Book Review: ‘City Under One Roof: A Novel’ By Iris Yanashita

The setting is the small town of Point Mettler, Alaska, a very small place of about 200 full-time residents, who mostly live in a hotel year round. They get visitors during the summer season, and now that winter is coming, you are usually stuck here, as there’s one tunnel to get in and out and when the weather is bad, you can’t go anywhere. On the beach a group of teenagers find body parts, which isn’t unusual here, and Cara Kennedy, a detective from Anchorage, shows up to work the case. She starts investigating and then gets stuck in the town, when a snowstorm hits. She gets chummy with the local police chief and his officer and soon gets entangled with the quircky and strange ways of this town and finds herself and others in deadly danger, when she gets to close to the truth. This is the debut novel from Academy Award nominess Iris Yanashita and is a fun novel, due to the very quirky characters, the setting and unusual way these people live. The murder mystery is okay but not the highlight of this solid debut.

You can pick up City Under One Roof in stores on Tuesday, Janaury 10th from Berkley.