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.

Fiona Barton's three previous mysteries -- "The Widow," "The Child" and "The Suspect," all featuring journalist Kate Waters -- were good, solid reads. But "Local Gone Missing" is her best yet, a cleverly crafted puzzle that has emotional heft as well as twisty mysteries. Following multiple characters in a "before" and present timeline, "Local Gone Missing" introduces the inhabitants of the British seaside town of Ebbing, a less than-chic spot where quiet escapes are possible. Police detective Elise King didn't move there to hide, exactly, but she's been holed up in her cottage while recovering from breast cancer. Then the disappearance of a well-liked man who wasn't what he seemed brings her back to the job. "Local Gone Missing" is a slow build, plot-wise, but all the more satisfying for that. Here's hoping Barton revisits Elise, and her friends and colleagues, in future books.

I'd heard good things about this author but had yet to read any of her books, so I was pleased to get an advance copy of Local Gone Missing for review. I found that, if this book is any indication, all of the good things I've heard about her are true: Fiona Barton writes suspenseful, captivating mystery/thrillers.

DI Elise King is on medical leave from from the Ebbing police force when a local man, Charlie Perry, goes missing the night of a controversial music festival where two teens overdose.. With time on her hands, Elise teams up with her gossipy neighbor, Ronnie, to conduct a quasi-investigation into Charlie's disappearance and how drugs got into the festival. As they dig deeper, they begin to uncover secrets about their neighbors that extend far beyond their sleepy seaside town.

Dee Eastwood cleans houses to help make ends meet. She is often ignored as she goes about her work and sees and hears more than she should. Privy to many secrets, she has her own troubled past she wants to hide that perhaps has ties to the current troubles in Effing.

When Elise is cleared to return to work and begins working the disappearance and drugs investigations, she uses the information gleaned from her prior inquiries and slowly begins to unravel the knot of secret lives that is at the heart of Ebbing.

Although a superb work of detective fiction, there is also light humor when Elise and Ronnie team up in the first part of the book. Told mostly from Elise's and Dee's points of view, the narrative switches back and forth with seamless dexterity between before Charlie disappears and the present investigation. The sense of place and the characters are so adeptly drawn that I found myself slowing down toward the end of the book because I didn't want to leave Ebbing and Elise and Dee.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an advance copy of this book. The publication date is June 14, 2022.

Fiona Barton has written another jigsaw puzzle of a book where the many pieces come together in the course of a suspenseful plot. The characters are all true-to-life and believable as well as carrying their own gripping life stories. If you have trouble sorting out mysteries with a lot of characters, you might want to jot a list of who's who while reading, as they become intertwined in surprising ways. Highly recommended, and I hope to see another novel with Elise as the lead character.

I thought this novel was fantastic from start to finish! When I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it! I loved how all the characters seem independent from each other, but then connections reveal themselves gradually. I am happy to report the end was just the kind of twist you are hoping for. My detective mind was working throughout trying to figure out the killer/killers. Have fun! This is a must read!

This book was interesting with some good twists. I didn't love the ending but overall it was still a good read.

I'm new to Fiona Barton and had no idea what to expect.

Local Gone Missing was an interesting police procedural with a past/present timeline. I really liked Elise King, the detective assigned to a missing persons case in the town of Ebbing. Elise is struggling to adapt to her return to work after a medical leave.

I think this quote encapsulates the book well:

"It's a funny place, Ebbing, isn't it Seems quiet at first glance. A bit down at heel, really. But it's all going on, isn't it? It's like Midsomer Murders."

I enjoyed Local Gone Missing. It had a bit of a leisurely pace but I loved the character development and the small town setting.

This is my 3rd Barton book, and again, it was just ok for me. I found the story line confusing and chaotic, coupled with too many characters. I enjoyed the first half more than the second half of the book.
The story takes place in a small seaside town that is made up of locals and weekenders. Elise is a detective, a local, that has been on a leave due to serious illness. She begins investigating a man's disappearance. There is also a housecleaner that seems to know all as she roams around often forgotten.
I know that Barton is a very well liked author but I am starting to think this is a case of, it's not you, it is me. I just don't think we are a match with her style of writing.
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an advance copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Local Gone Missing with be available on 6/14/2022.

Thanks to Berkley and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this before publication. I've had very good success with books from Berkley, but I just could not get into this one. I only got to about 40% before I bailed. I liked the setup and some of the characters - I thought Birdie's trauma and living situation was really well done, and I liked the police procedural aspects. The pacing was really off for me - I usually like dual timelines, but I found myself a bit into the book and still trying to remember who people were in relation to each other. After I read the synopsis, I wondered if it might have given too much away, as I was reading and watching for certain things to happen. Each time I picked it up I was just getting more frustrated, so I decided to stop. I have not read this author before but I read a lot in this genre - this title is confusing me with other books I have read.

