🎧 Reviewed by LD | Rating: 4.1/5 | Steam: 🔥
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Murder at Haven’s Rock yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
Not ready for spoilers yet? Go read the tame version on Plot Approved first. We’ll wait. 😄
The Opening
After everything that happened with Rockton, Casey and Dalton are finally doing things their way. Their town. Their rules. Their own cabin away from everyone else so nobody is banging on their door at three in the morning. It feels like a genuine fresh start. And then someone goes missing in the forest before Haven’s Rock even officially opens.
The Full Story — Spoilers Included
The Setup
Haven’s Rock is still under construction, no official residents yet, just a temporary crew getting the town ready. The one rule everyone has been given is simple: stay out of the forest. It is dangerous, untamed wilderness and nobody should be wandering into it.
But of course… someone wanders into it.
A woman named Penny, convinced something nefarious is going on at the site, follows another crew member named Yolanda into the woods. Penny goes missing in the process. The project manager calls Casey and Dalton out to the site a month ahead of schedule to track her down.
While searching Casey ends up in a trap in the forest during the search and stumbles onto a body. Everyone assumes it’s Penny. It isn’t. The dead woman is someone who has no business being anywhere near a secret town that technically doesn’t exist.
The Investigation
They find Bruno, one of the crew members, injured in the woods. They get him back to the site and into a makeshift hospital bed. He won’t say a word about what happened out there. Before he can be properly questioned he slips away..
Penny is still missing. They have a murdered stranger, and no real answers yet.
The dead woman turns out to be Denise, the estranged second wife of a prospector named Mark. And Mark, it turns out, has been running a secret mining claim in the surrounding wilderness. Bruno found out about the claim and forced his way in. Mark murdered Denise when she showed up to surprise him, convinced she was going to expose or sell his claim out from under him. And Penny went missing because she caught Bruno with him, which made her a problem that needed to be dealt with.
Casey eventually corners Mark in the woods. He thinks she’s from some kind of mining enforcement company and essentially confesses to everything. Then he decides he’s going to run for it. He goes off a cliff. He might have made it, but he falls badly, hits his head, and that’s how it ends. Not the tidy resolution Casey and Dalton would have chosen, but it’s the one they get.
Penny is found in time. Oh and Bruno.. when he ran off he met with Mark. When Casey and Dalton found him he pretended like he was abducted by Mark and throws himself on the ground – jabbing himself on a stick and killing himself..
What This Book Gets Right
The fresh start energy in this one is genuinely exciting. Casey and Dalton are free from the toxic Rockton council that spent seven books making their lives difficult. They have their own cabin outside of town, properly separate from the community so they actually get some privacy. Watching them build something that’s truly theirs, on their own terms, with their own rules, is satisfying in a way that carries the whole book.
What’s Missing
Rockton had established characters, real town dynamics, people you’d grown to love over seven books. Haven’s Rock is brand new, the construction crew is full of strangers, and it’s hard to feel the same investment in people you’ve just met. It’s not a criticism exactly, more just an adjustment. This is book one of a new series and it takes time to build what Armstrong built with Rockton. It’ll get there. Though I am very sad to see only 5 books meant for this series.
Best Part of This Book
Casey and Dalton finally having their own space. After seven books of sharing their lives with an entire town, watching them step into something they built themselves, with a cabin that’s actually just theirs, felt like a payoff this series had been building toward for a long time.
Worst Part of This Book
Missing Rockton. The established characters, the community dynamics, the people you’d spent seven books getting to know. Haven’s Rock is starting from scratch and it shows. That’s not a flaw in the writing, it’s just the reality of starting a new series, but it’s an adjustment for me.
The Steam Rating Breakdown
🔥 — None. This is a mystery thriller; the romance between Casey and Dalton is established and warm but very much in the background.
The Ending — Satisfied or Disappointed?
Mostly satisfied. Mark confessing because he thought Casey was mining enforcement is a nice touch and very true to how Casey operates. Him going off a cliff and essentially causing his own death is not the clean ending you’d hope for. Neither was Bruno’s, but it feels realistic in the way Kelley Armstrong endings usually do.
Would I Reread It?
Yes.
Who Is This For
Anyone who finished the Rockton series and needs to know what happens to Casey and Dalton next. Don’t start here though. Read all seven Rockton books and Dead Letter Days first. You’ll want that context before you follow them into Haven’s Rock.
Where to Get
📖 Physical Book
Amazon | Bookshop
🎁 New to Audible? Get 3 months free (US)
🎁 New to Libro.fm? Get 2 free audiobooks
More from the Haven’s Rock Series
- Book 1 — Murder at Haven’s Rock | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 4.1/5 | Steam: 🔥 — [Read the Review]
- Book 2 — The Boy Who Cried Bear | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 4.6/5 | Steam: 🔥 — [Read the Review]
- Book 3 — Cold as Hell | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 4/5 | Steam: 🔥 — [Read the Review]
- Book 4 — First Sign of Danger | Reviewed by LD | ⭐ 4.8/5 | Steam: 🔥 — [Read the Review]
Ready for more from LD? Find them here