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TALKING TO STRANGERS
(Elise King #2)
Fiona Barton
Berkley Publishing Group
Publication Date: August 27th, 2024
400 Pages
Goodreads | Amazon | Bookshop.org
Genres: Mystery | Thriller | Suspense | Police Procedural
This is my first book by Fiona Barton, which is the second title in the Elise King series. And it can certainly be read as a standalone. I’m not a big fan of series’ or police procedurals and this book is both (but I’ve always wanted to read a Barton book) and because of that, I was surprised by how much I liked it.
This is a slow burn of a murder mystery where we get to know the residents of the seaside town of Ebbing. We get three points of view in the story, the first is Detective Elise King who the series is named, the second is reporter Kiki and the third is grieving mother Annie. (Why is it we have a name for when a spouse dies either widow or widower or if our parents die we are called orphans but there’s no title for the parents of a dead child?) The chapters from Annie’s point of view were the ones I enjoyed the most. The three narratives were woven together seamlessly with short, punchy chapters. I found the book completely immersive and compelling and my interest was piqued throughout but the epilogue was not surprising at all.
Barton is an author I’ve wanted to read for a while now and I’m glad I got the opportunity to read this one but I don’t think I’d read any more of this series or anything else by the author. Don’t get me me wrong, it was a fun read if a bit predictable but it didn’t wow me.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
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