Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton – a Review

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Description:
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.

Review:

Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton is another one of her standalone suspense novels.  I have read a few books by this author, which were very good.  I did like Local Gone Missing, but thought it was very slow in the beginning with the last third of the book exciting. 

Elise King, our heroine, is currently on medical leave from her job as a police detective (inspector) in Ebbing; planning on returning to work soon. Elise learns about the disappearance of a local man from the music festival, as well as two teenagers overdosing on drugs.  Elise, being bored, decides to investigate on her own, with her neighbor friend, Ronnie; she was a hoot (who loved being an amateur detective).  Elise will uncover many secrets revolving around the missing man, Charlie Perry, who had made a number of enemies in town, that not only goes back many years, but also in the present. Charlie’s body is found a few days later, and Elise will discover that a number of people were after him, as he owed a lot of money from his investment schemes. Halfway through the book, Elise is called back to work taking over the police investigation

There was so much going on, with a lot of suspects, that made more than half the book a bit slow and somewhat confusing, as well as being hard to keep track of everything; especially with all the subplots.  The time line did go back and forth from the past and the present. I really liked Elise, she was a great detective, as we got to see the inner workings of police procedurals (interviews & investigations).  The last third of the book was very exciting, with Elise in the forefront, with her staff and the many suspects.

Local Gone Missing was a cozy busy mystery that was interesting, and a very exciting at the end. Local Gone Missing may have started a slow, but was well written by Fiona Barton.   

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher