Thank you Netgalley, #partner, for the advanced copy of Local Gone Missing in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Berkley Books
Published: July 14, 2022
Summary:
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 rich and captivating new novel from the New York Times 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 thoughts:
I have been a fan of Fiona Barton since discovering her debut novel, The Widow, which was part of her Kate Waters series. I read that entire series and while I have been hoping to see more books in that series, I was just as excited to see a stand-alone from this author.
This is a slow-burn of a mystery that has a lot of moving parts. Part police procedural, part murder mystery, we meet a whole cast of interesting characters which keeps the suspect list high. I loved the small-town vibes and how the detective, Elise King, who is supposed to be on leave due to illness, cannot help herself from being drawn into the case when a local goes missing.
Moving back and forth in time to before Charlie vanishes and the investigation, this story keeps you guessing as to where it is heading. While some things ended up being a bit predictable, I was surprised by a few twists. I’m not sure if this is the beginning of a new series or just a one-off but I sure would love to see Detective Elise King again! I really liked her grit and determination to solve this case despite not even being fully back to work yet. Either way, this was a clever story and I cannot wait to see what this author writes next!
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