City Under One Roof

by Iris Yamashita

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

City Under One Roof is a mystery thriller by Iris Yamashita. Due out 10th Jan 2023 from Penguin Random House on their Berkley imprint, it's 304 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and paperback formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. 

This is such an atmospheric/creepy mystery. Set in an isolated tiny hamlet in rural Alaska in what had been an army base, the 200+ residents all live in the same building with outlying (mostly subterranean) buildings used as functional business sites and entertainment venues (such as they are). It's very much an island/isolation setting with most of the dramatic tension coming from the gradual exposure of secrets and crimes for each of the primary characters. 

Chapters are told in third person, rotating through the main characters which are, admittedly, quite diverse: an Asian mother and daughter who run the local restaurant, a curmudgeonly apartment building super who might have been a bank robber in her former life, a gruff police chief who has an odd caretaker relationship with a young woman with trauma and mental challenges who has a pet moose called Denny, an aging (extremely creepy) Japanese cabaret singer, and several others. Despite the quirky characters there's very little humor to be found. The book's tension arc is mostly unrelieved, ratcheting up throughout to an oddly not-wholly-satisfying denouement and resolution. 

The writing is competent and *very* cinematic. The scenery and descriptions are three dimensional and complete. I expect the movie rights are already hashed out, and the author (an Academy Award nominated screenwriter) will be able to knock the script out in a long weekend with a 6-pack of energy drinks and local takeaway restaurant on speed-dial. 

The book's main problem for me was the immoderate everything-including-the-kitchen-sink plotline. It felt overcrowded. Some of the tension was lost, for example, in the descriptions of the delivery of Chinese food to residents through the eerie hallways of the residential complex with readers expecting a jump-scare any second. Another issue was the seemingly random addition of two "wait, what??!!" twists in the *epilogue* of the book. I would also add a fervent prayer that most police departments don't work that way, hopefully. 

Four stars, mostly for the descriptions. I like "island" mysteries. This one was better than ok, but not superlative. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.