I received a gifted galley of LOCAL GONE MISSING by Fiona Barton for an honest review. Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group, Penguin Random House Audio and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review!

LOCAL GONE MISSING follows Elise King, a detective who has been on leave after going through breast cancer. She’s trying to get back on her feet, both physically and professionally. She isn’t back on the job yet, but when a man goes missing not long after she had a personal connection with him, she can’t help but start to poke around. Dee is the housecleaner to many of the locals in Ebbing, including the family of the missing man, and is privy to a lot of the secrets kept behind closed doors. With ties to a crime committed years ago with disastrous consequences, there are many questions to answer.

I found this a very intriguing mystery, though it is a slow burn build. I thought the author did a good job of blending the different narratives and the different characters’ complicated lives. There are bad decisions being made, but sometimes they are for possibly understandable reasons and I found myself going back and forth on whether or not I liked some of the characters which kept things interesting as well.

The audiobook for this one is fantastic and I appreciated the use of multiple narrators to help keep the different perspectives in line. This is one that definitely kept me wanting to read more to figure out how the different storylines would meet up and I definitely hadn’t worked out all of the answers on my own before the twists were revealed!

LOCAL GONE MISSING is a good, slow burn mystery and one to add to your TBR!

Not a thriller for me; this author is not one of my favorites mainly because it's too tense for my liking. Those who enjoy more raw thrillers would like this one. The detective, Elise, is ill and I felt there were competing bits in the overall pace and them to really highlight the thriller genre that this author aims.

A murder mystery set in English country side. Some shady characters, small town, a lot of secrets and pretensions.

It was OK read, entertaining, but something was missing. I felt like the ending was hinted quite obviously too early, so it kind of ruined the end for me. It was mysterious, with lots of different points of views, different issues, but also a lot of red herrings to pull the reader's eye from the real culprit. But not strong enough to fool the reader (IMO),

Elise King was once a successful and ambitious detective until cancer derailed her career. She now spends her days gazing out her window in the small seaside town of Ebbing, where the tensions are rising due to the weekenders renovating and making changes that rub the locals the wrong way. The conflict reaches a boiling point at a weekend music festival where two teenagers overdose on drugs and a beloved local man goes missing. Like the tangled roots of an old tree, the backstories of these two events lead the reader on a twisted, captivating visit to a small town where secrets and hidden connections run deep. The suspense and clever plot kept me guessing until the very end! Another great mystery from Fiona Barton!

Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton is a good mystery thriller that is a well-written and intriguing read.

Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton is another one of her standalone suspense novels. I have read a few books by this author, which were very good. I did like Local Gone Missing, but thought it was very slow in the beginning with the last third of the book exciting.

Elise King, our heroine, is currently on medical leave from her job as a police detective (inspector) in Ebbing; planning on returning to work soon. Elise learns about the disappearance of a local man from the music festival, as well as two teenagers overdosing on drugs. Elise, being bored, decides to investigate on her own, with her neighbor friend, Ronnie; she was a hoot (who loved being an amateur detective). Elise will uncover many secrets revolving around the missing man, Charlie Perry, who had made a number of enemies in town, that not only goes back many years, but also in the present. Charlie’s body is found a few days later, and Elise will discover that a number of people were after him, as he owed a lot of money from his investment schemes. Halfway through the book, Elise is called back to work taking over the police investigation

There was so much going on, with a lot of suspects, that made more than half the book a bit slow and somewhat confusing, as well as being hard to keep track of everything; especially with all the subplots. The time line did go back and forth from the past and the present. I really liked Elise, she was a great detective, as we got to see the inner workings of police procedurals (interviews & investigations). The last third of the book was very exciting, with Elise in the forefront, with her staff and the many suspects.

Local Gone Missing was a cozy busy mystery that was interesting, and a very exciting at the end. Local Gone Missing may have started a slow, but was well written by Fiona Barton.

