This was not my favorite of Fiona Barton's novels, but it did keep interested the entire time and I did not see the ending coming.

Elise King was a very successful police detective. Until she got an unexpected medical diagnosis of the worst kind. She now spends her time at home in the small ocean-side town of Ebbing. Ebbing seems to be transforming from a quaint, quiet town to something different. Old homes are being replaced with new mansions. Then a giant music festival is planned to really build up the town. When a man disappears during the first night of the festival, Elise is dragged back into her crime fighting role, this time right in her hometown.

I am a big fan of Fiona Barton mysteries! I thought LOCAL GONE MISSING was definitely up to par with her back catalog. The pacing was excellent and writing was superb! I enjoyed the back and forth timelines and multiple points of view. This kept me paying close attention throughout the story. For a quick and entertaining read, try out LOCAL GONE MISSING!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Books for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be posted to my Instagram Blog (@coffee.break.book.reviews) in the near future.

I did not feel very connected to any of the characters, which is surprising considering I have with Fiona Barton’s previous books. It’s difficult to be interested in a plot if you don’t feel invested. I also do not know who Ronnie is, maybe I missed it but I’m still confused. Is she just a neighbor? Has she always been a neighbor? I think the book mentioned they knew each other before they were neighbors? Just a bit confused on that front. Overall it was an alright read. I didn’t love it, mainly for the lack of depth with the characters. However, with that in mind, the plot was good. Maybe it felt like there were too many characters to keep track of.

Bestselling author Fiona Barton tells the story of elderly Charlie Price, who is loved in the seaside town of Ebbing. He has an extremely selfish wife, Pauline, and a daughter who has a brain injury and is in an expensive care center. Pauline has insisted that he purchase a huge mansion in terrible condition, and Charlie has been hiring sub-contractors to fix it up while living in a caravan nearby. Unfortunately, Charlie is leaving the contractors unpaid and scraping the money together to pay for his daughter at the care center. One day Charlie goes missing after a village celebration where the locals were against it being held and two young people overdosed on drugs. Charlie was seen on the evening of the celebration very drunk, and one of his creditors dropped him by his home. His body was found several days after he was reported missing, and it was assumed that the head injury he had was the cause of death until the medical examiner ruled that he had died of a heart attack and the head injury came after death.

Elise King, who is just returning to work after some months off for breast cancer, and is the lead detective on the case, has a long list of suspects, and must work through her own fatigue and problems to find clues to solve the case. After a slow start, the story emerges and becomes suspenseful with all kinds of twists and turns, leaving readers unsure just what has really happened. The dénouement is quite unexpected, and reminds readers that things are not as they seem. Barton is an English author and sets the novel in the UK, adding extra charm to the novel. She also does an excellent job of developing her characters. Charlie is very likeable, especially because he is so dedicated to his daughter and seems to treat everyone well, volunteering to help charity causes, and help people in the village, so it seems unlikely that he could be murdered.

While the novel gets off to a slow start, it speeds up and becomes well worth reading.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Ok so I really love the authors storytelling and character building. However, the sheer number of characters seemed to prevent getting to know them as well as I would have wanted.
Also, there were multiple timelines and going back and forth between those times lines and I ended up confused a few times.
I would have loved a few things more tied up and a little more information. The end left me wanting more. Which is a good thing! Overall a great story from a writer I love and will continue to read.
Thank you to Berkley publishers for my review copy. This in no way influenced my opinions.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Berkeley Publishing Group for an advanced copy of this new thriller.

The problem with small towns that are suddenly discovered by outsiders is that the locals like things the way they are and newcomers love it so much they want to change everything. Especially the newly rich with their awful tastes. Add some ridiculous looking homes to make others like themselves jealous, add traffic they came to the small town to escape. Even make the town a tourist trap turning small town gripes into big city problems, with secrets exposed, spats becoming feuds, and locals disappearing.

Fiona Barton's Local Gone missing is a cozy mystery mixed with a police procedural about a small town having growing pains. Elsie King is a detective on medical leave who spends most of her day at the window looking out the small town she has chosen to heal up from surgery, watching the people and hearing their tales from her house cleaner, who knows quite a bit about what is happening. A newcomer has plans for a musical festival which get the town all a flutter, especially after a double overdose, and a local man goes missing.

