33. The Boy Who Cried Bear by Kelley Armstrong

#2 Haven's Rock/Casey Duncan

listened on Libby - borrowed from the library
339 pgs.

copyright 2024
Adult Mystery series
Finished 4/11/24
Goodreads rating: 4.21
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Yukon, Canada

My comments:  Casey is pregnant, but of course there are possible complications.  Only a small number of new residents have arrived at Haven's Rock, but this is the first time ever that children have been included - two brothers, 10 and 13.  The whole story is about the kidnapping of the 10-year old (who seems to be as smart and savvy as Casey.  Sometimes I think that Casey's more of a mind-reader than smart and savvy?  Perhaps I need to think of Casey as a savant, since her doctor/sister, April, certainly is.  At least in the investigative way, thinking through all possible scenarios, because how else could she come up with exactly what happened each time something very weird happens?)  It was a pretty decent story, although the woods are described as not really being very big and I'm having a tough time picturing it, erasing the previous book's setting out of my mind.  There's something really weird going on in the mining village that butts their property (seems REALLY strange that it's so close, since Casey & Dalton worked so hard to be in the middle of nowhere, in proximity with no one,.  I'm pretty sure the focus of the next book with be what's going on in that mining village, but I'll have to wait for the next book....which is a whole year away!

Goodreads synopsis:  Haven’s Rock is a well-hidden town surrounded by forest. And it’s supposed to be, being that it’s a refuge for those who need to disappear. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton already feel at home in their new town, which reminds them of where they first met in Rockton. And while they know how to navigate the woods and its various dangers, other residents don’t. Which is why people aren't allowed to wander off alone.

When Max, the town’s youngest resident—taught to track animals by Eric—fears a bear is stalking a hiking party, alarms are raised. Even stranger, the ten-year-old swears the bear had human eyes. Casey and Eric know the dangers a bear can present, so they’re taking it seriously. But odd occurrences are happening all around them, and when a dead body turns up, they’re not sure what they’re up against.