3.5/5

I’ve read one of the authors previous books and while I didn’t love it, I usually give an author two chances before I decide they’re not for me, do you do this too? Anyway, I switched between audio and print and mainly stuck with the audio (thanks @berkleypub and @prhaudio ) because there were several viewpoints and timelines and the multiple narrators actually made more sense for me being able to listen. There was actually almost too much going on here for me and it was also a really slow burn so I think that combination just held me back from ever fully settling in and enjoying it. I do like her writing and the end was pretty good but overall this one just wasn’t a win for me. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This book had me invested. I couldn't wait to finish my day to pick it up and carry on.
Detective Elise King has bought a cottage by the sea side - after her partner of years drops her for a younger woman, quickly engaged and all that. Elise finds herself facing breast cancer - forced to recover and take things slow.
Until the village's sweet old man, Charlie, disappears.
The village is reeling from the recent concert - two locals almost dying after taking ecstasy. And now Charlie is missing. His wife, Pauline, couldn't care.
With the help of her neighbor, Elise finds herself involved - picking up information, and tracking people.
I really enjoyed these characters, several points of view and use of now/then sections.

This is the first book by Fiona Barton that I have read. I was intrigued by the premise, but found it a little hard to follow. There were a lot of characters and I didn't really feel much of a connection with any of them. Overall, this one was just okay for me.

Book Review…Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton

Elise was a successful and ambitious detective before a medical leave left her unsure if she would return. Now she spends most of her days watching the tensions grow in the seaside town of Ebbing. The weekenders are renovating the old homes and the locals do not like the changes.

Everything comes to a head when a newcomer wants to have a giant music festival that will put the town on the map and two teenagers overdose. When a man disappears the first night of the festival it draws Elise back to work. But Ebbing I'd a town full of secrets and connections that run deeper and darker than Elise could have ever imagined.

Local Gone Missing was an intriguing mystery. When it first starts it seems like a straightforward mystery but when the lies, connections and twists come making it very complex. It's told from multiple points of views and the timeline moves from past to present. But the moving timeline just gives you a clearer picture of everyone involved. It has a lot of parts and a lot of characters but the author brings it together nicely. I like Elise's character. She's intelligent, strong and determined. And her neighbor Ronnie was a lot of fun. She added some humor to the story. The pace is one that speeds up as everything starts happening and coming together which leads to a satisfying ending!

𝕃𝕠𝕔𝕒𝕝 𝔾𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕄𝕚𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕘

Author - Fiona Barton
Rating - ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .5 / 5 (rounded down to a 3 ⭐️ on goodreads & netgalley)
Genre - Mystery / Thriller / Suspense / Psychological Thriller
Publication Date - 6/14/22
Pages - 384

Okay, this book. It was very hard to rate it. It took me on a roller coaster ride of emotions… I truly don’t have the words to explain this book… read below for all my likes and dislikes

……

What I liked :
✨the mystery. where is Charlie? What happened to his daughter? Who was he meeting? I had all the questions throughout reading. AND THEY ALL WERE ANSWERED!!!!! 🤯
✨DUAL TIMELINE. Always a fan of a dual timeline.
✨All the characters were somehow connected, even the rarely mentioned characters!!
✨ I love a good, bad ass woman detective.
✨ Short chapters. I love solid, short chapters. It makes a longer book seem more accomplishable when you only have a few minutes to read in between everything going on in life.

What I disliked :
👎🏻 The ages….It has never bothered me before but having a 73 year old man go missing just wasn’t the mystery for me. No one was under 40 which was a bit weird for me…sorry
👎🏻 I usually don’t dislike the multiple POV but it got super confusing when side characters started getting their own chapter.
👎🏻 It felt like it was a very long book…..it felt like it drug on and sometimes had me looking to see how much time was left in the book.
👎🏻 The way the person died. I went through a lot of emotions about what was explained and hinted at..


Would I recommend this book? Yes. It was very well written! I would suggest making your on opinions about this one! It was definitely unique and think it could either be a hit or a miss for a lot of you!

A beach town has locals and weekenders opposing each other. Two teens overdose on drugs and a man goes missing. We switch back and forth from past and present, and among several characters. This is recommended for readers who like cozy mysteries.

