Fiona Barton burst onto the scene with her 2016 debut, The Widow, a novel I devoured one blistery, snowy day. Fast-forward three years, and Fiona now has just as many book under her belt. I’ll admit I was a little disappointed with her sophomore release, The Child, though it could have been a combination of multiple factors: I had overly high expectations, I listened on audio, or it could have been that I read it during the summer. For whatever reason, The Child didn’t live up to my hopes (though now I’m thinking I might need to give it a second try).

That said, when I was approached to take part in the blog tour for The Suspect, I pounced. I wanted to relive that blizzard of a day when I first discovered The Widow.

Two eighteen-year-old girls suddenly go missing in Thailand and their families are suddenly in the spotlight. Why didn’t the girls call home the night they said they would? Where could they have possibly gone? Why isn’t anyone from their hostel talking? Journalist Kate Waters wants this story – and not just because it’s gained international attention. This is a story that hits close to home for her: two years ago her own son ventured off on a global adventure and she’s heard from him only a handful of times since he left.

As the case slowly unfolds, it becomes clear Alex’s and Rosie’s parents didn’t know their daughters as well as they once thought…and Kate’s worries are closer at hand than she imagined.

Told in four perspectives: Alex, the mother, the reporter, and the detective, The Suspect wastes no time jumping right into the action. The fast pace had me instantly engaged and flipping pages; I needed to know what Alex was thinking, how her mother was reacting, what was going on inside Kate’s head as she dug deeper into the mystery.

A hostel fire and a shady owner, a nasty divorce and remarriage, a cancer diagnosis, there were several other storylines at play here and normally I could have done without them in order to get to the meat of the story. Much to my surprise, everything here worked. I was intrigued by the bad relationships and grim prognoses just as much as I was by the fate of the two girls.

There are a few tidy bows and sitcom-y reveals, but overall I was thoroughly invested in The Suspect! I’m not one to post spoilers – especially for mystery novels – but this was one I didn’t want to put down and I dove into it at just the right time: a snowy weekend. There’s nothing like reading a mystery on a cold winter day, is there? I do recommend this one and look forward to Fiona’s next! Newcomers, feel free to jump into this one; while all three novels are part of a larger series, each can easily be read as a standalone.

A trip that was to be so fun, a friend couldn't go, another offered - A nightmare begins -
I was given this book from NetGalley for an honest review -
Kate, a reporter whose son is also missing wants first dibs on the story of the two girls missing .
As she discovers more she uncovers that her son was there also - was he involved? what happened? and where are the girls?
Once again I found the ending to be a shocker!

I just couldn't get into The Suspect like I did the previous two books of Fiona Barton's. ,

The third installment in Fiona Barton’s Kate Waters series is a solid, engrossing read. Should be noted that this book can be read as a stand-alone.
Alexandra O’Connor and Rosie Shaw are eighteen years old and backpacking in Thailand. But after no contact with their families, they are reported missing. As is usually the case, the police aren’t too concerned as they are adults.
Journalist Kate waters hears of the missing teens, and decides to write a story and take an interest in the disappearance. It hits close to home for her, as she has not heard from her own son in over 2 years.
Told in different points of view, The Suspect is a good, suspenseful, well crafted story.

The Suspect by Fiona Barton is a 2019 Berkley publication.

Two young ladies, casual friends with one another, travel to Thailand together. It was supposed to be the trip of their lives, but once they arrived, things went horribly awry. After failing to contact their families for a while, their parents sound the alarm, bringing the case into the spotlight.

Kate is instantly intrigued by the story and pursues it with her usual gusto. She then discovers her own son, who hasn’t touched base with his family for a long time, is also in Thailand. This gives her even more of an incentive to travel to Thailand, hoping to contact her long lost son, as well as discover what became of the two missing girls.

One thing that really threw me off course was the cohesiveness of the story itself. It didn’t gel and seemed to meander as though the author wasn’t quite sure in which direction she wished to travel. As a result, the story didn’t grab me, didn’t entice me to keep turning pages, or keep me on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen next.

