Fiona Barton always gives a very entertaining and suspenseful read! Loved it!

I enjoyed the characters and I was left guessing until the end.

Always good family and relationship dynamics.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me for at all, I just couldn’t connect to the characters at all and was getting confused on what was going on in the plot ,

I was super excited to read this book because I love Fiona Barton. But this book....I've been hemming and hawing about my review.

I was a bit disappointed because this book took a while to gain my interest. It was a slow start.

I adore Barton's writing style and her rich characters.

I was all in for the twists and turns and the completely unexpected ending! Wow!

The downside was the too slow of a burn for me and getting confused by the flashbacks and the different POVs.

But I still love Fiona Barton and will always read her books!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

This author usually writes a great thriller, for me, this book was an exception. I am conflicted about this book. I loved the character of DI Elise King and would definitely be interested in another book in the series, I just didn’t care for the sleepy town, missing man story. The suspect characters just weren’t that great. I didn’t care about the missing man or his story; even though I loved the way Elise and Ronnie solved the crime.

Fiona Barton never disappoints! Another great mystery set in a small town full of characters who are so richly developed (and hiding secrets!) I wanted to keep reading equally for the people on the page as much as to get to the end and solve the whodunnit. This could be a series for sure! I’d love to see these characters pop up again.

This was a good book, though it took a little while to get going, in the end it was a worthy read. Elise King is a cancer survivor, having lost a breast she's still recovering and is housebound until cleared by medical to return to her job as a Detective Inspector. Elise lives in a small village, Ebbing, where nothing much happens, just as she likes, but she finds herself bored, too much time on her hands, until a local decides to hold a music festival on his land, the other locals don't care for it, but he goes ahead. An accidental overdose almost kills two kids and it's the start of a casual investigation into how the drugs got into town by Elise and her neighbor, Ronnie, who is in her 60's and very feisty. Not long after that, a local man goes missing, Charlie, a 70ish year old who was nice to everyone and it was out of character for him to not be around town. There is a lot of flashing back at the start to describe things from different POV, it was a tad confusing because some of them then included the memory of an event from the past which introduced a lot of people that didn't get mentioned until much later. Elise and Ronnie carry on their impromptu investigation until Elise is cleared to return to work, which was only a few days later. Things really pick up at that point and the book really starts to take off. There were a lot of twists and turns in this book, Elise is a very tenacious investigator, not letting anything slide. I have to admit, the ending caught me totally off guard. I would recommend. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Berkley Books for the ARC.

Detective Elise King is off work for a medical leave, leaving her restless and bored. She now spends her days observing the comings and goings of her neighbours in her sleepy seaside town, observing the growing tensions between locals and "weekenders" who are taking over the town.

Suddenly, she finds herself investigating a murder of a local, well-known man, off the books. And then she gets called back to work.

Dee, the local housecleaner knows what goes on in every home, even if the owners don't realize she knows. Dee is doing her own investigation of the deceased man.

As both Elise and Dee's investigations progress, they realize things are not what they seem, and what others may want to portray. And everyone in town is connected in more ways than they realize.

I enjoyed this book, much like Barton's other books. It was filled with strong female characters, which I enjoyed. I hope that Detective Elise King and her counterpart Caro are featured in future books. The characters were likeable, despite being flawed, and the book had a strong plot that slowly burned to the conclusion. I look forward to reading more of Barton's work in the future. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book to write an honest review about.

I was very excited to have this novel to read prior to publication, as I had looking forward to Barton’s latest release! Well written, but I would definitely consider this a slow-burn domestic-drama/suspense rather than thriller. Admittedly, I found the multiple characters and numerous sub-plots fairly confusing at times and hard to keep straight at all points of the novel. Sadly, this won’t be one of my favourite thrillers this year.
I will however continue to read Barton’s books as overall I like her writing and she does come up with some unique plot lines.
Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the chance to read this ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada and Fiona Barton for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to see Barton out with a new novel as she is usually an autobuy author for me and an author that really got me back into mysteries. This one was good, fairly fast paced and I loved the main character Elise. She was totally unique and it was nice to see a new reason for a detective to be off work! I cruised through this one and I can’t wait to see if this becomes a series!

