Review: Alone in the Wild

It's rare for me to knowingly jump into a series mid-way through but last year I did just that with Kelley Armstrong's Rockton series. The fourth book, Watcher in the Woods, was being published and I reviewed it for Niagara Life because I thought it sounded pretty interesting. I enjoyed it and looked forward to the next book, Alone in the Wild, which was published back in February.

Here's the synopsis:

In number one New York Times best seller Kelley Armstrong's latest thriller, the hidden town of Rockton is about to face a challenge none of them saw coming: a baby.
Every season in Rockton seems to bring a new challenge. At least that's what Detective Casey Duncan has felt since she decided to call this place home. Between all the secretive residents, the sometimes-hostile settlers outside, and the surrounding wilderness, there's always something to worry about.
While on a much needed camping vacation with her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, Casey hears a baby crying in the woods. The sound leads them to a tragic scene: a woman buried under the snow, murdered, a baby still alive in her arms.
A town that doesn’t let anyone in under the age of 18, Rockton must take care of its youngest resident yet while solving another murder and finding out where the baby came from - and whether she's better off where she is.

When you don't read a series from the start you miss exactly how relationships are built and knowing what pieces from the past have been revealed and which are still hidden. Armstrong does a good job of recapping some information so a new reader can start to piece things together without, I imagine, boring readers who have been with the series since the beginning. 

What I've been liking about this series (one of the things anyway) is that it's a thriller that isn't falling into any of the usual tropes we're seeing right now. Yes, there's a woman who had to run from her past and may still have some issues to work out but she's living a pretty solid life and her past demons seem to be staying in the past. Of course, she's living in a town in the middle of nowhere in the Yukon and said town has a surprisingly high murder rate given there's not that many people living there. Kind of puts a damper on things.

I really like Casey. I like that she's a little bit flawed and knows it. She's in her early thirties, like me, and really seems to relish the challenge of trying to police Rockton (not a thing I would enjoy). She and Dalton, the town's sheriff, have a relationship that would make many people envious - they're settled and just recently got a new dog, Storm, who they've been training as a tracker. How a Newfoundland dog can become a tracker, I know not, but the scenes with Storm were a delight (except for the ones she was in danger...those were scary). 

I also liked how Casey's brain worked. She is well suited to being a detective because her mind is able to take the pieces of the puzzle and work them around until she has the solution. It's really interesting to read and Armstrong writes it well. Casey and Dalton had the mystery sorted out and I was still playing catch up as it was all revealed (I may blame my cold for dulling my brain...). I wasn't able to figure out the ending and I really enjoyed the puzzle as I read this story.

If you like mysteries - especially with a Canadian flavour - you should definitely check out Kelley Armstrong's Rockton series. Alone in the Wild was a lot of fun to read (well, I had as much fun as you can when you read about a murdered woman and a baby whose parents are missing) and I think I enjoyed it more than the last book in the series. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

*An ARC of this novel was provided by the publisher, Doubleday Canada, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*