REVIEW: City Under One Roof (book) by Iris Yamashita

City Under One Roof is a mystery. I bought my copy new.

Review:

When a couple body parts are found near Point Mettier, Alaska, Cara Kennedy is hopeful that there might be some connection to the disappearance and death of her husband and young son. She arrives at the town just before a terrible snowstorm cuts it off from everything - although, truth be told, it's a fairly isolated place even at the best of times. You can only get there via a tunnel so narrow it only allows one-way access (the direction changes on a schedule, when the weather permits it), and everyone lives in one enormous building. It's the kind of environment where everyone knows everyone's business, and outsiders are kept at an arm's length.

You don't willingly live in a place like this without good reason, and most of the residents have big secrets in their pasts. Did one of them commit murder in order to keep their secrets hidden? And, if so, what's the connection to the murder of Cara's husband and son?

This had a great premise. Point Mettier's claustrophia and isolation instantly hooked me. Unfortunately, all of the book's best reveals happened way too soon. The actual final reveals were easy to predict and not particularly thrilling. 

I don't know that the alternating POVs really added anything to this, either. We got to see things from three perspectives - Cara, Lonnie, and Amy. Amy was one of Point Mettier's few teens, and also one of its longest-term residents. Lonnie was a former patient at a mental institution - even at Point Mettier, the only ones she truly trusted were the sheriff and Denny, her moose. Amy's POV was fine and gave readers a view into what it was like being a Point Mettier resident (largely very boring), but Lonnie's had enough repetitive elements that I wish she'd had fewer chapters. 

The supposed "connection" between the body parts and the deaths of Cara's husband and son felt like a pretty big reach. In general, Cara read like somebody who really needed some caring friends or family around to keep her grounded and help her heal. It looks like this book is going to be the first in a series, and I'm not sure I'm interested enough in Cara and her story to continue on.