All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers
📰 All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers — Crime Junkie Fiction Goes Full Small-Town Murder
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 out of 5)
Genre: True Crime-Inspired Thriller / Small Town Secrets / Family Dysfunction
Warning: 🚨 Spoilers, plot twists, and murderous uncles ahead!
🕵️♀️ Ashley Flowers Enters the Chat... With Fiction
If you’ve ever listened to the Crime Junkie podcast while doing dishes and thinking “huh, this sounds like a book,” you’re in luck—Ashley Flowers’ debut novel reads like one long episode with just enough creative liberty to make you raise an eyebrow.
Fair warning: this story borrows heavily from the JonBenét Ramsey case. And I do mean heavily. From page one, it’s giving “I’ve heard this before... but what if it were even messier?”
🧒🏼 A Child Murder in 1994... and One VERY Suspicious Family
The story opens with the murder of 6-year-old January Jacobs, found in a ditch in her Indiana hometown. The investigation quickly turns into a public circus, with cameras, wild theories, and a cringey AF family TV interview that makes everyone think her mom Krissy or twin brother Jace did it.
Spoiler: they didn’t. (But it’s complicated, okay?)
Krissy thinks Jace did it.
Jace thinks Krissy did it.
So what do they both do? They cover it up, thinking they’re protecting the other. What could go wrong?
(Answer: Everything.)
📸 25 Years Later: Another Girl Missing, Same Town, Same Mess
Fast forward two decades and now Natalie Clark, another young girl, goes missing. Enter our main character, Margot Davies, January’s childhood friend turned investigative journalist with unresolved trauma.
Margot starts connecting Natalie’s case with January’s, but nobody takes her seriously—least of all her employer, who promptly fires her. Oops.
Does that stop Margot?
No.
Does it encourage her to dig deeper into a town full of shady secrets?
Absolutely.
🧠 Plot Twists, Bad Dads & Murdery Secrets
Margot’s investigation takes her through:
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An old case (Polly Limon) that everyone swears is unrelated... but surprise! It is.
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Swiss bank statements, blackmailers, and a suspicious lawyer.
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Her own creepy Uncle Luke, who lied about knowing the Jacobs family. Turns out? He’s the real dad of the twins. DNA plot twist!
While following breadcrumbs, Margot learns about a mysterious “Elephant Wallace” that young Jace used to talk about. She realizes “Elephant” is actually Elliott Wallace, a suspect in Polly’s case.
Lightbulb moment. 💡
She tracks down Elliott’s sister, breaks into his storage unit of horrors, and finds evidence tying him to multiple missing girls. The cops finally arrest someone.
Cue celebration music? Not quite.
🧣 But Wait! There’s One Last Shocking Reveal…
Margot stops by January’s father Billy’s house to deliver the news—and while she’s casually glancing at an old photo, her brain does that magical thriller math:
📷 + 🧣 + 🧠 = Holy crap. Billy’s the real killer.
Turns out, Billy wasn’t the twins’ biological dad (remember: Uncle Luke). He found out, got ragey, and accidentally shoved January down the stairs. Then, to really hammer the “unhinged dad” trope home, he killed Krissy when she figured it out and faked her suicide.
Now he’s ready to kill Margot too. The book ends with her determined to survive, but we don’t actually know if she does. (Ashley Flowers: excuse me??)
🧵 Final Thoughts: Twisty? Yes. Impactful? Meh.
All Good People Here is fast-paced, full of jaw-droppers, and totally bingeable. But it also relies heavily on true crime familiarity, with characters that sometimes feel like NPCs from a Dateline episode.
The middle drags with too many side characters and a twist that's just a little too convenient. Still, it delivers the goods if you’re into murdery Midwest mysteries with generational drama and a side of family secrets.
📌 TL;DR
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✅ Child murdered in small town
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✅ Twin brother & mom think the other did it
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✅ Journalist friend digs into a cold case
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✅ New girl goes missing 25 years later
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✅ Another cold case (Polly Limon) is connected
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✅ All roads lead to: Uncle Luke, vigilante justice, and an abusive dad
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✅ Killer? You guessed it—Billy.
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✅ Ending? Margot is in danger... again.
🛒 Buy This Book
👉 Buy All Good People Here on Amazon (affiliate link)
📚 If You Liked This, You Might Also Like…
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A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham — Another cold-case thriller with a haunted female lead
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The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry — Parenthood goes full psychological warfare
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Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter — Twisted, terrifying, and deeply satisfying
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Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica — A small-town thriller with shocking family secrets
💬 Let’s Talk
Did the ending frustrate you? Were you expecting Billy all along? Was Uncle Luke giving “ick” from the beginning? Tell me everything in the comments.
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