Wednesday Reviews "All Good People Here"
- Jan 21
- 4 min read
If you’re into true crime or happen to be a frequent podcast listener, you may have heard of the Crime Junkies podcast hosted by Ashley Flowers. And if you’ve heard of the podcast, you’ve probably heard very mixed reviews about it. Some people really love the format of the podcast and how every detail is reviewed and submitted to the listener to form their own opinion of the case. Others find it disgusting how intimate and horrifying details relating to these gruesome crimes are splayed out to the public to entertain them. Personally, having listened to true crime podcasts myself, I understand both sides of the matter. At least from my perspective, it seems as though the Crime Junkie podcast originally intended to use its platform to help close cold cases and to inform the public on ways to be cautious and avoid finding themselves in these situations. However, in recent years, it seems that mission is long gone, with newer episodes focused on reactions from cohost Brit Prawat and less about listener safety.
No, this isn’t a think piece or a review of the podcast at all, but I think it's necessary information to give you before we dive into the review of Ashley Flower’s debut novel, All Good People Here.
WARNING: This review contains slight spoilers towards the general plot. Please continue with caution.
Set in Wakarusa, Indiana, the novel follows Margot Davies, who was only six years old at the time her neighbor, January Jacobs, was abducted from her home and discovered dead in a ditch. Now, twenty years later, Margot finds herself back in Wakaruse, where January’s killer still walks free. When news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over disappearing under eerily similar circumstances to January, Margot feels it's her duty to find Natalie and solve January’s case.
This is not a bad book, per se. The plot is stimulating, keeping the reader engaged, as long as they aren't familiar with the cases discussed on the podcast. Thrillers and mysteries that revive a main character’s trauma are always interesting. “Can she overcome this? Will she get to the bottom of her own past?” There were parts of the novel that got a bit convoluted, especially in the second half, with one or two twists that I felt were unnecessary. Overall, the novel isn’t horrible, yet nothing stands out either. However, let’s take some things from the podcast into account, and that perspective changes things.
It is no secret to listeners of the podcast that Ashley prefers to highlight the unsolved cases she comes across. She is always advocating for listeners to call Crime Stoppers with any information they may have about the case for the week. The JonBenét Ramsey case is not excluded from the podcast in any way. There have been episodes dedicated to discussing the case, an interview with JonBenét's father, multiple mentions during discussions of other cases, and update episodes when new information goes public. I would venture to say that the JonBenét Ramsey case is most likely our dear author’s favorite cold case, and that is very evident from this novel.
All Good People Here is, in the plainest words possible, JonBenét Ramsey fanfiction. I said it! And I won’t take it back. From the very beginning, I was drawing similarities between the real case and the disappearance of January in the novel: JonBenét is a pageant queen with a jealous mother; January is an award-winning dancer with an equally jealous mother. JonBenét’s brother is seen as an off-putting child; January’s brother, Jace, is described as “creepy”. Though those are some of the smaller details that mirror each other, I could go on and on about all of the details throughout the novel that were obviously pulled from the JonBenét Ramsey case, but I won’t, as to not spoil the whole book; I’m sure you’ve seen enough so far. The novel then touches on the most discussed possible murderers of JonBenét through the January lens. The suspects include the mother, the father, the brother, and the potential outsider, all very similar to their real-life counterparts.
The story is unoriginal, being nearly completely based on a well-known and discussed true crime case, and leaves so much to be desired in the half-ending Flowers delivers. The writing tends to “tell” instead of “show” the reader exactly what needs to be seen, as if the reader won’t be smart enough to piece things together, and overall feels relatively juvenile. The mediocre writing, paired with the familiar details, makes the novel uncompelling.
To me, it felt like Flowers was writing her thoughts on the tragedy to push what she believed happened to the public. Personally, I find it distasteful how similar she made the final plot to the sad and real case of JonBenét. It feels disrespectful to flesh out different theories in a way that truly feels like fan fiction to me. I also don’t like that the publicity for the book refuses to acknowledge just how "inspired" by the JonBenét Ramsey case All Good People Here is. It is important to disclose that and pay respect to the real-life people whose story you're practically rewriting because you didn’t like being left in the dark.
What happened to JonBenét was truly heartbreaking and devastating, but to memorialize the story in this fashion without properly acknowledging the details left a bad taste in my mouth while reading. I’m not sure if I’ll be returning to Ashley Flowers in the future, but for All Good People Here, I have to say SKIP.
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