Shawn chats with Fiona Barton about her new novel LOCAL GONE MISSING. They also discuss fresh starts, the unique perspectives of household staff, not panicking while writing, what writing isn't always, and the benefits of allowing your writing self to think. 

About the Author:

Fiona Barton has been a journalist - senior writer at the Daily Mail, news editor at the Daily Telegraph, and chief reporter at The Mail on Sunday, where she won Reporter of the Year at the National Press Awards, gave up her job to volunteer in Sri Lanka and since 2008, has trained and worked with exiled and threatened journalists all over the world.

But through it all, a story was cooking in her head.

The worm of a book infected her long ago when, as a national newspaper journalist covering notorious crimes and trials, she found herself wondering what the wives of those accused really knew – or allowed themselves to know.

It took the liberation of her career change to turn that fascination into a tale of a missing child, narrated by the wife of the man suspected of the crime, the detective leading the hunt, the journalist covering the case, and the mother of the victim. That book became The Widow, which went on to be a bestseller, garnering rave reviews around the globe. Fiona followed that book up with The Child, and now her most recent is Local Gone Missing.

About the book: 

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 weekend music festival, and two teenagers overdose on drugs. When a man disappears the first night of the festival, Elise 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.