Can we just talk about how this ended? I need more! Want more. Will definitely be looking Iot for more from this author. This has me sucked in from page one and was so hard to put down!

DNFing at 36%. I'm trying so hard to get into this story and be intrigued by the murders but I can't force myself to continue reading this book. I'm not caring for any of the characters and the plot is not intriguing me enough to continue. I really wanted to like this book as I loved the aspect of the small town in Alaska where everyone lives in the same building but honestly I'm just bored.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

Good pacing and great start to what is a promising series. There were moments in this book that felt a little convenient but an enjoyable reading experience nonetheless.

Cara Kenndy approaches a very small village in Alaska when some body parts are found. The case seems to be unable to be solved quickly so she decides to head home. There is only one way out of the small town, and it is by means of a tunnel. However, there has been an avalanche and Cara is stuck for the foreseeable future.

It is a very unusual village that Cara is stuck in. Although her investigation takes her outside from time to time, every single resident in the small village lives in one all-inclusive building These residents never have to cope with weather or other issues, because their building has everything they need.

This atmospheric read introduces Cara in this new series by Iris Yamashita. She has experienced great trauma in her life and this affects her current actions. Then there is the fact that this mystery happens where the suspects are limited, especially when more than one of them appear to be hiding something.

City Under One Roof was an excellent read and I went right on to reading and loving Village in the Dark. I would like to continue to see Cara handle difficult cases, and love that some of the characters from the first book are in the second one.

Many thanks to and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Anchorage Police Detective (on disability) Cara Kennedy comes to the unusual town of Point Mettier, Alaska for reasons of her own after hearing about some body parts being found near there.

Point Mettier (based on the real Alaskan town of Whittier) is only reachable by land through a one-way-at-a-time tunnel and Detective Kennedy ends up getting stranded there when a blizzard and subsequent avalanche closes the tunnel.

She and Point Mettier police officer J.B. Berkowski look into the case of the body parts with the "help" of a whole slew of the town's residents.

I enjoyed this police procedural especially the quirky characters and the "city under one roof" aspect. I highly recommend this story if you're looking for something different. I'm now off to read about Detective Kennedy's next adventure in the series Village in the Dark.

I received this Digital Review Copy from Berkley Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review. This is that review.

A perfect read during the winter season, was Cara Kennedy a police investigator from Anchorage, Alaska, who gets stranded in this small remote town in Alaska where the population drops to around 200 during the winter season and most everything in this city is under one roof - hence the title!

Cara Kennedy is a great police investigator to follow through this mystery as this small town is plagued by body parts being found and she must first found out who is murdered AND then find out who and why. I really enjoyed this aspect of the book, it felt as though there was more mystery than in other books as you don't even know WHO has been murdered!

The other part of the book that I really enjoyed was the claustrophobic feeling of being stuck - everyone is stuck due to an avalanche and the only way in and out is blocked and this feeling heightened the book as you could almost guarantee that the killer and all of the problems were still in the city.

I knew when starting this book that there was a book 2, so I was even more excited when I enjoyed investigating with Cara's point of view and would get another opportunity to watch her solve something. I hope to read the second one this winter as it is located in the state of Alaska.

Oh, what fun it is to discover a new writer, especially one who brings us something new–or mostly new. That qualification is only because I’ve read the entirety of Kelley Armstrong’s Casey Duncan series about a group of people who need to escape from their normal lives to a lost city in the Yukon wilderness. In the case of City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita, the city isn’t in the Yukon wilderness but an Alaskan coastal town, Point Mettier (fictional), that goes into hibernation once winter begins to settle in. In the winter, the only access point is a 2.5 mile tunnel that is at the mercy of mother nature as is the case when Anchorage Police Detective, Cara Kennedy, comes to town to investigate the discovery of body parts found on the shore.

Cara Kennedy’s investigation isn’t impersonal, however. A year ago she lost her husband and six-year-old son when they when on a short hike looking for snowshoe hares. Not satisfied with how the case had been handled, she is determined to discover the truth.

Point Mettier is not exactly what she had expected. Once a military town, it now only really comes to life in the summer when the tourists arrive along with shopkeepers and food service workers who don’t stay through the winter. In the winter, those who remain in Point Mettier full-time live under one roof at Dave-Co, a condominium building. And this is where Cara ends up when first a fast moving storm and then an avalanche close the tunnel.

As one might expect from small town fiction, Point Mettier and Dave-Co are home to quirky people who have a lot of secrets and like to keep them. City Under One Roof is narrated by three characters: Cara; Amy, a Chinese high school student with a tenuous relationship with her mother, the owner/chef of a restaurant; and Lonnie, a young woman who escaped abuse at the hands of her stepfather and now seems mentally unstable. To be honest, I’m not certain how much City Under One Roof gained from having Lonnie as a narrator but she did add color, for what that’s worth.

City Under One Roof was a well paced, intriguing read with complex and unconventional characters that added to the flavor of the story. A little romance was tossed in along with a taste of supernatural plus a lot of thrilling moments leading to a satisfying conclusion. The end hints at more to come and, fortunately, there is with the next installment in Cara Kennedy’s story coming next month, and which I’ll probably review for you all in the coming week. (Hooray!)

Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy.

Murder in a very very small Alaskan town...need I say more?

Some things I liked: small town, loved the characters, loved the setting!

Some things that didn't work for me: the pacing was more of a slow burn for me and the "twists" weren't as twisty as I wanted them to be!

Overall, landing at 3.5 stars for this one! I did enjoy it and look forward to reading more by this author!

There is a real town in Alaska where the entire population lives in the same building. When a detective, Cara, investigates a severed hand and foot, she has to stay in this small area to find the killer.

