Cunningly plotted and quite twisty, didn’t expect that I would actually enjoyed the book this much! Set in a small town, Local Gone Missing brought me to an after event of a pop festival that resulted into a missing person case with another two teenagers were found to overdose on drugs. After a period of medical leave and her curiosity of doing her own investigation, DI Elise was called to lead the case after it turns into a sudden murder mystery. It gets harder when few locals were being too suspicious and hiding something behind their closed doors but DI Elise was determined to unravel the mystery even when she needs to battle with both her health and broken relationship, and travels back into the past to unlock the case.
The first 15 chapters was a bit slow burn for me as it was focusing more on the backstory and intro of each characters that I don’t find the development progressing that much. The plot structure too was quite tricky to grasp at times, bit confusing with its back and forth timelines and the multiple POVs but the storytelling gets better later in the middle— more tensions and gripping red herrings, and somehow I love the combination of crimes though quite intricate, the suspense and conflicts were still addictive much to me.
The characterization was fairly engaging and impeccable. Not my first time to read a multiple POVs narrative but this book makes me realised the fun of reading this style of writing in crime genre because I get to discover on the character’s motive earlier than the detective so it gets me quite eager to find out on how DI Elise will work on her charm. Few revelations were easy to guess but it was interesting to explore both plot and characters dynamics and how the crimes tangles them with psychological anxieties; their thoughts and worries, shift of attitudes and those secrets— so crafty and sad too :/
Love that the last chapter still gets me staggered with nervousness. Would definitely go for another DI Elise if she would be a series. Lovers to whodunnit crime mystery and detective plot, you might want to give this a try. 4 stars to this!
Thank you Times Reads for the gifted review copy!