A Rockton Novel (Casey Duncan Novels) - A Darkness Absolute

I liked the plot for the most part, although the murderer's propensity to be everywhere at all times seemed to be implausible. The character of Casey isn't easy to believe either. She is too perfect, almost like a superhero. She is beautiful, sexy, fit, smart, brave, alluring to both men and women (when Casey makes an entrance, everyone forgets any other women), etc. Even after she is shot, she rises from her sickbed and goes in search of her dog. Still the story starts with a bang from the first page and doesn't let up, with nonstop excitement almost throughout the entire book. I would like to read Book #3 in the series, even just to experience the wild Yukon vicariously.

Book #34 Read in 2017
A Darkness Absolute by Kelley Armstrong

This is the second book in a gritty mystery series centered around Rockton, a place where people go to escape their lives and the people after them. Casey is still working as local police, alongside her boyfriend, Sheriff Eric Dalton. She stumbles upon a missing local woman, found in a cave in a bad state. Casey brings her back to Rockton and begins her investigation into who did this to Nicole. Will she be able to find out before she is the next victim? This series is interesting and will keep readers guessing until the end. I received this book from the store Vine in exchange for a honest review.

A Darkness Absolute: A Rockton Novel (Casey Duncan #2) earned three stars from me. You do not need to read the novels in order. However, I would still recommend reading book one of this series. The first book is filled with twists.

For me, this book began to feel as though the author was just trying to meet a certain word count requirement. I prefer book one of the series. I am glad I got this one at the library. I will still read the rest of series when it comes out, however, because I am curious about the series, and I love the dog Storm.

I will have to go back and read the first book in this series as this book had me from the get go. This is a story of a secret town that has no internet and everyone who lives there is suppose to be in trouble. They are suppose to leave after awhile but some people don't want to so they make their own settlements. But this story is about how some girls are disappearing and being killed. Clearly people aren't being vetted nearly well enough. I would highly recommend this book.

Kelley Armstrong delivered another fantastic series, Casey Duncan gives the reader a thriller mystery that leaves the reader wanting to know more of Casey Duncan’s life in the Lost City. It does make me wonder how many crazy people are in this town of 200. Thanks, Ms. Armstrong for giving me an irrational fear of the crazies in the wood. I am definitely staying out of the woods, so there went my husband’s dreams of ice road trucking, never moving to the boonies. This series is amazing just like all of Armstrong’s other series. A fantastic storyteller with amazing writing skills and a great imagination.

a chance discovery of a missing woman leads former homicide detective Casey to realize that her sanctuary from the world may not be safe. Rockton is an off the grid haven for good people who have done bad things. It will also accept major moolah from bad people who do bad things. Casey polices the community of the lawless deadly secret will be revealed and her sense of security shaken.

I had high hopes for this book. I did not read the first in this series and that may have been a mistake. The premise is interesting if a bit unbelievable but it is generally slowed by Casey's angst about just about everything. Between that and her nightmares, it just gets irritating. The mystery is obscured and it becomes hard to focus. There are too many characters but the ending is satisfying. Next supply run, they should get that girl some Xanax.

A Darkness Absolute is the thrilling sequel to City of the Lost, one of my top 3 reads last year. I’ve been eager to return to the isolated town of Rockton, where people — criminals and victims alike — go to disappear. What I love most about this series is its unique setting and chilling atmosphere. Set in remote Yukon wilderness, the residents of Rockton live completely off-the-grid. Homicide detective Casey Duncan comes to realize that the town has sinister secrets and dangers of its own.

In A Darkness Absolute, Casey finds herself stranded in a blizzard with a killer on the loose. Taking shelter in a cave, she discovers a former resident who was kidnapped and held captive for over a year. Soon, two more bodies show up. Casey must find the killer before another resident goes missing.

Kelley Armstrong delivers yet another suspenseful page-turner that I couldn’t put down. Although I technically read this in December, it’s going on my list of top 2017 reads.

First, a warning - this is the second book in a series and although you can read and enjoy it on its own, you’ll definitely get more out of it if you read City of the Lost first.

Rockton is a remote refuge in the middle of the Canadian wilderness for people who need to disappear. If you pass the admittance process, the mysterious powers-that-be grant you a 2 year term to hide out in Rockton. Think witness protection, but with a twist – if you have enough money you can also buy your way in. Everyone is expected to pull their own weight and there is no contact with the outside world. People keep their secrets close and not everyone is who they seem.

Casey Duncan is four months into her Rockton term and is settling in. With her experience as a city detective she has been drafted to work for the Rockton police force. A resident with cabin fever runs off into the dangerous wilderness surrounding the town and during her search for him she stumbles upon a kidnapping victim who was presumed dead. Soon more gruesome discoveries are made and the hunt is on for the guilty party.

This is a straight up thriller with a town full of suspects, a well-developed plot that keeps you guessing, interesting characters and fantastic groundwork for future books in the series. Can't wait for the next book.

Complimentary copy via Netgalley.

This is book 2 in the series, and if you haven’t read City of the Lost then you’re the one who is going to be feeling a little lost as this book doesn’t work all that well as a standalone novel. Events that took place in the first book bleed into this storyline and there’s obviously quite a bit of history between the characters. Not having read book 1 I can say that I definitely felt at a disadvantage.

Casey is a detective living in Rockton, an off-the-grid town in the Yukon that is a sanctuary (of sorts) for people that need to go into hiding. Like everyone else in Rockton, Casey has a past that she is running away from. When a former resident is rescued after being held captive for over a year, it’s Casey’s job to figure out who abducted the woman. In the course of the investigation more grisly discoveries are made, and the stakes are raised – Casey needs to work quickly before the body count rises.

