I'm always a fan of cold case stories and those of missing people. The mystery aspect compelled me to keep reading. This has clearly been inspired by and based on a real-life crime including a child (!), so we are not going to even mention that and basically create a theory about that and profit off of it and not even disclose it. Is this history repeating itself again? And is the "author" getting away with it again? Doesn't sit right with me. Well my generosity went out the door the more I thought about this most convoluted, ridiculous fell off the cliff ending and the time I wasted reading this book.

Because we don’t compare the two cases, past and present throughout the narrative, I didn’t feel any sense of TENSION, like I usually do with CRIME FICTION. January Jacobs: six year-old daughter of Krissy and Billy; participant in large state-wide dance competitions January Jacobs, went missing from her home one night in 1994. Her body was discovered in a ditch less than two miles from the Jacobs home. The hallmark of a good thriller for me is this: how much can the author give away to allow us to guess along and still be surprised, yet make it all line up? The dual timeline definitely helps here as we are always thinking about January’s case from two perspectives, gathering different insights from both the past and present. Ultimately, this made for a really interesting reading experience. Dave/Luke knew (since 1994) that he was the father of Krissy’s twins, knowledge made even more painful by the fact that he and his wife Rebecca were unable to have biological children. He attended January’s dance recitals to watch her from afar.This tension between appearances and the sometimes ugly truth behind them is the driving force of this thriller. As the plot unfolds, we see just how much the tragic events of the past and present are influenced by this need to conform to an unspoken community standard. On the flip side, Wakarusa’s commitment to knowing their neighbour’s business also means that everyone knows something — a fact that is helpful for Margot’s mission to uncover the truth. A Compelling Main Character Both January’s and JBR’s parents gave somewhat awkward media interviews that made the public suspect they were not being forthcoming about everything they knew. Jodie warns her not to tell Dave. Krissy’s “suicide” occurs that very day, so Jodie thinks that Dave/Luke must have killed Krissy after she told him that he was the twins’ father. But this was actually not the case! Billy was the one who killed Krissy because she realized he was the one who killed January. Also, when Billy kills Krissy, he says, “You shouldn’t have lied to me.” Uh… like 15 years too late, right? I mean, if he wanted to call her out for lying, wouldn’t he have done that a long time before? Why did he kill her anyway? I guess we’re supposed to assume it’s because he found the note in her purse. But then, wouldn’t he have said, “So, you know what happened, huh? I can’t have you telling anyone…” or something like that? I know this was to conceal who the killer was, but it was really ill-fitting. The whole suicide story was actually pretty unconvincing. The police never looked into it further? They never tested for gunshot residue? They didn’t find it suspicious that half of Krissy’s letter was torn off or that she lying by the door with her purse out, as if she was getting ready to leave? The had noticed a tiny bit of blood on Jase’s pajamas all those years before; could they not find any blood on Billy’s clothes? I find it hard to believe that they wouldn’t have looked into this very deeply, given the family’s history. But maybe we’re supposed to just accept that the police were so convinced of Jace or Krissy’s guilt that they accepted suicide without investigating at all. Again, that seems ridiculous.

WHAT did Krissy mean in her letter to Jace when she said “I learned something about your father. He isn’t who you think he is.” Does “your father” mean Billy, the only father Jace ever knew? Or does it mean Dave/Luke, Jace’s biological father? DID Krissy figure out that Billy killed January? Ashley Flowers is the CEO of her own company and hosts the popular true crime podcast, Crime Junkie, which I’ve often enjoyed. I was excited to get my hands on an early copy of her book. Margot Davies was January’s best friend and 6 at the time of her BFFs disappearance and it shook her to her core. Believing in the real life boogey man her whole life since that fateful night. Twenty years later, and Margot is now all grown up and a hot shot crime journalist. January’s cold case has always haunted her and now in a neighbouring town another little girl goes missing under suspiciously similar circumstances.Next, Krissy woke up and found Jace standing over January’s body. She thought that Jace had killed January because he was jealous of all the attention she got. To protect Jace, Krissy staged the scene. She used a hammer to smash the basement window from outside and spray paint threats on the wall and make it look like an intruder took January. But after what happened to January, WHY did Dave/Luke never say anything about this to Krissy or the police or anyone? WHY? Due to his dementia, we will never know. Maybe he told his brother Adam (Margot’s father) leading to his alcoholism. (Just a joke. Sort of.)

As Margot digs deeper, she begins to suspect that there is something truly sinister lurking in the small community: a secret that endangers the lives of everyone involved…including Margot. My biggest problem is that this is basically a fictionalisation of a theory about a real-life child that has not only lost her life tragically but also been made into a media spectacle and now this book does even mention that?! How is that not disrespectful? I just cannot fathom the balls to do that. Can't. Nope. Twenty-five years ago, January Jacob’s parents awoke to find their daughter’s bed empty, a horrifying message spray-painted onto their wall. Hours later, January’s body was found discarded in a ditch. Her murder was never solved. But the town remembers. Although it IS NOT written in a podcast format, it unfortunately still mostly READS like one-with the exception of the sub-plot with Margot’s Uncle.

There is also a theory about a heated sibling dispute possibly involving a flashlight and some pineapple. If like me, you are from a small town, All Good People Here will feel familiar in some ways. Wakarusa is a close-knit community, but it’s also a judgmental one. Appearances and reputations matter above all else. The devil works fast but the small town rumour mill works faster.