Village in the Dark
By: Iris Yamashita
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Berkley
Pages: 288
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Detective Cara Kennedy thought she’d lost her husband and son in an accident, but harrowing evidence has emerged that points to murder--and she will stop at nothing to find the truth in this riveting mystery from the author of City Under One Roof.
On a frigid February day, Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy stands by the graves of her husband and son, watching as their caskets are raised from the earth. It feels sacrilegious, but she has no choice. Aaron and Dylan disappeared on a hike a year ago, their bones eventually found and buried. But shocking clues have emerged that foul play was involved, potentially connecting them to a string of other deaths and disappearances.
Somehow tied to the mystery is Mia Upash, who grew up in an isolated village called Unity, a community of women and children in hiding from abusive men. Mia never imagined the trouble she would find herself in when she left home to live in Man’s World. Although she remains haunted by the tragedy of what happened to the man and the boy in the woods, she has her own reasons for keeping quiet.
Aided by police officer Joe Barkowski and other residents of Point Mettier, Cara’s investigation will lead them on a dangerous path that puts their lives and the lives of everyone around them in mortal jeopardy.
First Impressions
I haven’t been on a huge mystery kick to be honest. I find that I’ve been getting bored with them by about 50% and then I just skip to the end to find out what happened. However, when I saw the Northern Lights on the cover and saw that this one took place in Alaska, I knew I had to give it a shot.
What I thought
Cara is a detective with the Anchorage PD. In book one, she went to Point Mettier to solve a mystery. That small town is actually a town where everyone and everything is in one big condo building. In this book, she heads back there after finding a picture of her husband and son on the phone of a thug. Her husband and son were found dead a year ago, but now she’s not so sure about what happened.
I do want to preface this with the fact that I have not read book 1. So, I don’t know any of the history with Cara or what went down previously in Point Mettier. This book alternates between Cara’s point of view, Ellie’s point of view and Mia’s. Ellie is a long time resident of Point Mettier and is old and crotchety. Mia is a young woman who grew up in a small native town off the grid.
Even though I haven’t read the first book, I think this one does a nice job of letting you know some of the history without it feeling like you’re re-reading everything. I enjoyed Cara and her type of work. It didn’t seem like she fell into solving cases and she didn’t scare easily. Though to be fair, I don’t think she truly did much of the work in solving this mystery.
I’m a sucker for books that take place in Alaska because the culture just seems to different. I enjoyed all of the characters in this story and didn’t find it to be overly predictable. I think maybe it would’ve been more so if I had read the first book but, it was still enjoyable. I did get a little bit bored around the 50% mark but it did pick back up and I flew through the last 30%.
This is a solid 3.5 stars for me. The characters are strong and the plot was enjoyable and moved quickly. It was semi-predictable and, as you know, I do judge mysteries a little more harshly on that aspect. But I will say that it was nice that it wasn’t like some random solution just showed up in the end. I would be open to reading more of this series, especially given the set up for the characters at the end of the story. I would recommend this to you if you enjoy mysteries and don’t find that you need them to be overly complicated or surprise you too much.