The characters were tepid, and not all that interesting, except when they got on my nerves. I really didn’t care for any of them. The adults behaved like spoiled children half the time, and their offspring proudly carried on the tradition.

The conclusion was very weak, in my opinion. Kate’s dilemma and her flimsy rationalizations nearly made my eyes roll back in my head. But I can’t really expound on that without giving anything away.

Overall, I finished this one mainly to see how things would turn out, and although I did get my answers, they left me feeling more exasperated than satisfied.
2 stars

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I read the description of this book I was intrigued by it and I wanted to read it and find out what happened to the girls, and where was Kate’s son. I was not disappointed. The book had two good mysteries going on and eventually they intertwined and I was like whoa and then was even more intrigued to see where it was going to go from there.

The plot of the book was well done, the book was told in multiple perspectives which worked well for this story because you were getting different views of all the people involved and their side of the story. That way you are seeing what the people trying to discover what happened are feeling and then you see the perspective of the people it is happening to. The story flowed nicely and there were good twists that had you guessing how the story was going to play out.

The characters were pretty well developed, I don’t think I particularly liked anyone in the sense that I wanted to see what happened, but they all had some flaws where I was like well this is your doing so…But, you get a background on each of the characters and you know how that relates to what is going on in the story and the way the ending plays out.

The ending had a good twist that you don’t quite suspect is coming, but have a feeling that there is more to the story than what really happened and then bam you know. I won’t say what because I don’t want to give it away. The Suspect was definitely a fun and entertaining read. I would recommend it.

This is my first Fiona Barton book and I didn't realize there were two more before this one, however I didn't feel like I came late to the party and didn't understand what was going on. There was just enough backstory for me to understand the dynamics. This one took me a minute to get invested because the beginning chapters were short and choppy introducing all the key players. At first we meet the reporter, Kate, whose son is estranged and doesn't call much. Then we meet the mother Lesley who, along with her husband Malcolm, is quite worried about their daughter whose on her gap year travels and hasn't checked in with them at the scheduled time. Next up is Inspector Bob Sparkes, who is having his own family troubles. All our main characters converge when the daughter on holiday gets in trouble in Thailand. What happens next is a mystery with quite a few twists that I honestly didn't see coming. I thought I had it all figured out and then the story turned on me so I had to reevaluate. All in all I was pleasantly surprised with this one.

I received an Advanced Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

When two girls go missing on a trip to Thailand, not only the police but journalist Kate Waters, whose son is also in Thailand, begin to investigate. This book starts out very engaging and mysterious, but kind of drags as it goes on. Although this book works fine as a standalone, the reporter and inspector are characters from Barton's other books and it helps to have their history.

The first hint of trouble comes with an absence. There's no email in Lesley O'Connor's inbox when she looks for a missive from her 18-year-old daughter, Alex. It's alarming because Alex was meant to be contacting her parents to find out her A Level results. It's even more worrisome because Alex and a friend, Rosie Shaw, are supposed to be enjoying an adventure in Thailand. They contact the police to report that the last time they had heard from Alex was when she said she was in Bangkok. Both sets of parents meet with Detectives Bob Sparkes and Zara Salmond to ask for help in contacting the British Embassy in Thailand and reporter Kate Walker soon gets involved in trying to find out what's become of the missing girls. But Kate has her own private concerns -- her own son, Jake, hasn't phoned home much since he bunked off to Phuket after leaving his university studies over 2 years ago. Something is truly amiss in Thailand and this mystery must be solved as worries for the teenagers mount. NO SPOILERS.

What a great story! Told in alternating points of view, the reader hears the voices of Alex, Kate, Bob, and Lesley who describe events in detail as they happen. The shifts in perspective were easy to follow and lent a great deal of tension and suspense to the evolving tale. You can feel the parents' anguish intensify as it all unfolds and you can imagine the frustration experienced by the police and by Kate as they try to find out information from officials on foreign soil. The writing was excellent and I had difficulty in putting the book down as more and worse is revealed. I definitely liked the style in which this was told and just sat quietly as I tried to take it all in after I turned the last page.

