Did you read All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers and need to talk about that ending? Looking for a character list or a rundown of who the killer was (and wasn’t?) Welcome to my Spoiler Discussion for All Good People Here which includes answers to all your questions and the ending explained!
Written and edited by Jen Ryland. Last updated on:
Spoiler Discussion for All Good People Here PLUS The ending explained!
First off, did I enjoy this book? YES!
If you want to read my book review, find out more about the entire plot of All Good People Here, or Crime Junkie (Ashley Flowers’ podcast) check out my Spoiler-Free Review of All Good People!
This Spoiler Discussion of All Good People is about going through the timeline, the suspects, and the book’s conclusion. Hashing out the theories we had as we read, and poking holes in them. So let’s do it!
The book has a timeline that spans twenty-five years, with major events happening in 1994, 2009 and 2019. Hope this helps you keep it all straight.
This post includes:
- a LIST OF VICTIMS AND CHARACTERS in All Good People Here.
- MY SUSPECTS in All Good People Here
- WHO ACTUALLY KILLED WHOM In All Good People Here
- Explanation of WHAT HAPPENED TO JANUARY JACOBS?
- Explanation of WHAT HAPPENED TO KRISSY JACOBS?
- Explanation of WHAT WAS THAT ENDING, ANYWAY?
- ANALYSIS OF Other True Crime Cases, like the JonBenét Ramsey case, that might have inspired Ashley, who is a True Crime podcaster, after all!
Character List for All Good People Here:
Margot Davies: a newspaper reporter in her early thirties. Was friends with January Jones, who disappeared in 1994 at age six.
Luke (Dave) Davies: Margot’s uncle. He is his fifties, a widower suffering from early onset dementia. Biological father of January and Jase Jacobs.
Rebecca: Luke’s wife, who died around 2018
Adam and Bethany (Margot’s parents; not in the book but mentioned)
Adrienne: Margot’s boss (mentioned)
Wakarusa, Indiana Police in the present:
Pete Finch: old friend of Margot’s now a police officer
Detective Lacks: in charge of the Natalie Clark case
The Jacobs family:
Krissy Jacobs: mother of twins January and Jace; she was thought to have died by suicide in 2009
Billy Jacobs: married to Krissy; learned he was not the biological father of the twins from Dave/Luke on the night January died in 1994
January Jacobs: six year-old daughter of Krissy and Billy; participant in large state-wide dance competitions
Jace Jacobs: ran away from home after January’s death; reconnected with his mother
Jodie Palmer: in a relationship with Krissy after January’s death.
Indiana Locals:
Linda: works at Shorty’s, the local bar
Eli Blum: DVD store employee and former friend of Jase
Elliott Wallace: Childless and was known to attend children’s dance competitions. Jase thought he might have killed January.
Annabelle Wallace: Elliott’s sister
Police from the January Jacobs case:
Robby O’Neil (local)
Barker (local)
Max Townsend (state)
Rhonda Lacks (state)
Patricia Jones (state)
Victims in All Good People Here:
Natalie Clark, abducted from a playground in the book’s present (2019)
Polly Limon: disappeared from a shopping center parking lot in Ohio in 2016
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.
Who were your main suspects in All Good People Here?
When you think about it, there really weren’t that many suspects in January’s murder. Mostly just Krissy, Billy and Luke. My main suspect was Luke. The dementia seemed like a plot device to me.
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).
I wondered about Pete (sorry, Pete!) as it’s a typical plotline in thrillers to have the main character’s old friend she’d flirting with be a killer, but Pete was just a child when January died and seemed to have no motive.
Who were the killers in All Good People Here?
A man named Elliot Wallace killed Polly and Natalie, along with a number of other young girls. He was finally caught by a tip sent to the police by Margot.
Elliott’s sister Annabelle told Margot that Elliott had a storage unit that she was paying for. Margot and Jodie broke into the storage unit and found trophies Elliott was keeping from Natalie, Polly, and ten other girls. There was a box for January, but strangely, it only had a few of her dance recital programs, and no personal items.
