Fiona Barton has written another jigsaw puzzle of a book where the many pieces come together in the course of a suspenseful plot. The characters are all true-to-life and believable as well as carrying their own gripping life stories. If you have trouble sorting out mysteries with a lot of characters, you might want to jot a list of who's who while reading, as they become intertwined in surprising ways. Highly recommended, and I hope to see another novel with Elise as the lead character.

I thought this novel was fantastic from start to finish! When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it! I loved how all the characters seem independent from each other, but then connections reveal themselves gradually. I am happy to report the end was just the kind of twist you are hoping for. My detective mind was working throughout trying to figure out the killer/killers. Have fun! This is a must read!

This book was interesting with some good twists. I didn't love the ending but overall it was still a good read.

I'm new to Fiona Barton and had no idea what to expect.

Local Gone Missing was an interesting police procedural with a past/present timeline. I really liked Elise King, the detective assigned to a missing persons case in the town of Ebbing. Elise is struggling to adapt to her return to work after a medical leave.

I think this quote encapsulates the book well:

"It's a funny place, Ebbing, isn't it Seems quiet at first glance. A bit down at heel, really. But it's all going on, isn't it? It's like Midsomer Murders."

I enjoyed Local Gone Missing. It had a bit of a leisurely pace but I loved the character development and the small town setting.

This is my 3rd Barton book, and again, it was just ok for me. I found the story line confusing and chaotic, coupled with too many characters. I enjoyed the first half more than the second half of the book.
The story takes place in a small seaside town that is made up of locals and weekenders. Elise is a detective, a local, that has been on a leave due to serious illness. She begins investigating a man's disappearance. There is also a housecleaner that seems to know all as she roams around often forgotten.
I know that Barton is a very well liked author but I am starting to think this is a case of, it's not you, it is me. I just don't think we are a match with her style of writing.
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an advance copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Local Gone Missing with be available on 6/14/2022.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this before publication. I've had very good success with books from Berkley, but I just could not get into this one. I only got to about 40% before I bailed. I liked the setup and some of the characters - I thought Birdie's trauma and living situation was really well done, and I liked the police procedural aspects. The pacing was really off for me - I usually like dual timelines, but I found myself a bit into the book and still trying to remember who people were in relation to each other. After I read the synopsis, I wondered if it might have given too much away, as I was reading and watching for certain things to happen. Each time I picked it up I was just getting more frustrated, so I decided to stop. I have not read this author before but I read a lot in this genre - this title is confusing me with other books I have read.

Local gone Missing
by Fiona Barton
Pub Date: June 14, 2022
Berkely
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
Detective Elise King investigates a man’s disappearance in a seaside town where the locals and weekenders are at odds in this rich and captivating new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow.
Unfortunately, this was a disappointing read for me. I don’t usually mind switching from past to present but I didn’t think it worked in this book. I enjoyed the police procedural and the detectives who worked on the case.
So for me, this was just an ok book.
3 stars

In this author's latest release, a complex story of a local's disappearance is investigated, with unexpected results.

Told in the past and present, we learn how Charlie Perry's own actions likely led him to his current state. To put it bluntly, he sort of had it coming.

There seemed to be only two things Charlie cared about, money and his daughter, Sofia aka Birdie. Unfortunately, one of those things impacted the other with horrific consequences, leading to Charlie's further spiral into bad decision making.

As the story unfolded, it was clear more than one person had a role in his disappearance. But is he still alive? That was for DI Eise King to sort out. Still recovering from a mastectomy, she and her friend, Ronnie, are the only characters I cared for in this story. I liked the methodical way they unraveled the many layers to this mystery, props to them. As for the others, their self-absorbed ways seemed to have contributed to more than one tragedy so I had little sympathy for them as the truth became known.

There were a good number of twists and due to the number of pieces in this puzzle, the direction of the story was unpredictable. In the end, those who played a role met their match in Elise, and I cheered her along every step of the way.

I have read some this author's previous books, the Kate Water's series, and liked them. I like the mystery aspect and police procedural genre. Unfortunately, I am a little disappointed with this book. I'm sure it was just me, but I had a hard time getting through it, especially in the first half.

There were so many characters in the book that it was challenging for me to keep them straight. At times I wish there had been a list and a brief explanation of each to refer to so that I could keep them all straight. There were also some British words that I was not familiar with, along with the ranks of police officers. Both of these issues left me confused.

I did like the book's overall plot, and there were a lot of red herrings, in my opinion. But it wasn't enough to increase my rating of the book.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest, unbiased opinion.

I really enjoyed this thriller from Fiona Barton. I am a fan of flawed protagonists and Elise King fits the bill. Her medical leave and a past broken romance have left the once strong Elise unsure of where she fits in the world. While on leave to recover, she strikes up a friendship with her neighbor, and together they begin to informally investigate a missing local man.
Dee Eastwood is the local cleaner for many homes. She goes in and out of homes, often like a ghost, seeing much of people's lives behind the scenes.
As the story moves between Dee and Elise, we learn what is exactly is happening with the missing local- and who is to blame. A story about desperate people doing desperate things- I highly enjoyed this mystery. I was able to read this as an ARC from Netgalley.

Nice twisty mystery that all the pieces of the puzzle are coming from different points of view so the readers have more information than the characters but, the author is clever enough to keep us on our toes. I enjoyed the everyone has secrets aspect of the storyline especially.

