffering.

With multiple points of view of diverse characters, the book starts out slow while it introduces the characters and then builds as everyone’s secrets come spilling out. And everyone has a secret or two, as most of the town’s residents have come here to hide from something.

I saw this is the first in a new series and I can’t wait to read book two.

This book had a great premise but I wasn’t sure how much I would like it going in. I was surprised about how quick of a read this was! And how much I enjoyed it. So good. It had a locked house feel as the entire city was in one building. I loved how ‘clean’ this book was. I really appreciate not having to read through sex scenes. This book honestly felt like a ‘cozy’ mystery/police procedural type. There were some coarse language and a few parts describing crimes that some may find a bit gruesome. But if you are a CSI or Criminal Minds fan like me, these scenes are nothing. I felt like I was watching a good TV show and was super bummed when it came to an end. I would love if this would become a series with Cara as the main character!

Thank you @berkleypub and @netgalley for the free book and @prhaudio for the audio version as well.

This debut novel takes place in the fictional Alaskan town of Point Mettier, where the residents all live under one roof- in a high rise building! The town gets cut off from the rest of the world because of an avalanche! I loved the cold, locked room atmosphere, complete with an avalanche, deafening winds, and quirky people!

When teenager Amy Lin discovers severed body parts washed up on a beach, the police dismiss it as an unidentified tourist who most likely fell off a boat. But Cara Kennedy, a detective from nearby Anchorage, travels to the small town because she has her own reasons for wanting to investigate this case. Her husband and son disappeared a year ago. However, she gets stranded in the small town when an avalanche blocks her way back home. Soon she gets involved in a bigger mystery, and discovers that lots of people in the town are hiding secrets.

The story is told in three viewpoints, and during most of the story I was not sure how the three characters would tie in together, but they eventually did. I was left with a few questions at the end. However, I believe the author is planning book 2, where hopefully, my questions will be answered!

Read this if you want to read a good story…especially one in an isolated wintry setting!

Book 1 of a new series written by the Academy Award nominated writer for Letters From Iwo Jima. This was so vividly written I could see it as a limited tv series. Bonus points for being set in Alaska. The setting alone really made the book. This town can be accessed only by a tunnel and all 205 residents live in the same building. When the tunnel snows them in there is no one in, but also no one out.
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When a teenager discovers a severed hand and foot, detective Cara Kennedy is on the case. This one kept me engaged the entire time and I can’t wait to see where this series goes.
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This book is out tomorrow!

Huge thank you to @berkleypub @berittalksbooks @thephdivabooks @dg_reads @prhaudio and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I feel a series coming on! I was immediately intrigued by City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita for a couple of reasons, the biggest one being that it is set in Alaska. I have never been, but I think it is an exceptional place to set a book, especially one that involves crime! The atmosphere is spot on, especially since Cara is basically trapped in this small town, and there are only so many places to look when people go missing there. She is dealing with the loss of both her son and husband and, of course, that affects her investigation. It seems like everyone in town has secrets to hide and I enjoyed the gradual unraveling of them. There are multiple viewpoints which include Cara, a teenage girl named Amy, and a local named Lonnie. I loved the characterization and thought Yamashita did a great job making everyone fully formed with a different personality.

The audiobook was really good, and I was glad Aspen Vincent, Shannon Tyo & Anna Caputo were picked to be the narrators. Vincent was the voice of Cara, Tyo voiced Amy, and Caputo was the narrator for Lonnie. Lonnie has a very specific way of thinking and speaking, and I was super impressed with the way Caputo was able to bring that across with her narration. If you want a way to bring the characters and atmosphere to life, listening to the audio of City Under One Roof is definitely the way to go. I really enjoyed the suspense throughout the story and the pacing moved along nicely as well although it does slow down a touch at times. The ending wrapped up most things, but there were still some unanswered questions, so I am guessing we have not seen the last of Cara! This was a solid debut that I would recommend for sure. The romance piece felt a bit out of place to me and I could have done without it, but besides that, it was a thoroughly enjoyable crime novel.

Thank you to the publishers for my complimentary listening and reader copies of this book. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

I love finding new author’s and sharing their debut novels, like Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita.

A blizzard in a small town in Alaska. Oh yeah, I am intrigued from the getgo. THEN, add 205 residents that all live in the same highrise. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

A boot with a foot. A hand. Washed up on shore. I have seen TV shows about the body parts that wash ashore in the Northwest. Really creepy and using this topic to get Cara to the small town of Point Mettier, Alaska, with her own reasons for wanting to investigate, begins the mystery and danger that is to follow.

I shiver as she drives through the tunnel. It is one way and switches directions every half hour. I felt a bit claustrophic with her. Two and a half miles. I get creeped out in the drive through car wash. LOL

The highrise used to be an army post, with tunnels because of the weather and to keep from being seen. Of course, kids are going to explore and even though I think I would be creeped out, I would have to explore too.

All towns have secrets, but small towns make it much harder to keep them. Everyone knows everyone. They live and breathe in the same space.

The descriptions of the highrise and the people are richly detailed. It made it easy for me to paint pictures in my mind. I love odd characters and City Under One Roof has its fair share. Are they on the run?

I could hear the wind howling, I could feel the icy cold.

Told, mainly, from three characters point of view: Cara, who is a detective from Anchorage, Alasksa, Amy, who is the teenager that found the body parts, and Lonnie, who came to live in the high rise after leaving a mental institution. She is one of the best characters, her and Denny. And Susie, always hanging out in the hallway.

City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita has all the elements I look for in a thriller, a fabulous location and the storm is a bonus, great characters, danger, intrigue and mystery.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita.

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