Books Read: Local Gone Missing by Fiona Barton

Everyone watches their neighbours. 

Elise King moves into the sleepy seaside town of Ebbing. Illness has thrown her career as a successful detective into doubt, but no matter how hard she tries to relax and recuperate, she knows that something isn't right.

Everyone lies about their friends.

Tensions are running high beneath the surface of this idyllic community: the weekenders in their fancy clothes, renovating old bungalows into luxury homes, and the locals resentful of the changes. A town divided, with the threat of violence only a heartbeat away.

Everyone knows a secret.

This peaceful world is shattered when two teenagers end up in hospital and a local man vanishes without trace. Elise starts digging for answers, but the community closes ranks, and the truth begins to slip through her fingers. Because in a small town like this, the locals are good at keeping secrets...

Everyone's a suspect when a local goes missing.

Books Read: Kindle or Hardcover

I'd like to thank Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour and for Transworld for my copy of Local Gone Missing to review via NetGalley.

All I seem to be doing at the moment is apologising for late reviews and today is no exception, no excuse really apart from menopausal brain fog as completely forgot to upload my review on Wednesday when due! 

Once a copper, always a copper and that's certainly true for Elise King who moved to the seaside town of Ebbing as a fresh start following the break up of her relationship and a recent cancer diagnosis. Although a newcomer she is welcomed more so than the weekenders who have invaded the town in recent years. When a local elderly man Charlie Perry disappears, a man she saw the same night at a local musical festival where two teenagers overdosed, she can't help but wonder what happened to him especially when he seemed so distressed. 

The more we hear about Charlie, the more you realise that what you see is not necessarily what you get. There's a lot more to him than first seems, he's certainly lived an interesting life and there are many who want to find him for their own personal reasons. The deeper the investigations go, the more potential suspects are identified but it's only over time that the truth is finally uncovered.  

There are quite a few characters to keep a track of as to who they all were and their connection to each other. And as we get to know more about them, we soon find that most have something to hide and they'd do whatever they can to cast suspicion elsewhere so as to prevent their own secrets being discovered. At first I did wonder why several seemingly outsiders were even mentioned but as the threads start to come together, everything begins to fall into place and make more sense.

I will admit that I needed to keep my wits about me, not just about who everyone was but to also follow the plot as the timelines skips back and forward in the days prior to Charlie's disappearance and the subsequent days afterwards. That being said, towards the latter stages of the book I didn't want to put it down for a second as I was eager to discover what exactly happened and why.  

Local Gone Missing is a slow-burner of a mystery that is definitely worth a read. Now that Elise is back on the job, I hope it's not the last we've heard of her.