Local Gone Missing
(Elise King #1)
by Fiona Barton

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Detective Elise King investigates a man’s disappearance in a seaside town where the locals and weekenders are at odds with each other in this suspenseful new novel from the #1 bestselling author of The Widow.

Elise King is a successful and ambitious detective—or she was before a medical leave left her unsure if she’d ever return to work. She now spends most days watching the growing tensions in her small seaside town of Ebbing—the weekenders renovating old bungalows into luxury homes, and the locals resentful of the changes.

Elise can only guess what really happens behind closed doors. But Dee Eastwood, her house cleaner, often knows. She’s an invisible presence in many of the houses in town, but she sees and hears everything.

The conflicts boil over when a newcomer wants to put the town on the map with a giant music festival, and two teenagers overdose on drugs. When a man disappears the first night of the festival, Elise is drawn back into her detective work and starts digging for answers. Ebbing is a small town, but it’s full of secrets and hidden connections that run deeper and darker than Elise could have ever imagined.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I mean, how long do you have to live here to be a local? Is there a secret waiting list? Do you have to wait for someone to actually die to take their place?

Strobe lighting flashed and the crowd pulsed in slo-mo. People too old to throw their hands in the air like they just didn’t care did so, the flickering lights hiding a multitude of dancing sins.

The squad called them King and Kong for a bit and Caro ignored it. “I’ve got thighs like barges and mad hair— it could be a lot worse. We need to pick our fights.”

She was small, sixtyish with a beaky nose and a lot of mascara, and she was wearing a T-shirt that read Old Age Is for Sissies.

She couldn’t go it alone at her age. She’d need someone to cherish her. She loved the word “cherish,” rolling it round her mouth and through her pouting lips.

My Review:

My hero worship of Fiona Barton’s brilliant yet itchy storytelling continues. Local Gone Missing was a twisty tale that kept me guessing until the very end. The storylines and characters were well-nuanced, compelling, and endlessly intriguing. I conjured and cast aside multiple theories as I perused but would never have come up with this topper. The woman has mad skills!

About the Author

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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 . . .