I had read the first book in the Kate Waters series and do have the second (which I'll definitely go back to), but I wanted to read this by publication day as I was grateful to NetGalley and Berkley for the e-book ARC to review. This is definitely a book I can recommend as I understand all too well that "protecting our children changes who we are. Who we seem to be."

And lastly, call me overprotective and whatever, but I can honestly say that there's no way on earth I'd let my 18-year-old daughter go off backpacking in Thailand with a girlfriend. Oh yes, I know that bad stuff can happen anywhere -- even in your own backyard -- but it just seems way too risky of a venture.

I was quite impressed with the latest mystery by Fiona Barton. She skillfully weaves a suspenseful story while managing to include the humanity of loss and the fear of every parent.
Each portion of the story is revealed at deliberate intervals so that the reader isn't frustrated by wondering about elements for too long. And the twists keep coming until the very end, so that even when you think you know everything, you really don't.
I like the chapters from alternating points of view, so that the reader is kept just a bit more informed than the different parties involved, but only just slightly. I much prefer this to the other way around (where the reader is totally in the dark and the characters know everything).
I will definitely read more books by Barton in the future, I appreciate how she furthers the stories of the main characters, but doesn't get bogged down on side tangents so much that she neglects the main plot.

This is my third Barton book and in looking back, it seems I rated every single one the exact same way. And look, everyone has their own way of thinking about ratings but I do not consider a 3 star rating bad like some people. And this has been my consistent rating for Barton... and I still need to read everything she writes!

She has a way of keeping you addicted to the pages. She writes in a way that keeps the story flowing. Different perspectives: in this case, one of the teenage girls who is missing, a mother/reporter whose son has been a mystery to her and the detectives on the case. These all intertwine... though I'm not sure the storyline of one was entirely necessary to keep the story full.

The thing with Barton is that she gives us this little bit of a mystery, the suspense through the story and it's all done at the same pacing. There's never any real BIG reveal or a throat punch twist. I think those who love these types of stories should absolutely pick up all 3 of Barton's books. There also seems to always still be some type of dangling mystery still to keep your mind moving as you turn that last page.

I do enjoy her novels. I close the book with this kind of …. but but but… but in a good way. I think I prefer those novels that while aren't always tidy, also gives me more of a roller coaster in the feelings department. I'll certainly still be keeping my eye out for whatever Barton comes out with next, because she definitely does entertain.

The Suspect is another winner from author Fiona Barton. This book literally had my attention at page one. The story of two missing English girls in Thailand is told from several perspectives – the mother of one of the girls, a reporter who becomes personally involved in the disappearance, an English detective and one of the missing girls. As the story progresses it becomes apparent that there are secrets and lies that will be uncovered before the truth is determined.

Once again, Fiona Barton weaves a fascinating tale, interspersing the disappearance and subsequent investigation with details concerning the private lives of the various players. It also has some unexpected jolts and twists that will keep a reader totally engaged and focused.

As with the other books by this author, I thoroughly enjoyed The Suspect. I am already looking forward to the next book by the incomparable Ms Barton.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

Fiona Barton crafts a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the beginning. Two missing girls. Thailand. An international hunt for answers. As clues appear, and the case is being worked, there are several places that make you sit back and go "OH!" As the families are thrown into the international spotlight, besides themselves with worry, Kate, a journalist has been getting to know the families on a deeper level as she looks into the girl's disappearances.

I could NOT put this book down! It was fabulously addicting! This was the first book by Fiona Barton that I have read, and it did not disappoint! I will be checking out her other works as well.

After months of saving money, planning, and convincing their parents, Alex and Rosie are finally in Thailand for their gap year before starting university. However, when their parents don't hear from the girls for over a week, they start to get worried and call the police.
Reporter Kate Waters is looking for a good story to distract her from the fact that she hasn't heard from her son Jake in months, so when she hears about the girls' disappearance, she decides to investigate. She travels to Thailand with the girls' families but has her own personal reason to go: she hopes that she will finally find Jake, who went to Thailand after dropping out of university. Once Kate gets there, she uncovers a truth much darker than she thought, but will do anything to protect her son.
Fiona Barton has created a story full of tension and twists. With well-crafted characters and a compelling plot, the novel sees three mothers desperate to find their children and thanks to the author's brilliant writing, you can feel their panic, their worry, and their sadness. If you loved the author's previous two novels, you're going to love this, and there is a final revelation that will completely take you by surprise.

