All Good People Here
Ashley Flowers, 2022
Mystery, thriller & crime Contemporary fiction
A woman returns to her Indiana hometown and the cold case that has shadowed it for decades, in a thriller about small-town secrets and buried grief. Dread gathers slowly through a small-town voice that can turn satirical, with grief pressing under every polite exchange.
Feels like dread, grief and serenity. About society.
Who it’s for
You may like this if you follow true-crime podcasts and want a fictional cold case steeped in small-town gossip and family grief. Be aware that the grief is raw and sometimes violent in thought, as in the quoted passage about wanting another woman's daughter dead.
Why read it
It gives you a cold case shaped by ordinary people's loyalties and resentments, and a reminder that small-town kindness can have an edge.
A page from the book
What grief turns a mother's love into when no one is watching.
Krissy felt something harden inside her—all these women, their daughters alive and well, come to get off on how benevolent and sad Krissy’s story made them feel. She would gladly murder any one of their daughters right now to have hers back for one more day. Ashley Flowers.Ashley Flowers created the true-crime podcast Crime Junkie, one of the most listened-to shows in the genre, before writing this debut novel.
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Questions readers ask
- Is All Good People Here for me?
- You may like this if you follow true-crime podcasts and want a fictional cold case steeped in small-town gossip and family grief. Be aware that the grief is raw and sometimes violent in thought, as in the quoted passage about wanting another woman's daughter dead.
- What is All Good People Here like?
- Dread gathers slowly through a small-town voice that can turn satirical, with grief pressing under every polite exchange. Feels like dread, grief and serenity. About society.
- What should I read after All Good People Here?
- If you liked All Good People Here, try The Teacher (Freida McFadden), Home Is Where the Bodies Are (Jeneva Rose) and All the Dangerous Things (Stacy Willingham).
A taste of the feed
What it feels like to be grateful for your life and wish it over.
I am so lucky. I have a beautiful house, a fulfilling career, and a husband who is kind and mild mannered and incredibly handsome. And as Nate pulls the car onto the road and starts driving in the direction of the school, all I can think to myself is that I hope a truck blows through a stop sign, plows into the Honda, and kills us both instantly.
The Teacher · Freida McFadden
The word you only get to say to one person.
I’m trying to say Mom as many times as I possibly can because I know I’ll never call another person that again. It’s reserved only for her. There is no replacement.
Home Is Where the Bodies Are · Jeneva Rose
What it costs to love someone you knew was only passing through.
I had come to think of him as a library book, entering my life on rented time. Something that I could enjoy for a few hours, curled up and comfortable, devouring as much of him as possible before our time was up. And because he wasn’t mine, I couldn’t scribble in the margins or write my name on the spine; I couldn’t leave my mark on him in any discernable way.
All the Dangerous Things · Stacy Willingham
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