Fiona Barton is one of my many favorite authors. I have enjoyed all of her books and this is no exception. Phenomenal

really wanted to like this but, got bored and confused by the characters and timeline. There wasn't enough of a mystery to keep me going.

I thought this book was OK. Not great, not bad but OK. I did not feel very connected to the characters. There was a lot of them and at times difficult to keep track of who was who and there wasn't a deep dive into the character of many of them, I have read some of Fiona Barton's other titles and this one doesn't measure up to some of her other ones.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Who is Charlie Perry and why has he gone missing? Fiona Barton answers these questions in her own inimitable way. While there are many characters in this story Barton develops and expands the main characters as the story bounces between the present and the past. An excellent read for those mystery lovers who enjoy a good plot and characters you love to love and hate to hate.
#LocalGoneMissing#NetGalley

Where could Charlie be, what is Charlie's real name, and what is his past?

Did he disappear on purpose because of the massive debt he had accumulated?

Since they found his wallet at the controversial festival, was he harmed or kidnapped?

We find out where he is and what happened to him as we also find out that this small town has many secrets being kept.

We meet quite a few characters who have shady pasts and shady current situations.

The character that becomes the main focus is Elise King who is a policewoman on sick leave and the one who takes on the investigation of where Charlie really is and who he really is.

It is good for Elise since she has been bored. Her friend and neighbor, Ronnie, also gets in on the investigation.

Will she find out what happened to Charlie...is it a local person, a person he owed money to, or just a random act of violence.

It actually took a while to connect to the story line and to the characters, and the multiple number of characters did become confusing.

The intensity of Elise’s investigation and her determination did make the book more interesting as we learned about police procedure.

I was a bit disappointed about the beginning of the book because I always enjoy Ms. Barton’s books...it was confusing, but it did get wrapped up in the end. 3/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Berkeley Publishing Group for an advanced copy of this new thriller in exchange for my honest review and opinion. I've read many of Fiona Barton's prior books and absolutely loved them and just as I expected this book was fantastic as well. Lots of twists and turns that will keep you guessing what's going to happen next. Clear your calendar as you will not be able to get anything done until you finish reading this!

3.5 stars, rounded up
Local Gone Missing is Fiona Barton’s fourth book and I’ve loved the two I read. So, I was curious to see what she’d do with this stand alone story.
DI Elise King is on medical leave for breast cancer. She's anxious about returning to work, as she still has chemo brain. She’s a bit bored, so when a neighbor starts poking into the disappearance of a local man after a music festival, Elise joins in.
At about halfway through the story, Elise is called back in to take over the actual police investigation. I found Elise an interesting character. She’s fully fleshed out. I’d be happy to have her re-appear in another book. And Ronnie, her neighbor and cohort was a hoot. I was sorry that she sort of disappeared in the second half of the book.
This book has a lot of moving parts. It’s told from multiple POVs and covers both the past leading up to the man’s disappearance and the search in the present. This is a town where everyone has secrets, none more so than the missing man. The book demands that you pay attention to keep up with all the moving parts. Barton gives us lots of possible suspects and red herrings. I can’t say that it all hung together as smoothly as I’d like.
My thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for an advance copy of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Fiona Barton is a GREAT writer!!I would love to have a conversation with her, because her mind is awesome!! From The Widow, which I adored, to this one, she is so imaginative and you just don't see the twists coming!

Elise King is, or WAS, a highly successful detective, or was, until an unexpected breakup and an even more staggering diagnosis set her world askew. Now she is living in a small community where everyone knows everyone and constantly gossips about it all. She is new, so she doesn't know many people, but her cleaning lady and her neighbor know EVERYONE and are filling her in on all things Ebbing.

So when a local man goes missing in the midst of a music festival, which most of the town had opposed, and later is found murdered on his own property, no one quite knows what to think. And everyone has a theory.

Elise's detective's instincts can't help but be interested and she is soon put in charge of the investigation, although she is supposed to take it easy. But how do you do that, when things are going on all around you, and you are trying to catch up?

The roots of the crime seem to be set in a 20-year old home invasion and theft, but how does that all fit in? We got the clues along with Elise, but she is a MUCH better detective than I am and I did NOT the final outcome coming.

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I had to sit on this one for a bit while I pondered how I felt about it. And I think it’s easiest to break down my thoughts in point form! Here we go:

Likes:
- Unique characters with a smidgen of diversity. Our MC is a breast cancer survivor grappling with her imminent return to work as a detective and her own mortality. As well, we had a same-sex couple, and characters from different classes of income.
- Multiple points of view and dual timeline of events. I always love when a book is formatted in this way as I feel we get more depth and a wider scope of the plot.
- Ronnie. I loved her and I felt in my soul that she’s my spirit sister (or perhaps spirit grandmother is more apt given her age!) with her love of true crime, situation board and crime-solving aspirations. I wish she was more than a secondary character!

Dislikes:
- I found the plot to be too busy and the motivating factors to the main crime didn’t get the attention they needed.
- There were unnecessary storylines added in and I felt those took distracted from the core of the story.
- I found Charlie’s storyline to be slightly unrealistic and that threw me off of believing it’s plausibility.

Overall, I liked most of the characters and their dynamics but was left overwhelmed by the busyness of the plot and having to sift through to piece it together.