Talking to Strangers
Elise King #2
by Fiona Barton
Detective Elise King’s investigation into a woman’s murder is getting derailed by a reporter who insists on doing her own investigation in this nail-biting mystery from the author of Local Gone Missing.
When Karen Simmons is murdered on Valentine’s Day, Detective Elise King wonders if she was killed by a man she met online. Karen was all over the dating apps, leading some townspeople to blame her for her own death, while others band together to protest society’s violence against women. Into the divide comes Kiki Nunn, whose aggressive newsgathering once again antagonizes Elise.
A single mother of a young daughter, Kiki is struggling to make a living in the diminished news landscape. Getting a scoop in the Simmons murder would do a lot for her career, and she’s willing to go up against not just Elise but the killer himself to do it.
Favorite Quotes:
My news editor is twenty-four and skinny, and his crazy hair makes his head appear too big for his body. “He looks like a lollipop that’s been left in someone’s pocket,”
There’d been a sharp frost every morning for a week, and the pebbles on the beach had become lethal icy marbles underfoot. Elise had noticed that most of the Bluetits— the women she saw plunging in daily for a dawn swim— had put their swimsuits away for the moths to devour.
“You’re hardly an advert for domestic bliss!… The first time we met, you were devising ways to murder your husband.” “I’m still working on it. Anyway, I’m not talking about Ted— you need a real man.”
Noel Clayton’s face darkened to a shade an interior designer might call Imminent Coronary.
I look at her bitter, thin face lit up by hate. It never fails to astonish me how people can reshape realities to suit.
My Review:
This was a tensely wound and compelling tale told from multiple POVs, which I always enjoy. Fiona Barton is a master storyteller and I quickly fell into her characters’ itchy/scratchy vortex. The insightfully observant narratives, banter, amusing snark and verbal exchanges, and perceptive inner musings kept the little pea in my brain whirling like a tornado. I now must amass her entire body of work to enjoy more of the same.
Fiona Barton’s debut, The Widow, was a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller and has been published in 36 countries and optioned for television. Her second novel, The Child, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Born in Cambridge, Fiona currently lives in Sussex and south-west France.
Previously, she was a senior writer at the Daily Mail, news editor at the Daily Telegraph, and chief reporter at the Mail on Sunday, where she won Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards.
While working as a journalist, Fiona reported on many high-profile criminal cases and she developed a fascination with watching those involved, their body language and verbal tics. Fiona interviewed people at the heart of these crimes, from the guilty to their families, as well as those on the periphery, and found it was those just outside the spotlight who interested her most . . .