All Good People Here: A Novel

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In the propulsive debut novel from the host of the #1 true crime podcast Crime Junkie, a journalist uncovers her hometown’s dark secrets when she becomes obsessed with the unsolved murder of her childhood neighbor—and the disappearance of another girl twenty years later.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar
 
You can’t ever know for sure what happens behind closed doors.

Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the infamous case of January Jacobs, who was discovered in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist. But she’s always been haunted by the feeling that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.

When Margot returns home to help care for her uncle after he is diagnosed with early-onset dementia, she feels like she’s walked into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembers—genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under circumstances eerily similar to January’s. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and to solve January’s murder once and for all.

But the police, Natalie’s family, the townspeople—they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January’s case feels. Could January’s killer still be out there? Is it the same person who took Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night twenty years ago?

Twisty, chilling, and intense, All Good People Here is a searing tale that asks: What are your neighbors capable of when they think no one is watching?

• ISBN10: 0593496477
• ISBN13: 9780593496473
• Publish Date: 16 August 2022
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Bantam Dell Publishing Group, Div of Random House, Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780593496473

Reviews

[Joni Reads]

Thank you to Netgalley for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Beware- slight spoilers ahead. I usually avoid them but in order to fully articulate what I disliked about this book I had to hint to a few things that happened and talk about the ending of the book.

Oh boy. I wanted to love this one so much. I'm an avid listener to Crime Junkie and The Deck so when I found out Ashley Flowers was writing a book I was so excited. But this book just left a bad taste in my mouth.

It started when I realized just how closely the January Jacobs case in the books was similar to the real life case of Jon Benet Ramsey. That case is what got me into true crime at the ripe age of 12 and it's one that I know very well. The story line being loosely based on the crime I could handle but it was just a little too similar to me. If you don't know much about the case you probably wouldn't notice so this was a "me" issue but it left a bad taste in my mouth that a true crime podcaster wrote a book so heavily based on a real case and as far as I have seen there is no press about the book that says it is based on or inspired by a true story.

Moving on to the actual storytelling. I feel as if the big reveal happened much too late in the book. There was no resolution. There were a lot of false assumptions and right at about the 93% mark comes the big twist. The epilogue really frustrated me. The last chapter before the epilogue ended in a really preachy way about how the main character didn't want to become just another name on a long list of girls who are victims of bad men. It is a good sentiment but not for the very end of the book. And then it jumped to the epilogue which includes a slightly graphic depiction of the murder of a 6 year old girl.

I'm not a fan of ambiguous endings in thrillers. I understand that in real life not everything is tied up in a bow but if I wanted real life I would read the newspaper. In thrillers I want some kind of resolution and we just don't get that in All Good People Here.

Is the main character ok? We don't know.

Does the real bad guy ever get caught? We don't know.

All we get is a preachy internal monologue and description of child murder and then *end book*.

I think if you don't know much about true crime and you are going into this with the expectation of simply reading a thriller you might enjoy this. I'm sure I am in the minority with my opinion but I can't say for sure as I haven't read any reviews for this book.

I will probably remember this book but not because its one that I enjoyed but because its one that I had such high hopes for and was so let down by.