That’s because…
Billy killed January. Longer explanation below, but he’d accidentally injured her, thinking she was Krissy. When she started yelling “Daddy, why did you hurt me,” he killed her to keep her quiet.
Jase found January’s body. Krissy found Jace standing over his sister’s body and thought he killed January, so she staged the scene and moved the body.
Billy also killed Krissy after she realized he was responsible for January’s death.
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?
Her father Billy came home in a rage late one night after finding out from his longtime friend, Dave (the high school nickname of Margot’s Uncle Luke), that Dave/Luke was actually the father of the twins.
Billy heard a person he thought was his wife Krissy coming up the basement stairs and, furious with her, swung the door to the basement into her, sending her flying down the stairs.
But the person Billy hit wasn’t Krissy, it was January. Thankfully, January was alive, but she accused her father of hurting her and started to cry. Panicked, he slammed her head against the cement floor and, when he realized she was dead, put her baby blanket in her hand and then snuck back into his own bed.
Jace then woke up and found his sister’s body at the bottom of the stairs. He went down to check on her and touched her, getting blood on his pajamas.
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.
In 2009, Jace, who has left home, starts corresponding with his mom as part of a recovery program. Krissy apologizes to Jace for covering up his murder of January, and he writes back and says “uhhh, I didn’t do it.”
Krissy then decides to tell Dave that he is the twins’ father. After that meeting, she writes Jase a letter saying, “I learned something about your father. He isn’t who you think he is.”
That very day, Krissy ends up dead, presumed by suicide.
Who killed Krissy Davies in All Good People Here?
The police think Krissy died by suicide based on the note she left (which was actually part of a letter to Jase.)
Jodie thinks Dave/Luke did it, because Krissy died right after telling him he was the father of the twins.
Billy admits to Margot that he killed Krissy after he THINKS she has figured out he’s the one who killed January.
To me, this was a little confusing. Billy found out he wasn’t the twins’ father back in 1994, from Dave/Luke. That was the conversation that led to January’s death. But it seems like Krissy didn’t know that.
Why didn’t Dave/Luke ever tell Krissy that he knew he was the twins’ father?
I understand him not saying anything in all the chaos of January’s death, but fifteen years later, when Krissy decides to come clean, he already knows.
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?
I think yes. I think what happened is that in 2009, Krissy told Dave the truth, he said yeah, “I already know. And back in 1994, on the night of January’s murder, I told Billy that I was the twins’ father and he was MAD.” Leading Krissy to realize that Billy must have killed January.
Who wrote “She Will Not Be the Last” on the Jacobs barn and who was writing the notes to Margot?
Krissy’s secret lover Jodie wrote all the warning notes and messages. In 2009, after Krissy confided in Jodie that she had been the one to stage January’s death as a murder, Krissy says she’s going to tell Dave the truth.
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.
Why does Jodie keep quiet about this? Maybe to keep her relationship with Krissy a secret.
And does Jodie think Dave is responsible for all the murders? (January, Krissy, and the other girls?)
What was the deal with Dave/Luke?
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.
On the night of January’s murder, Dave told Billy that he was the twins’ father, sending Billy into the rage that would lead to January’s death.
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.)
Read the comments, as Cat has an interesting theory about this!
The Ending of All Good People Here, Explained
After discovering the evidence in Elliott Wallace’s storage unit, Margot goes to tell Billy that she’s solved January’s case.
While in Billy’s house, Margot sees a photo of January holding her baby blanket, the one Jace said she was clutching when he found her at the bottom the stairs.
Margot thinks that there is no way January could have been holding onto the blanket during all the events that led to her death. She is certain someone had to have planted the blanket BEFORE Jace found January (and before Krissy staged the scene.) If Jace is telling the truth, that person had to be Billy.
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.
Billy drags poor Margot down the basement stairs and … that’s it. Margot resolves to get away, but we don’t know what happens next.
Spoiler Discussion for All Good People Here
Here are my major questions about All Good People Here:
Did the explanation for January’s death make sense?
What was the deal with the whole Dave/Luke situation?
What was with that ending!? I know a LOT of you are mad about it, so let’s discuss?
