The Deepest of Secrets (Rockton Series #7)

by Kelley Armstrong

Overview

#1 New York Times bestseller Kelley Armstrong returns to the captivating town of Rockton in The Deepest of Secrets, the next installment in one of the most imaginative crime series on shelves today.

"This is a series that covers all the bases.” —St. Louis Post Dispatch

It’s not always easy to live in the hidden town of Rockton, something Detective Casey Duncan knows firsthand. Tucked away in the Yukon wilderness, the community survives—and thrives—because the residents' many secrets stay just that—secret.

But what happens when these secrets start to come out? Overnight, no one is safe. It’s not a question of if your secret will come out—but when.

Casey and her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton, need to find the culprit while protecting those who have been thrust into the spotlight. For a place built on privacy and new beginnings, Rockton isn’t handling these revelations very well. People are turning on one another, and when one of the loudest complainers turns up barely alive, it's clear that their trickster is actually a murderer.

The threat of exposure is reaching its breaking point, and no one knows what’s going to happen next.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250830203
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/15/2022
Series:	Rockton Series , #7
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

KELLEY ARMSTRONG graduated with a degree in psychology and then studied computer programming. Now she is a full-time writer and parent, and she lives with her husband and three children in rural Ontario, Canada. She is the author of the Rockton mystery series featuring Detective Casey Duncan, which begins with City of the Lost, and the novel Wherever She Goes. She is the editor of the young adult anthology Life Is Short and Then You Die.
Kelley Armstrong is the author of over 50 novels in mystery, fantasy and horror. She believes experience is the best teacher, though she’s been told this shouldn’t apply to writing her murder scenes. To craft her books, she has studied aikido, archery and fencing. She sucks at all of them. She has also crawled through very shallow cave systems and climbed half a mountain before chickening out. She is however an expert coffee drinker and a true connoisseur of chocolate-chip cookies.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for The Deepest of Secrets

“Armstrong delivers a solid mystery for fans.” —The Parkersburg News and Sentinel

“This town feels so real. . . [Armstrong’s] ability to really focus on character development makes a story like this feel alive, as if the reader is observing everything in person.” —BookTrib

“Explosive.” —Publishers Weekly

Praise for the Rockton Novels

“Kelley Armstrong’s solid Casey Duncan Series… is turning into one of the best new finds of the decade." —The Globe and Mail

“As with the very best series in any genre, the real joy is revisiting people whose lives are still unfolding for us, in a place that feels remarkably real, yet not like anywhere we know….this is a series that covers all the bases.” —St. Louis Post Dispatch

"Thriller fans seeking something different will be delighted.” —Publishers Weekly

“The town of Rockton is not merely window dressing, and its characters aren’t superficially drawn. In fact, two elements feed off one another, with the vividness of the place adding depth to the people who inhabit it.” —Booklist

"The town of Rockton’s strong, atmospheric presence will interest readers of Armstrong’s Cainsville series and appeal to new readers, particularly fans of C.J. Box." —Library Journal

“Armstrong has created a unique milieu for setting her suspense novels, which is no easy task nowadays. Read one, and you will want to read the rest.” — BookPage

From the Publisher

2021-11-30
A detective in a remote Yukon town shrouded in secrecy has to figure out which resident has turned traitor.

Rockton (population 171) was founded in the 1950s as an intentional community designed to support idealism, a place where people could find refuge from McCarthyism and the like, but in the present day it's turned into something totally different. Since everyone in town uses a false name, the town leaders, known as the council, have used the place as a haven for criminals, and not just those guilty of white-collar crimes. Under the council’s misdirection, a certain price can buy a resident paperwork that suggests their reason for seeking shelter is something more like embezzlement than murder. Only a select few citizens know the truth, like Sheriff Eric Dalton, who’s given limited knowledge of certain high-risk residents that he shares with Casey Duncan, his detective and common-law wife, on a need-to-know basis. In spite of the criminal pasts of some residents, Rockton's Yukon setting and the town's emphasis on shared responsibility mean that the residents have to work together for a common goal: survival. But someone is determined to stir things up when they hang up a sign revealing Deputy Will Anders’ actual criminal history. Casey and Dalton take the case personally since Anders is a longtime friend, but Casey’s certain that the root of the problem is the council and its plan to shut Rockton down. Casey has to find out which of the locals has defected to the side of the council in a place where no one is who they say they are, even as whoever’s behind Anders’ outing keeps upping the ante.

While the characters worry that this is the end of their hometown, Armstrong is just hitting her stride.

Kirkus Reviews