About four years ago, I read and reviewed Fiona Barton’s The Child (four stars). I enjoyed it, so I was pleased to receive a copy of Local Gone Missing from Berkley Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. This one features detective Elise King, who had to take a medical leave. Now, unsure if she will be returning to work, she keeps busy in her small seaside town of Ebbing which is filled with weekenders who are renovating old bungalows into McMansions, while the locals decry all the changes. Living as I do in a small beach town where it is rare for any house to sell for less than $1,000,000, it rang true to me (being, as I am, a local who decries all the changes!)

 Elise has a house cleaner named Dee Eastwood, who knows. What’s going on – it seems to Elise she sees and hears everything. When one of the newcomers wants to put on a weekend music festival, and when a man disappears the first night of the festival, and two teenagers overdose on drugs,  Elise starts digging for answers. Lots of twisty plotting, and just a fun read. Four stars.