Could January’s case have been inspired by the JonBenét Ramsey case?
Did you think the explanation for January’s death make sense?
While I really appreciated all the twists in the January case and the number of suspects (Dave/Luke, Jace, Krissy, Billy, Elliott) I didn’t find the resolution 100% plausible. By a weird coincidence, I was listening to a podcast on the Casey Anthony case right before I read this, and something stuck with me.
Long story short, Casey’s lawyer’s explanation for Caylee’s death was that it was an accidental drowning that had been staged as a kidnapping/murder so Casey wouldn’t be blamed.
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.
I am never a fan of a plot with an elaborate cover-up for an accident, something that happens in many books. Tragic accidents happen and unless it’s something like a DUI, people rarely get thrown in prison for them.
Furthermore, January get knocked down the stairs by the door, and did not know why she fell or who was responsible. When her father came to check on her, why did she immediately start yelling that he hurt her? Why would her first thought be that her father meant to hurt her, rather than came to help her? that was a bit strange to me.
Thanks to Cat for her theory on this! Check the comments!
What is the deal with Dave (or is it Luke)…
Having known a family friend who suffered from early onset dementia, I was completely empathetic to Dave/Luke and his heartbreaking situation. Not only the dementia, but the fact that he learned he had biological children he wanted and can’t acknowledge. That’s rough.
And yet, I have to evaluate the dementia as the plot device that it is. Amnesia and memory loss in books is not my favorite trope. Luke reminded me a little of a character in The Survivors.
I understand the plot-related reasons to keep Luke’s mind muddled. 1) He can’t tell Margot that he was actually January and Jace’s father OR that he told Billy this on the day January died. 2) He can’t tell anyone what he and Krissy discussed the day she died. 3) He can remain a suspect in Krissy’s murder.
But here’s the thing. After dropping his little 2009 truth bomb on Billy, and then learning that January was dead, Dave/Luke must have wondered if the two things were connected!
Coincidences are always side-eyed in the true crime community.
Why didn’t Dave/Luke say anything to Krissy or the police back in 1994 or in all the years since?
Dave/Luke had another opportunity to be like “hey, wtf” when Krissy died in 2009 on the very day Dave/Luke and Krissy spoke about the twins’ parentage. AGAIN Dave/Luke didn’t say anything to the police. Dave/Luke, what is up with that? According to Margot, his dementia is recent, so he can’t blame that.
Dave/Luke, we know that Billy HATED you and I suspect he wasn’t your favorite person either. Why did you protect him? What is going on?
Is Billy believable as the killer in All Good People Here?
Above, I argued that there was no logical reason for Billy to kill his daughter. Is he just a psychopath who cold-bloodedly kills two (or three) people over something that clearly could have been interpreted as an accident? I think January’s fall down the stairs would have been seen as a tragic accident, due to sleepwalking or slippery stairs. (Shades of The Staircase!)
But back to Billy. Anytime Billy thinks someone MIGHT knows his secret, he murders them? I don’t believe there was any way for Margot to prove her baby blanket theory. And Billy has someone to blame for January’s death: Elliot Wallace.
He made January’s death look like an accident and Krissy’s like a suicide. What do you think is his plan to keep Margot quiet?
Is the January Jacobs murder inspired by any true crime cases?
Similarities between January’s murder and the JonBenét Ramsey case
I have read more than a few reviews of the book that make the point that All Good People Here might be inspired by this very well-known case.
I am not super familiar with the JonBenét Ramsey case, but there seem to be some superficial similarities:
Each of the girls had a brother.
Both girls got lots of attention for participating in beauty pageants/dance recitals wearing makeup.
January and JBR were initially thought to have been abducted from their homes during the night.
Each case included written threats. In the JBR case, a rambling ransom letter was found. January’s kitchen was painted with threatening graffiti.
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.
But there are differences as well:
January and Jace are six year-old twins. JBR was also six but her brother was nine.
The Jacobs are working class, while the Ramseys were extremely wealthy.
What I thought was interesting was that the family member vs outside intruder debate in the (still unsolved) JBR case were similar to plot elements in the book.