While there were some interesting aspects to this story, they were overshadowed by all the “unknowns”: How does Rockton remain a total secret from the outside world? Who are the “hostiles”? What’s the story behind the Council? Why does anyone even put up with people like Jen and Diana? I’m not advocating a tedious information dump to bring new readers up to speed, but a page or two of backstory would have been a huge help.

I wasn’t crazy about the character of Casey – she’s a bit of a Mary Sue, with all the men half in love with her and most of the other women portrayed as weak or incompetent in comparison. There’s a lot of time spent on the relationship between Casey and her lover/boss, which might have been more interesting had I been invested in either character, but obviously there’s a lot of carryover from the previous book that I wasn’t privy to.

On the plus side Rockton certainly is an intriguing and unique setting, and I appreciated the imagery. It’s also interesting to see an investigation unfold without all the modern trappings of detective work like forensic science. I’m not sure that this book piqued my interest enough to make me want to go back and read book 1, but if I do I can tell you that it will be because of one character – Mathias. Now that is someone that I’d like to know more about!

I don't like this type of writing, everything has to be described to the point of boring, the pace is way to slow for me and I really don't care for the characters.

I think a better author could've made a very good series of this and mainly to shorten it and make it more interesting from the first page, I found it to be just too slow and with too much description that is just boring

Kelley Armstrong has a degree in Psychology. It shows in her writing. The setting is wonderfully envisioned in both books. The characters absolutely fascinating - especially Mathias despite being a "secondary" character. Rockton, a town off the grid where people go to disappear, is not a place I would care to stay; however, it is quite vivid and captivating... As are it's sheriff, deputies, and denizens. Of you like a great mystery novel with depth and psychological ramifications that will have you truly thinking, read the Casey Daniels books.

Huge Kelley Armstrong fan and her stuff, even this new stuff, is an auto-buy for me. This is the second installment in her Casey Duncan series and Casey is just learning the ropes as a detective when a case lands in her lap. A woman found in a cave is linked to a couple of other murders. Plenty of challenges for Casey as she investigates in a harsh environment with uncooperative people. Very well written mystery that kept me turning the pages, on the edge of my seat.

A Darkness Absolute is the follow up to City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong. A Darkness Absolute is (mostly) a stand alone story about Casey Butler but makes a lot more sense if City of the Lost is read first. Some edge of the seat moments but Ms Armstrong has done such an excellent job of making the reader like Casey it's a can't put down, as you want to know what comes next. Looking forward to book three!

OMG!!! This series just keeps getting better. I like how the author is introducing more of the towns residents and the character development in this one of Mathias was great. I also like reading more about Jacob and the others in the forest. Can't wait to start the next one.

I want to make clear that my rating reflects my personal dislike of this genre, which I didn't realize until I gave it a chance. It's an intelligent plot, well written, but too dark and twisted for my taste. I couldn't relate to the most of the characters, I'll stick to Linda Fairstein, John Sandford, Michael Connelly etc.

Amazing!!! Sat up all night to finish! This is the second book in the series, and it is even better than the first. It has a full plot, so it could be read as a stand-alone,but to fully appreciate the characters and circumstances, best to red The City of the Lost first. It is also great, so It's hard to imagine the second one is even better. Looking forward to book three.

I love Kelley Armstrong's take on magic and the supernatural so much that I was a bit disappointed when she announced a new series that isn't fantasy. I am happy to say that I was wrong. My only hope is that this will be a long-running series.

I am loving this series. It is different and exciting. Looking forward to more Casey Butler stories. And I love that the main character is a POC. Which is free and far between in books written in this genre.

Some series you can just jump right into, others you can't. This is the latter type. And while the author does backtrack a little bit in places to explain some major plot elements of the previous book when they have an impact on this one, other major details are left unexplained. If this is your first foray into Casey Duncan's world, prepare to be endlessly confused as Casey and her peeps discuss Settlers and Hostiles, both of whom seem to exist outside the walls of town, and both of whom seem to pose some threat, but neither of whom are described or explained at all. I'm sure it's all covered in book 1, but while the author can spare a page or two to re-explain why the town isn't what Casey thought it was supposed to be at first, she can't spare the ink for a quick 'so this is what Hostiles are'.

I'm not terribly inclined to go back and read book 1 to get the backstory i'd need, as it wasn't just unexplained tidbits from the beginning of the series that irritated me. The fact that the author spends as much time in the first few chapters establishing the mystery as she does making sure we know Casey is sleeping with her boss didn't win any points, and there are other similar storytelling elements that alienate me as a reader. I'm just not the audience for this series, apparently.

The narration was off for me on this one. I had a problem with the immature quality of some of the voices of the characters. I wish I would have read it instead. It was an interesting story with some very off beat entertaining moments but the reading didn't work this time

After reading the first Casey Duncan book I decided to try Darkness Absolute. The first book had a lot of work building, talking about the characters inhabiting the town, getting to know Casey. It was a little slow but I figured there was a lot of background to get in.

However, Darkness absolute is also very slow. For some reason Casey still has conflicted emotions about.. well.. everything, but Diana is still a factor. This time the mystery revolved around someone kidnapping women, one of whom they find during a blizzard.

I had a lot of trouble staying involved and would find myself skimming. Perhaps there is some Sophomore slump going on with this book, but at this point I wouldn't continue with the series.

I got a copy through netgalley. This book was a great read and I had to go back to read the first in the series. I hope this series will continue. It keeps you guessing who the villain is when there are so many to choose from in this story.

As this story takes place in Canada and the heroine is canadian, the narrator should have pronounced the words as a canadian. She mispronounced the word "toque" and pronounced "newfoundland" as newfinland. Made the book difficult to listen to.

I would actually rate this as a 3.5. I liked this book better than the first one. The story kept me interested and Eric seems to have learned a few more words. I would not rate this series as equal to the Women of the Otherworld at this time.