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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? What. Is. This. Ending? The point of true crime podcasts is to SOLVE mysteries, not leave them open-ended. What fell short for me was the various characters that seem to come and go and the reader had no idea to where or why. The ending was a tad (really enormously) ridiculous and made the story even more convoluted that added a large question mark as to the mystery's solution. Journalist Margot Davies is tired of reporting meaningless stories. One night, she stumbles upon a clue in the most infamous crime in her hometown’s history: the unsolved murder of six-year-old January. Then the wife figures out what the husband did and he kills her. I really did appreciate the twists in this book! Let’s Discuss the Ending of All Good People Here
I won’t waste time going into the plot, but apparently, writing podcast episodes is very different from writing a novel, because this story never got off the ground. The author did capture the small town atmosphere, but the mystery itself was a replay of the Jon Benet Ramsey case. I had high expectations that someone who works in true crime could come up with something a bit more original and compelling.
Billy then intends to kill Margot when he realizes she knows he killed January. What really happened to January Jacobs in All Good People Here? As for the Natalie Clark case, it was clever of the book to suggest that the killer could be the same person, though I wondered why there would have been a twenty-year gaps in the killer’s crimes (this was explained in the book). 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.
However, I feel like as a host of a true crime podcast, you do write about what you know, right? Then why not mention it? This case took place in the late 80s in the Midwest, and I was not familiar with it, but is a truly horrible and heartbreaking story. Initially when I started this review I was going to give it 2 stars but in good faith I cannot - clearly there were too many things I disliked - I am going to downgrade to a 1.5 rounded down to 1. Sorry, I really wanted to like this one, it was my first NetGalley read for a while and I was pretty pumped - completely let down though. 😪 According to a podcast I just listened to, the medical examiner in the Anthony case testified that 100% of the time, parents who find their kids accidentally injured call 911.
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This is so similar to JonBenet Ramsey's case. Too many similarities and possibly the writer pushing her agenda of what she thinks happened with that one. Billy realizes that Margot suspects him and tells her it was an accident. That Krissy also realized he did it and he had to kill her too. I liked Margot and Krissy and thought all of the characters were believable. While flawed, I could empathize which most of them. The mystery is sound, causing me to change my mind many times as to who the culprit might be. The whole story made me feel sad about all the things that could have been and all the small things that could have gone differently to avoid how it all turned out- I like a book that can leave me with that much emotion at the end.
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