Local gone Missing
by Fiona Barton
Pub Date: June 14, 2022
Berkely
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
Detective Elise King investigates a man’s disappearance in a seaside town where the locals and weekenders are at odds in this rich and captivating new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow.
Unfortunately, this was a disappointing read for me. I don’t usually mind switching from past to present but I didn’t think it worked in this book. I enjoyed the police procedural and the detectives who worked on the case.
So for me, this was just an ok book.
3 stars

In this author's latest release, a complex story of a local's disappearance is investigated, with unexpected results.

Told in the past and present, we learn how Charlie Perry's own actions likely led him to his current state. To put it bluntly, he sort of had it coming.

There seemed to be only two things Charlie cared about, money and his daughter, Sofia aka Birdie. Unfortunately, one of those things impacted the other with horrific consequences, leading to Charlie's further spiral into bad decision making.

As the story unfolded, it was clear more than one person had a role in his disappearance. But is he still alive? That was for DI Eise King to sort out. Still recovering from a mastectomy, she and her friend, Ronnie, are the only characters I cared for in this story. I liked the methodical way they unraveled the many layers to this mystery, props to them. As for the others, their self-absorbed ways seemed to have contributed to more than one tragedy so I had little sympathy for them as the truth became known.

There were a good number of twists and due to the number of pieces in this puzzle, the direction of the story was unpredictable. In the end, those who played a role met their match in Elise, and I cheered her along every step of the way.

I have read some this author's previous books, the Kate Water's series, and liked them. I like the mystery aspect and police procedural genre. Unfortunately, I am a little disappointed with this book. I'm sure it was just me, but I had a hard time getting through it, especially in the first half.

There were so many characters in the book that it was challenging for me to keep them straight. At times I wish there had been a list and a brief explanation of each to refer to so that I could keep them all straight. There were also some British words that I was not familiar with, along with the ranks of police officers. Both of these issues left me confused.

I did like the book's overall plot, and there were a lot of red herrings, in my opinion. But it wasn't enough to increase my rating of the book.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest, unbiased opinion.

I really enjoyed this thriller from Fiona Barton. I am a fan of flawed protagonists and Elise King fits the bill. Her medical leave and a past broken romance have left the once strong Elise unsure of where she fits in the world. While on leave to recover, she strikes up a friendship with her neighbor, and together they begin to informally investigate a missing local man.
Dee Eastwood is the local cleaner for many homes. She goes in and out of homes, often like a ghost, seeing much of people's lives behind the scenes.
As the story moves between Dee and Elise, we learn what is exactly is happening with the missing local- and who is to blame. A story about desperate people doing desperate things- I highly enjoyed this mystery. I was able to read this as an ARC from Netgalley.

Nice twisty mystery that all the pieces of the puzzle are coming from different points of view so the readers have more information than the characters but, the author is clever enough to keep us on our toes. I enjoyed the everyone has secrets aspect of the storyline especially.

Fiona Barton is one of my many favorite authors. I have enjoyed all of her books and this is no exception. Phenomenal

really wanted to like this but, got bored and confused by the characters and timeline. There wasn't enough of a mystery to keep me going.

I thought this book was OK. Not great, not bad but OK. I did not feel very connected to the characters. There was a lot of them and at times difficult to keep track of who was who and there wasn't a deep dive into the character of many of them, I have read some of Fiona Barton's other titles and this one doesn't measure up to some of her other ones.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Who is Charlie Perry and why has he gone missing? Fiona Barton answers these questions in her own inimitable way. While there are many characters in this story Barton develops and expands the main characters as the story bounces between the present and the past. An excellent read for those mystery lovers who enjoy a good plot and characters you love to love and hate to hate.
#LocalGoneMissing#NetGalley

Where could Charlie be, what is Charlie's real name, and what is his past?

Did he disappear on purpose because of the massive debt he had accumulated?

Since they found his wallet at the controversial festival, was he harmed or kidnapped?

We find out where he is and what happened to him as we also find out that this small town has many secrets being kept.

We meet quite a few characters who have shady pasts and shady current situations.

The character that becomes the main focus is Elise King who is a policewoman on sick leave and the one who takes on the investigation of where Charlie really is and who he really is.

It is good for Elise since she has been bored. Her friend and neighbor, Ronnie, also gets in on the investigation.

Will she find out what happened to Charlie...is it a local person, a person he owed money to, or just a random act of violence.

It actually took a while to connect to the story line and to the characters, and the multiple number of characters did become confusing.

The intensity of Elise’s investigation and her determination did make the book more interesting as we learned about police procedure.

I was a bit disappointed about the beginning of the book because I always enjoy Ms. Barton’s books...it was confusing, but it did get wrapped up in the end. 3/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Berkeley Publishing Group for an advanced copy of this new thriller in exchange for my honest review and opinion. I've read many of Fiona Barton's prior books and absolutely loved them and just as I expected this book was fantastic as well. Lots of twists and turns that will keep you guessing what's going to happen next. Clear your calendar as you will not be able to get anything done until you finish reading this!