As per the rules of thrillers, suspect everyone and trust no one.
Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada for my eARC of Local Gone Missing for review!
Elise King is a detective in the seaside town of Ebbing, recently back to work from medical leave.
After a local music festival has two teenagers overdose and resident Charlie Perry go missing, the bloom comes off the rose of the town as secrets and connections become apparent from years and even days past.
I previously really enjoyed author Fiona Barton's series of The Widow, The Child and The Suspect. She definitely knows how to construct a gripping tale.
Local Gone Missing didn't hold quite the same charm for me though. Many characters were introduced and did not resonate. Frequent time jumps - ie. 10 days earlier, two weeks earlier, four days earlier, 20 years earlier - made things a bit more challenging to read than comfortable.
The last third of the book, though, settled more into a police procedural and contained some most satisfying reveals!
For release today, June 14.

Just finished this new release by author Fiona Barton and feeling a little conflicted in my thoughts. This book had some pros and cons but overall, finished on a good foot.

Pros: The characters (Charlie, Pauline, Dee and DI Elise) were quirky and well thought out. I enjoyed how it seemed everyone was separate and not connected, but by the end of the book, with all its twists, you realize how connected the characters actually are. Cons: The back and forth timeline of this one made it difficult to follow at times which complicated my reading.

The opening pages really grabbed me, the characters kept me interested and there were enough twists and turns to keep me reading. Overall, a 3.5 star read for me (rounded up to 4).

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the eARC version of this book in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

Unfortunately this mystery just didn't work for me. I found it boring and I wasn't interested in the story. The alternating timelines became confusing which I think affected my ability to become invested in the plot and characters. I kept waiting for an exciting twist that just never happened. I personally enjoy more suspense in my mystery/thriller novels and found this one to be lacking.

i actually started out interested, and then i found it becoming more and more boring...
even the plot line didnt catch me.
i found myself disappointed with this one.

Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton is a cleverly plotted mystery, with many twists and turns. The characters were well-developed and you come to find out that some of them have connections interwoven over many years and not everyone is exactly how they seem at first glance. I was kept guessing until the very end!

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada and the author for an eARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

Good mystery uncovering the pasts of the key players which connect to the present situation. Kept guessing until the twisty end. Really enjoyed this one.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

The first half of this felt very fragmented - chapters in the past, chapters in the present, the perspectives of cleaner Dee, Elise, a DI on sick leave, and so on. Then Elise got called back to work and it became more of a police procedural and a little more focused, although new perspectives were being added all the time. The plot was twisty and complicated, but I think I grasped it.

I've really liked other novels by Barton, but this one was a bit of a miss for me. It's wasn't a DNF, but I just couldn't get into the story and characters - possibly because I had trouble keeping the characters straight. Overall, this one just wasn't for me; however, I can still see it being popular with other readers.

Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for the advance copy to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Charlie is missing. Everyone speaks so highly of Charlie. You’ll love Charlie too and perhaps even feels a little or maybe a lot sorry for him until ……….you don’t! There are a lot of characters twisted into Local Gone Missing; all seem to have a connection to Charlie or Charles. This is a fast paced, page turner.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.
3.5/5 rounded to 4.

Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton is the latest from this must read author, and it will pull you in from the very start.

Elise King was an ambitious detective before a medical setback left her sidelined and unable to continue with the work she loved. Watching the goings on of Ebbing, her small seaside town, she feels that she is on the outside looking in as she struggles through her recovery. When a music festival comes to town and a local man goes missing, Elise knows that she can contribute to the investigation, albeit in a less hands on way. As she begins to dig into the events transpring in town, Elise will uncover secrets that will change everything she thought she knew about the sleepy Ebbing and its inhabitants.

Ms Barton can always be relied upon for a cracking read, and this latest is no exception. 4.5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an ARC.

What a unique idea and main character! This starts out feeling a bit like a Miss Marple book with Elise watching the goings on of Ebbing through her window as she recovers from cancer. Sits there unable to work as a man goes missing and her neighbour, Ronnie, figures as Elise is a police officer, it is only natural she would also still want to poke her nose into the investigation. And Ronnie, is keen to try to solve the case.

But as the case gets more complicated, Elise becomes more cop and her pre-cancer self and less amateur sleuth. But she is dealing with fatigue, brain fog and the trauma of recovery. I was rooting for her from almost the first page. Rooting for her recovery in every way.

And there are enough little red fish in this book to keep you on your toes guessing what is going on all the way until the end.