✔️ this book started off as a cozy mystery … but then kind changed into a detective procedural . Although both worked well, I missed Ronnie the neighbour a bit in the second half of the book
✔️a good mystery that kept me engaged and turning the pages

A big fan of bestselling author, Fiona Barton, having read all her previous books, The Widow, The Child, and The Suspect, I was delighted to snag an early reading copy of her latest twisty mystery, LOCAL GONE MISSING.

LOCAL GONE MISSING showcases Barton's razor-sharp skills in maneuvering complex multi-layered plots, investigative reporting, cop procedurals, and juggling timelines past and present with multiple characters. Highly impressive! I cannot even imagine how she kept up with the moving parts of this captivating suspense mystery thriller. EVERYONE IS A SUSPECT.

Set in a small by-the-sea fictional town of Ebbing, England, we meet Detective Elise King, currently on medical leave from the police Major Crime Team following cancer surgery. Still, she stays in touch with her partner, Caro Brennan.

There is a lot of friction between the tourists and the local people of the town. The visitors are coming in and renovating and buying up the properties for luxury second homes. A festival brings on tension with events around which the story is centered. Two teens overdose on drugs, and a local man, Charlie Perry, goes missing.

Elise is still on leave but is quite curious about these events. Her neighbor, Ronnie is quite the sleuth and gets her going. These two were hilarious together. Ronnie cracked me up and enjoyed these scenes. They make quite the dynamic duo!

At the center of the action is Dee Eastwood, a house cleaner. She cleans for Charlie and many others in town and knows things. She is the eyes and ears of the town, and of course, she has her own hidden secret, and boy, are they juicy!

From past to present, another storyline from twenty years earlier that held my attention was Charlie's story. Charlie has multiple names and lives and is a man of hidden secrets. He currently is married and she demands the best, but Charlie has some financial problems. His biggest worry is his daughter, Birdie, by his first wife.

Charlie's greed and lies cost lives. People were destroyed by him, and he has enemies and people who know things about him. They are about to catch up with him but who will get to him first?

Birdie was a smart young woman with a bright future. However, one evening she and her boyfriend used the key to Charlie's house. While there, there was a break-in, and a bag was put over Birdie's face, losing oxygen and now has brain injuries.

Charlie out of guilt keeps her in a very expensive care home. However, now, he is afraid he may not be able to keep up the payments and what will happen to Birdie. His current wife does not care. The guy who did this went to prison, but he is getting out.

The author expertly unravels the past events leading up to the present, keeping you in suspense, quickly page-turning, Dee, her husband, Charlie, and other guys are all connected in some way. There is also a big twist you do not see coming. Someone is going to pay, but there seem to be many people after Charlie, so stand in line!

If you enjoy whodunit twisty dark mysteries and complex cop procedurals with dual timelines, you will enjoy this one, but keep up because you will need a score card. If you have not read this author's work, I highly recommend it.

For me, I enjoyed Elsie/Ronnie and the Birdie/Charlie twist. Dee was a mysterious character in the middle of it all with a lot of drama. There are a lot of hidden secrets in this town, and you never know what goes on behind closed doors. In the end, a satisfying conclusion wraps up the mystery.

Fiona's writing reminds me of Linwood Barclay, Michael Rothotham, and Michael Connelly. Fiona and these other fine authors were journalists and investigative reporters before becoming full-time authors. Their past experience shows in their attention to detail— making them the bestselling authors.

Looking forward to seeing what comes next and if we will see more of Detective Elise King.

A special thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for an ARC to read, enjoy, and review.

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My Rating: 4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pub Date: 14 June 2022

Local Gone Missing is a solid read. The relationship between Ronnie and Elise investigating the case from the sidelines is a good part of the story. I wanted to immerse myself in the pages but with too many characters involved and intertwined, I found it hard to remember who is who beyond the main characters.
It’s not my favorite from Fiona Barton but I definitely enjoyed the read.

Book: Local Gone Missing
Author: Fiona Barton
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Pub Date: June 14, 2022

Fiona Barton is one of my favorite authors….but I find her stories so hard to follow! I love the plot but I have such a hard time keeping up. I guess it’s just the writing style. I was lost several times but I have to say I still enjoyed the book. It has a really good story and I loved how she connected every one in the end. It’s a really good read….I just had to read really slow.

