Talking to Strangers

June 3, 2024
In Barton’s artful sequel to Local Gone Missing, Det. Insp. Elise King competes with journalist Kiki Nunn to solve the murder of a Sussex hairdresser. King has just returned to duty after breast cancer treatment when she’s called to Knapton Wood, where Karen Simmons’s strangled corpse has been discovered. Before her death, Simmons ran a singles group called the Free Spirits, and King immediately sets her sights on the men Simmons was dating. Meanwhile, newspaper reporter Nunn catches wind of the murder, and her interest is piqued—she’d interviewed Simmons for an article about the Free Spirits the week before. Sensing the story might earn her a promotion, Nunn doggedly chases down leads, stepping on King’s toes in the process. Also in the mix is Annie Curtis, one of Simmons’s clients, whose eight-year-old son was killed years ago in the same place as Simmons, prompting Annie to wonder if the murders might be connected. Barton effortlessly toggles between each woman’s viewpoint, maintaining suspense as she builds to the plot’s devastating resolution. Fans of Mark Billingham’s Tom Thorne novels will devour this. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Agency.

June 1, 2024

Best-selling and multi-best-booked Barton offers another Detective Elise King police procedural, after Local Gone Missing. King is called into to investigate when a woman, on multiple dating apps, is murdered on Valentine's Day. Is a killer stalking the apps? Reporter Kiki Nunn also wants to find out. Prepub Alert.

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July 15, 2024
Three women seek the truth about a murder in the Sussex town of Ebbing for three very different reasons. When hairdresser Karen Simmons is found dead in Knapton Wood the morning after her latest search for likely men at the Neptune pub, it falls to DI Elise King, still recovering from her mastectomy and chemotherapy, to investigate. At the same time, Kiki Nunn, a feature reporter forSussex Today, sees the case as her ticket back from puff pieces to real journalism. The two women, who've already tangled on earlier crimes, work at cross purposes, with Kiki stirring pots Elise wants left alone and going public with information Elise wants to keep secret. Elise's inquiries will uncover unlovely revelations about Noel and Evelyn Clayton, who found the body, and Ash Woodward, the quiet handyman who was sweet on Karen. And Kiki's decision to flesh out her investigation of the Band of Brothers--who boast online of their conquests of the women they hold in contempt--by dipping herself into the online dating pool will have harrowing complications of its own. Karen's murder proves even more devastating for nurse turned receptionist Annie Curtis, who's never recovered from the killing of her firstborn son, Archie, in Knapton Wood 16 years ago. Though the police swiftly arrested Nicky Donovan, a pedophile who killed himself in custody, for Archie's murder, Annie is agonized both to feel the old wound being ripped open and to be racked by the unbearable suspicion that Nicky was innocent and Archie's killer is still at large. A compelling demonstration of the sad truth that there's no neutral way to conduct a murder investigation. Everybody pays.

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July 19, 2024
In deceptively quaint Ebbing, detective Elise King (introduced in Local Gone Missing, 2022) is tested by simmering local secrets and a pack of sexual predators hiding in plain sight. When singles group organizer Karen Simmons' body is found in Knapton Wood, Ebbing is reminded of the unsettlingly similar murder of little Archie Harris 14 years earlier. Instincts lead both Elise and local reporter Kiki Nunn to reexamine the Harris case while chasing down Karen's local and social media connections. For Elise, that means digging into the suspicious statements of the couple who found Karen's body and the oddball bird rescuer who hovered around both scenes. Disregarding the dangers, Kiki joins the same dating apps as Karen, hoping to draw in the same pool of men. And resolved to finally deal with her son's murder, Annie Harris grapples with new questions and old doubts. Barton weaves the women's investigative narratives together, playing increasingly malignant themes of alienation and entitlement against each other. Pair this thoughtful, well-crafted series with Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie mysteries.

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