Thank you to Fiona Barton and Berkley Publishing Group for this ARC.

The premise of this book is great, albeit a little scary if you're a parent of a teenager who's almost old enough to be thinking of taking a gap year. I read this book in two days. It was very well written, and nicely paced.

I love Fiona Barton's writing style, and will definitely be reading more of her books in the future.

In The Suspect, Barton has returned us to the lives of Kate, the reporter, and Sparkes, the detective, from The Widow. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Two teenage girls have gone missing during a trip to Thailand. Their parents have contacted the police, but not much is being done. Kate becomes interested in the story, trying to draw some attention with publicity, but when the girls' bodies are found in a burned out hostel, she's all in. Especially since her son is in Thailand, and she hasn't heard from him in months. She hopes to visit him while she is in Thailand.

What they find when they arrive in Thailand is not encouraging. The police are quick to rule it an accident--a fire set by a candle. No witnesses are available until Kate finds out her son was living in this same place, and he's in the hospital being treated for burns. Things just don't add up. Her son wasn't supposed to be here; he was supposed to be away working on a farm.

Back in London, Sparkes is taking over the investigation, since the Thai police have botched it so bad. The bodies are returned and his investigating begins.

I don't really want to say much more. There are multiple perspectives, as in The Widow. And this technique is used masterfully (as in The Widow.) We get the girls' perspectives and realize this isn't turning out to be the dream trip they expected.

I liked The Suspect better than The Widow. There is a bigger twist that I didn't see coming. The situation causes tension between Sparkes and Kate. The parents of the missing girls have their own set of problems that we get from the perspective of one of the mothers.

The Suspect has a complex, twisty plot that kept my interest easily. There are several references to the plot of The Widow that I enjoyed but aren't necessary to the understanding of this story. Getting to know these characters on a continuing (and more personal) basis adds to the satisfaction.

If you enjoy detective/reporter stories, especially in a Brittish setting, you will certainly enjoy The Suspect (and The Widow.) Highly recommended.

Fiona Barton’s latest thriller The Suspect is the third book in her popular Kate Waters series. In this novel, we follow journalist Kate Waters as she investigates what has happened to two teenage girls who have gone missing while traveling in Thailand. Kate is an ambitious journalist – she always wants to be the one to get the exclusive and be the first to discover the truth. This case is no different, although it does have the added motivation that it would have her traveling to Thailand.

Why is Thailand such a draw for Kate? Because that’s where her estranged son has been living for the past two years. She hasn’t seen him even once in those two years and he rarely ever tries to contact her or his dad and is evasive the few times he has spoken to them. Kate is hoping this investigation will give her the opportunity to check in on him herself and hopefully convince him to come home.

Kate decides that getting close to the families of the missing girls is the best way to ensure she is at the forefront and has access as the pieces of the investigation start to form a picture of what has happened to the girls. At first this seems like a brilliant move, but then the investigation takes an unexpected turn that has her regretting her decision to get so close to these families.

The Suspect is a suspenseful story that kept me reading late into the night. I knew just based on the novel’s title that a crime had potentially been committed, so as soon as I read that two teens had gone missing in a foreign country, I couldn’t put the book down until I knew what had happened to the girls and who was responsible.

The story itself was engaging because the fear of losing a child is a fear that all parents can relate to. Barton does a particularly good job of depicting the two sets of parents and how frantic with worry they are. There are several scenes where they get emotional and lash out at each other, desperately looking for someone to blame. The raw emotions in those scenes felt very real, and it was easy to put myself in these parents’ place and imagine what they were going through.

