Fans of this futuristic series will enjoy the sixth, and perhaps the finale, of the Rockton tales. Rockton is a remote town in the Alaskan Yukon, squirreled away from society and filled with quirky residents with varied pasts — some distinguished, some shady. But they've been sent to this outpost as an experiment, and they're darned sure going to make it work.
One day a stranger stumbles into town, hurt and confused. She's mumbling a language that isn't immediately recognized, until someone with language skills realizes it's Danish. She tells of being part of a small group of hikers exploring the Yukon who are attacked in the forests surrounding Rockton — not by a beast, but a primitive group who killed her traveling partners.
Detective Casey Duncan is once again the center of the action, but she starts to lose her confidence when people start disappearing and what looked like a simple enough story is exposed as an elaborate lie.
Fans of previous installments will enjoy seeing the threads come together as Rockton's very existence is explained and, at the same time, is threatened with extinction. Good guys turn bad and bad guys turn good. With no one to trust, Rockton's secrets are finally exposed. The question is whether it and its people can survive them.
Definitely richer for those who are familiar with the Rockton series, the novel also stands alone for those who can use their imagination to fill in the blanks.
Ginny Greene is a copy editor at the Star Tribune.
A Stranger in Town By: Kelley Armstrong. Publisher: Minotaur Books, 359 pages, $16.99.