The story is almost a cozy mystery with intriguing characters and descriptions and a small town that is really the main character of the story. Elsie is well defined character with a strong arc, her medical condition leaving her career as a hard charging investigator in doubt. The only problems is that there are many characters who can get in the way, and the changes from past to present could slow a reader down. However the book does move well, with many a twist in the tale that keeps the narrative moving, and never boring.

A story that moves well with characters that the reader comes to like, with a good background in the small town troubles between the locals and the newly wealthy. Perfect for fans of cozy stories who like a little darkness in their story.

This reads like an amateur sleuth novel turned police procedural, an interesting turn in the story. A well written cast of characters, most of the town of Ebbing, are involved in a missing persons case, with money and greed at the heart. A character driven mystery, well done and fun!

I have read Ms. Barton’s “Kate Waters” series so I was anxious to see what this standalone would be like!!

Once again I noted that the blurb for this book gave a lot of the story away!!

The small seaside town of Ebbing is an interesting study. The locals have lived there for ages and don’t want to see any change. The “weekenders” are buying some of the old bungalows and renovating them. If it weren’t for them the town would continue its downward slide!

Elise is a top notch, ambitious detective on medical leave after surgery. She spends most of her time looking out the window at people and wondering what she is missing.

One of the newcomers wants to see Ebbing get noticed as a vacation spot. He plans on having a large music festival which the locals strongly object to!

After the first night of the festival, a local, Charlie, goes missing. Elise has a hard time not getting involved in the case. She uses all of her “insider” information and along with her neighbor Ronnie, works on the case in spite of being ordered to “REST”.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE ABOUT THIS NOVEL:

I don’t usually mind switching from past to present but I didn’t think it worked in this book. I found myself confused as to which character was doing what, and what it had to do with the present story.

The first half of the book is spent setting up the plot, at 50% the novel picked up pace and I got more interested in the outcome.

The use of “er” in this novel drove me bonkers! Examples: “Er, I’m not sure.”, “Er, good, thanks”, “Er” it’s Jenny – she lives at number thirteen. You get the idea. I think I counted 15 times that this “unword” is used.

The best part of this novel for me was the police procedural. I enjoyed the detectives who worked to untangle the multitude of secrets and past identities of those involved in the case of the Local Gone Missing.

Honestly, I was disappointed with this book. I picked it up and put it down several times, getting frustrated with the timelines.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley. The novel is set to publish on June 9, 2022

A very well executed murder mystery novel. Barton dives deep into every character almost immediately, and I was quickly engaged from the first couple pages. I finished reading this in less than 24 hours. The story kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. The story was told in a “before” and “now” format which made for an intriguing pull until the two timelines pulled together at the end. My favorite character was definitely Elsie (Ronnie being a close second!) and how she was still a dedicated, ball busting detective even through all of her personal struggles. A fantastic novel by Fiona Barton which I would highly recommend. A very satisfying read!

I heartily enjoyed this book. It was like curling up at a fire with a cuppa to watch a great British mystery unfold. It's probably weird to call it cozy but something about the setting and familiarity of the set-up was a balm to my soul and for the first time in a while, I found myself pushing responsibilities aside so I could read more. The book is a quick read with plenty of twists, although nothing that will shock your socks off. 4 out 5 stars, highly recommended. Although I do wish the ending were different - SPOILER ALERT - I very much wish the murderer had gotten away with the crime!

Not my favorite Fiona Barton, but just fine. There were points in this book that made me think it was almost a cozy mystery, but in the end it turned into more of the police procedural she is more known for. I would say that readers like like Barton will like this one as well.

Reasonably compelling, but i could have done with one or two fewer characters. There was so much backstory and relationship drama it was, at times, difficult to know which story was the overall thing.

Elise King spends most days in the seaside town of Ebbing watching as the once close knit village is pulled apart by wealthy “weekenders” moving in to snap up and restore or replace old homes with McMansions, putting property out of financial reach for locals. A detective who stopped working for medical reasons, Elise finds herself drawn back into her former line of work when a huge music festival designed by a newcomer to make Ebbing THE place to be, ends with a series of tragedies. Barton’s portrayal of the very real inequities between the uber wealthy and the rest of us is captivating