Another aspect of the story that I thought was very well done was the way Barton chooses to present the story from four different points of view – Detective Sparkes (who appears regularly in this series and often works with Kate), so that we get law enforcement’s perspective on the investigation, and of course, Kate so that we also get the media’s perspective. In addition to those two points of view, we also hear from the mother of one of the missing girls and from one of the missing girls, Alex. I loved the depth and the added layers that each perspective brought to the story. Any more than four POVs might have gotten too confusing to keep track of, but these four really came together to paint a full picture of what happened and to show how each piece fell into place. Alex’s perspective was particularly effective since we can witness firsthand the days and weeks leading up to the girls’ disappearance.

All of these elements made for a well-paced read that I didn’t want to put down.

Even though I enjoyed the story overall, I did have some mixed feelings about The Suspect, the first being that I found it hard to connect with Kate Waters. I experienced the same thing with the second book in the series. I like Kate well enough and I think she’s a talented journalist, but even three books in, I still just don’t feel like I really know much about her. In that sense, the books remind me of procedural crime dramas where the characters take a backseat to the crimes being investigated. There’s obviously nothing wrong with that and from a mystery standpoint, the story is fantastic, but because I prefer to feel some kind of a connection to the main characters, I found that aspect a little lacking in The Suspect.

One other issue I had was that I felt like we learned what happened to the girls a little too soon. I know the book is called The Suspect and therefore implies that the suspect is the primary focus, but I just would have preferred a little more buildup to the reveal of the crime.

The Suspect is another riveting mystery from Fiona Barton. Even with the couple of issues I had with it, I still found the story very engaging and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a good thriller.

When two eighteen-year-old girls go missing in Thailand, their families are thrust into the international spotlight: desperate, bereft, and frantic with worry. What were the girls up to before they disappeared?

Journalist Kate Waters always does everything she can to be first to the story, first with the exclusive, first to discover the truth—and this time is no exception. But she can’t help but think of her own son, whom she hasn’t seen in two years, since he left home to go travelling.

As the case of the missing girls unfolds, they will all find that even this far away, danger can lie closer to home than you might think…

Another great read from Fiona Barton. I read The Child and liked it so I was hoping this one would be equally as thrilling. It did not disappoint!

We meet up with reporter Kate Waters again as she is following the story of the two missing girls only to find herself part of it. The POV switches between the reporter, the detective, a mother of one of the girls and one of the girls. The overall pace of the story wasn’t hang-on-to-your-seat fast but it was good. Not to slow. The twists were great and caught me by surprise. That ending! (I had forgotten about that little tidbit of info from before!) I also enjoyed the relationship between Kate Waters and DI Sparkes. How they respect one another. Overall great read and I am looking forward to more from Ms. Barton.

How far will a mother go to protect her child?

Thank you Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I wrote about this title on my blog and will provide details and a link in the next stage when I can share directly with the publisher

This was my first book to read by Fiona Barton and did not realize The Suspect was the third in a series. That being said, it stood alone just fine on its own, and I did not need to have read the other two as the references to them were minimal. The Suspect centers around two girls that go missing on a trip to Thailand, and their mothers' attempts to find them from the US. Kate Waters is a reporter, a consistent character from the previous two books, who happens to have a son in Thailand as well. She gets the lead interviews and headlines on these girls, but the narrative quickly takes a turn when it appears her son has not been honest with her regarding his whereabouts and activities in Thailand, and is now connected to the missing girls.

This was a great read, and was informational on all the things you should NOT do when traveling overseas. I felt like this could be a parent's literal worst nightmare, and Barton did an excellent job at keeping the story fascinating, but never did it veer off into an extreme or absurd plot that jumped the shark. All of it was believable, which made it that more frightening. The overall pacing was steady - I read this in a couple of sittings. She also covered all the bases in how a mother would react through each of the mothers in this story - anger, denial, depressed, etc.. DI Bob Sparkes is also a consistent character (I believe), and he had a touching story regarding his wife but I also enjoyed the relationship between he and Kate, e.g. Detective vs. Reporter.

Overall this was 4 stars for me and I would definitely recommend it when it is released on 1/22/19. I will be going back and adding the first two books in this series to my TBR as well! Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for the electronic ARC of this book in exchange for my review. All opinions above are my own.