A book set in a fictionalised version of an Alaskan city where all of the citizens live in a single apartment complex, written by an Academy Award nominated screenwriter, should probably be more of a slam dunk than this. City Under One Roof tries to be something a bit like Northern Exposure meets Twin Peaks, but it never quite gets there. 

 

Point Mettier, Alaska. 205 people live in a single building year round, with an occasional boost for tourist season. When severed body parts are found along the shoreline, detective Cara Kennedy’s interest is piqued. She’s not on active duty, but the people of Point Mettier don’t need to know that. It doesn’t matter, of course: the city is a closed eco-system and they don’t speak to outsiders. 

 

The biggest draw for City Under One Roof is, of course, its setting. You don’t get many books set in such an isolated location, and the real Alaskan cities like this, remnants of World War II exercises, would be fascinating to visit but difficult to live in. Yamashita is sympathetic to how little support these places get while also emphasising that they would be good and remote strongholds for people who need to get away from the larger world. Yet her prose is often quite childish, even when she’s not using one of her teen POV characters, and the majority of the novel is ungrounded. There’s an eccentric woman who has a pet moose, because of course there is, and in some ways she’s key to solving the murder, because of course she is. It’s that sort of book and, while Yamashita tries to be respectful, she doesn’t sell either the quirkiness or seriousness of the woman, and she fails to split the difference. 

 

Cara Kennedy is a boilerplate cop with a secret and traumatic past, and a huge chip on her shoulder. Yamashita is skilled enough to people Point Mettier with enough characters with points of difference that it feels like Cara is walking around a population aren't mere clones of her, even if most of them are reduced to their most base desires. The gang of out-of-towners, of course, don't fare as much more than ciphers. 

 

It all culminates in something that utilises the location effectively, if not necessarily believably, and then Cara gets dropped into a cliffhanger about her Dark Secret Past. You've read it before except, thanks to the titular city, you haven't quite. City Under One Roof feels slightly amateurish for something published by a major imprint, but it’s an easy enough read.