Much care went into crafting this world that primarily exists in one large building. The book's best parts were about how the people handled their daily lives. However, the mystery felt like an afterthought. The romance felt tacked on. Cara has a horrible backstory of her husband and son being lost in the woods a year ago, and their remains were just found. It felt odd that she would be ready to fall in love.

My favorite parts were with Amy, a teenage girl who lives in the building and seeing her life grow.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

A resident of a small, isolated Alaskan town finds severed body parts washed up on the town’s shore. Cara, a detective from Anchorage, is on the case.

City Under One Roof is the first book in the Cara Kennedy series. The town residents live in the same high-rise building. As Cara investigates, she learns all the residents are keeping secrets. Interesting characters in a unique setting.

An atmospheric debut novel. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fascinating mystery read, especially because all the residents in the Alaskan town where the murder occurs live in the same high rise building. It’s a nightmare to investigate for Cara, the detective, and it gets even harder when a blizzard confines everyone to the building, including Cara.

I liked the writing a lot, the suspense is palpable. 4 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my own.

In the remote town of Point Mettier, Alaska, a local teenager makes a chilling discovery: a severed hand and foot washed ashore. Tasked with the investigation is Cara Kennedy, a detective hailing from Anchorage, who harbours her own personal reasons for delving into this potential murder mystery in the isolated town accessible solely through a tunnel.

However, an unforeseen blizzard forces the tunnel to close indefinitely, leaving Cara stranded amidst the enigmatic and suspicious inhabitants of Point Mettier. All 205 of them reside in a single high-rise building, mirroring the frigid exterior with their icy demeanour.

City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita immediately captivated my attention for several reasons, the foremost being its Alaskan setting. The novel impeccably captures the atmosphere of a small town where the search for missing persons is confined to limited locations. Cara herself grapples with the weight of personal loss—both her son and husband—and this profoundly influences her pursuit of the truth. As secrets begin to unfurl, it becomes evident that everyone in town guards their own hidden truths, and I relished the gradual revelation of these concealed mysteries.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for sending a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Well-written murder mystery in a very unique setting - a very small town in remote Alaska. Very good characterization and fast-paced.

Stevie‘s review of City Under One Roof by Iris Yamashita
Contemporary Police Procedural published by Berkley 10 Jan 23

I’d seen a couple of articles online about Whittier, Alaska around the middle of last year, and they gave me a great incentive to pick up this book when it was offered to me for review. Stories about tower blocks and the communities that form within them aren’t that common, to my knowledge, and the idea of such a community developing in virtual isolation is particularly fascinating. The fictional Point Mettier is inspired by Whittier, and there are an awful lot of similarities between the two in terms of geography at the very least. The town is isolated in the winter, with only a road tunnel linking it to the rest of Alaska, although it is visited by a multitude of cruise ships and part-time residents who rely on the ships for business in the summer. Naturally, this murder mystery takes place in the off season.


Year-round teenage resident Amy Lin finds a decomposing hand and foot on the beach, while hanging out there with her friends. Although the investigating police officer sent from Anchorage believes the body parts have washed up following an accidental death out at sea, another detective, Cara Kennedy, is less certain. Cara is on long-term sick leave, following the death of her husband and son, and believes the discovery is somehow linked to their disappearance. When a storm leaves her stranded in the town until the tunnel can be reopened, Cara teams up with the younger of the town’s resident police officers, J.B. Barkowski, to continue the investigation, made more urgent when more parts of the victim are discovered, and a link is made to one of the town’s resident families.

As Cara digs into the history of all those suspected to be involved, she realises most have good reasons to isolate themselves in Point Mettier. Some are fleeing abusive partners, while others are fugitives from the law. On top of that, there is a more worrying criminal element based in a nearby village. Cara and J.B. suspect a connection between the gang and the murder victim, a suspicion that is strengthened when the gang targets the family they have already linked to the deceased.

This book wasn’t quite as claustrophobic as I expected, mainly because of Cara’s excursions beyond the main apartment building. The finale, however, takes place in an even more oppressive location, and I found that part especially gripping. I also enjoyed the different narratives from the viewpoints of Cara, Amy, and another local resident, Lonnie. I’m hoping this novel kicks off a series, because I’d love to find out what Cara does next.

Grade: B

This one really fell flat for me. I was expecting much more from this based on the premise. I was uninterested the whole time and had to push myself to finish. I will order a copy for the store but I will not recommend.

Iris Yamashita brings a thriller to a unique location, a remote Alaskan town where everyone lives in the same building.

The book is told from the perspective of detective cara Kennedy and local teenager Amy Lin. When body parts are found Cara drives in from Anchorage to investigate. Both characters have complicated pasts that could affect the investigation.

Overall this was such a unique take on a closed circle thriller. The small town of Point Mettier is based on a real town in Alaska, Whittier. The author clearly did much research on the location and brings in the perspective and troubles of the native people as well.

If you are looking for a fast paced, atmospheric, closed circle, detective thriller than this book is for you.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc of this book.

The premise and setting of this book are intriguing. This thriller is unique and unusual with great character development. I really enjoyed this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

Anchorage police detective Cara Kennedy investigates a possible murder in a desolate town of Point Mettier, Alaska, reachable only by boat or tunnel. Populated with unusual characters, the town exists in one building where Cara must stay while she investigates and waits out the storm that has stranded her. Past meets present as Cara recognizes similarities between the crime in Point Mettier, and one that haunts her own past. Told through the alternating view points of Cara, and town residents Amy and Lonnie, the town’s secrets are gradually revealed through unpredictable twists and turns, that will keep the listener guessing until the very end.
Recommended to fans of Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, and Tana French, this audiobook should be purchased for public libraries with an avid mystery fan base.

Great introduction to a new author for me, and a wonderful addition to our collection for our patrons. I look forward to more! THANK you!