Thank you Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for this sneak peak! Publication date is June 14, 2022.

Call me crazy, but I'm sniffing the start of a new series "starring" detective Elise King. If I'm right, I'm certainly interested in reading the next one - even though this one is a bit too close to a cozy mystery to suit me (more on that later).

Set in the small by-the-sea town of Ebbing, England, Elise lives is on medical leave from the police Major Crime Team following cancer surgery, but she stays in touch with her capable partner, Caro Brennan. One evening, in the middle of a town festival that a town bigwig forced on the locals against their will, two teenagers overdose on drugs and a local man - Charlie Perry - goes missing. Elise isn't supposed to be on the job, but she gets roped in by way of friends (in particular, her neighbor Ronnie). She soon learns that although Charlie is quite popular in the community and has an almost middle-aged daughter, Birdie, in a full-time care facility, he has more than a few secrets that he's trying hard for years to hide.

Readers meet other characters along the way, including community house cleaner Dee Eastwood, who because of her work is privy to all kinds of secrets (and, not surprisingly, has a few of her own). Chapters move from the present to the past and back again - constantly - a technique of which I'm not fond but which the author does very well in this instance (well, I'm not any fonder of it than I used to be, but in this case it was far less confusing than it too-often is).

For her part, Elise tries hard to investigate and avoid ruffling feathers of those who insist she shouldn't be back on the job - most of the time successfully. Near the end, she feels well enough to convince her supervisor that she can handle a return, by which time she and Ronnie have a pretty good handle on what's really going on - and the ending brings a bit of a surprise as well as "outs" a bunch of secrets and wraps things up nicely.

I enjoyed the book and recommend it, but I must say it tromps on the edges between being a police procedural and a cozy. Mostly, that's because Elise's neighbor Ronnie is obnoxious, pushy and won't take no for an answer (nor can Elise bring herself to utter that word to her friend) - a hallmark of just about every cozy I've ever read. I can't, for instance, imagine any professional police officer, even one off duty, allowing a civilian to be so fully involved in a department investigation except in a cozy. On the other hand, I will give the author kudos for her handling of the cancer issue; readers and the story's characters certainly feel empathy toward Elise and what she's going through, but at no time is she treated like a victim (nor does she behave like one except for the occasional - and totally understandable - lapse into a temporary blue funk). Bottom line? An entertaining read - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton is a story set in a small town and filled with layer after layer both in cast of characters and events that transpire over 20 years. The locals in the small town of Ebbing like their small town feel and abhor weekenders/visitors. Ebbing is a place where you think you know everything about everyone, only to discover you dont really know your neighbors.

When a local decides to host a music festival, not everyone in town is supportive. This is when we are introduced to 2 seemingly unrelated events - a local man gone missing and 2 kids overdosing at the music festival. Set in "now" and "before" sections, the reader slowly unravels what happened and who done it.

Detective, Elise King, just off medical leave sets out to uncover the truth. Her investigation of the music festival leads to layers of deceit, fraud and murder. Elise is a strong female lead and likeable character who has good instincts. I could see future books as she investigates crime.

Overall, Bartons book is complicated, but it resolves itself fully in the end. I do enjoy a multi-layered plot. Local Gone Missing is puzzle after puzzle and the opportunity to put your detective hat on to decipher the crimes and why's.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Fiona Barton and Berkeley Publishing Group. I am ashamed to admit this is my first Barton read. Hopefully she continues to write more with Elise King as I would love to continue investigations in Ebbing.

DNF at 32%. This was a highly anticipated novel for me as I loved her Kate Waters series. Unfortunately, this was a complete miss for me. I had zero connection to the characters or storyline. The characters were all unlikeable and I found myself confused between them and the different timelines. The story lacked flow and didn’t hold my interest.

I loved the small town vibe of this police procedural. I loved the characters of the cop and her partner, the fact that she wasn't on the job, and had to use her colorful neighbor to help. I pretty much loved everything about this one! Again, with the past coming up to solve a crime, with the troubled detective with her own problems. This one was very well done.