As I was reading Iris Yamashita’s first novel, I kept thinking back to the movie Insomnia, in which Al Pacino plays a Los Angeles detective sent to investigate a murder in Alaska. Thanks to the remote setting and incessant daylight, he gradually grows unhinged. CITY UNDER ONE ROOF takes place during the rapidly approaching Alaska winter, not the height of summer, but it shares a certain unnerving claustrophobia with the 21-year-old film.

Cara Kennedy, a detective with the Anchorage Police Department, travels to the remote coastal village of Point Mettier to investigate reports that a local resident --- a teenager named Amy --- has discovered a disembodied hand and a foot in the icy water. Cara’s colleagues, along with several of Point Mettier’s residents, are quick to speculate that the body parts are from a passenger on one of the many cruise ships that travel through the area. Apparently, committing suicide by jumping overboard is not entirely uncommon. Cara, however, is convinced that there’s more to the story --- not to mention some potential parallels with an unsolved case that’s very personal to her --- so she sets off on her own to investigate.

"Iris Yamashita has created what’s effectively a locked-room mystery, with an unforgettable setting and an intriguing detective.... [S]he knows how to write a propulsive narrative, and her audience will feel compelled to keep reading..."

Calling Point Mettier an unusual setting is a bit of an understatement. The only real way in and out of the place is via a one-lane tunnel through a mountain. The tunnel is covered by a brutal snowstorm and then an avalanche during Cara’s first night there, leaving her trapped in the unsettling town with its secretive residents.

That’s not the only odd thing about Point Mettier. Thanks to an accident of history, all of its year-round residents and most of its seasonal employees during the busy summer cruise ship season live in a single high-rise apartment building, known colloquially as the “Dave-Co.” The Dave-Co is connected by a series of underground pedestrian tunnels to the few businesses that remain open. But much of the rest of the village is a (perhaps literal) ghost town, an abandoned shell of what was once a military outpost, largely destroyed in the massive earthquake of 1964.

Point Mettier is now home to a couple of hundred oddballs and misfits, many of whom crave the isolation and anonymity that the community provides. Among them is Lonnie, whose closest companion is her pet moose and whose home in Point Mettier is an appealing alternative to the psychiatric hospital where she once was treated. As the days start to drag on, Cara grows less convinced of Point Mettier’s charms, especially once a head turns up that might match those other limbs --- followed by the appearance of a snowmobile gang asking questions and wielding semiautomatic weapons. It turns out that Cara, Amy and perhaps other Point Mettier residents have secrets they’re hiding as well --- and there might be more dangers than those posed by frostbite and thin ice.

In her debut novel, Iris Yamashita has created what’s effectively a locked-room mystery, with an unforgettable setting and an intriguing detective. An Academy Award–nominated screenwriter, she knows how to write a propulsive narrative, and her audience will feel compelled to keep reading as the story unfolds across three perspectives: Cara’s, Amy’s and Lonnie’s. CITY UNDER ONE ROOF draws to a satisfactory conclusion, but Yamashita also teases a sequel, which will leave readers eager to make a return visit to Alaska, no matter what new dangers may lurk there.