In the next riveting thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, the paranoia increases – along with the stakes – as the town of Rockton tries to solve the latest mystery at their door.

Detective Casey Duncan has noticed fewer and fewer residents coming in to the hidden town of Rockton, and no extensions being granted. Her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, presumes it’s the natural flux of things, but Casey’s not so sure. It seems like something bigger is happening in the small town they call home.

When an injured hiker stumbles from the woods, someone who seems to have come to the Yukon for a wilderness vacation but instead is now fighting for her life, it’s all hands on deck. What – or who – attacked this woman, and why?

With the woman unconscious, and no leads, Casey and Eric don’t know where the threat is coming from. Plus, the residents of their deeply secretive town are uneasy with this stranger in their midst. Everyone in Rockton wants this mystery solved – and fast.

The Rockton series by Kelley Armstrong has been excellent since the very first book, and it’s a thrill to see the connecting story threads weave together here in the 6th book, leading toward an end point still to come in the 7th and final book in the series. A Stranger in Town builds on everything that’s come before it, provides a mystery of its own to solve, and answers questions that have been percolating since the very beginning.

Once again, a quick recap of the series premise:

Rockton is a secret hidden town in the Yukon wilderness, a haven for those seeking extreme shelter from dangers in their real lives — or those who’ve committed some sort of wrongdoing and need a place to start over. Rockton, population 200, is filled with an uneasy mix of crime victims and white-collar criminals — although as Sheriff Eric Dalton and Detective Casey Butler come to discover, the town council is willing to defy its own rules for a price and allow more dangerous people to take advantage of Rockton’s protection.

A Stranger in Town starts with a frightening discovery. In the forest surrounding Rockton, Casey and Eric stumble across a severely injured hiker. She appears to be a well-provisioned but inexperienced tourist, one of the many who pay to be dropped in the Yukon for a wilderness adventure — and like many before her, finds herself in over her head. But as Casey and Eric quickly discover, this hiker wasn’t injured in a fall or animal attack — she appears to have been gravely wounded by hostiles, the pack of “wild” people, seemingly feral or deranged, who live in the forest and pose a continual threat to Rockton and other settlements. What’s more, the hiker was one of a group of four; her companions’ bodies are found nearby.

The attack highlights yet again how dangerous the hostiles are, to the point where the council — the wealthy advisory board that controls and funds Rockton from afar — are ready to shut everything down and dismantle the town, much to Casey and Eric’s dismay. But Casey has had her suspicions about the hostiles from the very beginning of her time in Rockton, and these new murders, and the council’s reaction, give her even more incentive to finally find the long-hidden answers.

If it sounds like I’m being vague… well, that’s intentional! The plot and mystery and clues are all so intricate that to talk about any in detail would mean spoiling the fun of discovering them for yourselves. What I loved about A Stranger in Town, as with the rest of the series, is seeing how the characters interact in each new situation, how much the relationships among the town residents have evolved, and how astutely Casey sees into the truth of the issues and incidents that complicate their lives.

On top of the excellent mystery and the strength of the depiction of the town’s residents, the relationship between Eric and Casey continues to be a delight. They are two strong, intelligent, complicated people. Their personal baggage can cause difficulty when it comes to their feelings and communications, yet their commitment to one another allows them to view situations, and one another, with honesty and fairness. It’s fascinating to see them work through their inner qualms and self-doubt, and to allow themselves to trust in the strength of their love even in moments of serious danger or conflict.

The plot of A Stranger in Town is terrific, and the book is impossible to put down. The mystery at hand is resolved, and there are startling revelations that go way back into Rockton’s history and explain the present challenges the town faces. This book sets up what’s sure to be a dynamite series finale, and I can’t wait to get to it!