All Good People Here has plot elements similar to a completely spectulative and unproven theory about the JBR case, that one or both of JBR’s parents staged the scene to cover up the fact that someone in the family was involved in what happened to JonBenét.
There is a bedwetting theory that blames JBR’s parents.
There is also a theory about a heated sibling dispute possibly involving a flashlight and some pineapple.
Again, these are SPECULATIVE, UNSUBSTANTIATED theories about the case and no family member was ever charged.
The other theory blames an outside intruder.
So far, no theory has been definitively proven. This spring, some media outlets raised the possibility of doing enhanced DNA testing in the hopes of finally solving the case, but I haven’t seen any results of that or know if it ever happened.
Similarities between January’s murder and the April Tinsley case
Thanks to Kat (in comments) for pointing out another possible True Crime inspiration: April Tinsley.
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.
Eight year-old April was out playing with a friend and decided to home and get her umbrella. Then she vanished.
April’s body was found a few days later. The case went cold. Then, two years later in 1990, someone wrote a creepy message on the side of a barn confessing to April’s murder.
Yes, this aspect feels very similar to January’s case. This same person continued to write disturbing, threatening notes to young girls for almost fifteen years, until he was caught using forensic genealogy.
Can you think of other true crime cases that Ashley references in the book? Tell me in comments!
Is the staged crime scene plausible? I say yes!
If you are familiar with the most debated true crime cases, a staged crime scene by a parent to cover up the death a child isn’t that out-there.
As mentioned above, Casey Anthony‘s lawyer suggested that her father staged a fake crime after her daughter’s accidental drowning.
But Marcia Clark thinks otherwise!
Darlie Routier insists she was wrongly convicted of her children’s murders and denies the theory that she staged a fake crime scene (and gravely injured herself) to cover up her alleged involvement.
But then, as discussed above, All Good People Here puts a pretty different spin on things.
In the book, January’s father Billy, in a fit of rage over discovering that he’s not the biological father of January or her brother, means to harm his wife, but injures his daughter instead.
Then kills his daughter to keep her quiet.
Then his wife stages a crime scene to protect her son. Layer on layer of deceit!
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
What. Is. This. Ending? The point of true crime podcasts is to SOLVE mysteries, not leave them open-ended.
I object, Ashley Flowers! Please explain!
Is poor Margot dead? We have to assume that Margot finds a way to get away.
Reasons Why Margot is NOT a Crime Junkie
People who listen to true crime podcasts know that in a small town it’s easy to think that there are “All Good People Here.”
Never assume you’re safe in a small town. Fewer CCTV cameras, fewer cell towers, lots of secrets. In books at least. (Crime Junkie Rule #4: You Never Really Know Anyone.)
Always tell someone where you’re going, especially if you’re going to meet up with ANYONE who could be a suspect in a murder case. Like the father of one victim and the husband of another. Margot!
If you don’t want to tell someone, KEEP NOTES and make sure there is at least one trusted person who knows your computer and phone passwords. Margot was a reporter, so hopefully she did that. (This is Crime Junkie Rule #2: Make an “If I Go Missing” File.)
I don’t know about you, but I am counting on that badass Jodie Palmer to swoop in and save Margot.
I hope you will join the Spoiler Discussion for All Good People Here! Talk to me in comments! What did you think of the book, the ending, all of it? Do you listen to podcasts? Let’s discuss this! You can also read my review of All Good People Here!
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Super grateful for this breakdown. Helped with a lot of my questions and I had many of the same confusions.
Avon, I am so glad. I hope that if you are a thriller and mystery reader you will subscribe to my weekly email OR my monthly thriller newsletter. Or both! I’m working on a post of fiction based on true crime cases, and hope to have it up soon!
Let me start off by saying that for the most part, I really enjoyed this read. I think Ashley did a great job keeping the reader engaged (in my case anyways). I also really enjoyed how the plot unraveled by switching between story lines.
That being said, I couldn’t agree more with you and your thoughts on this book! I do not understand why Luke/Dave wouldn’t have said something about Billy. Did he? Did I miss the explanation somewhere?? – is all I could think after finishing… I would love to hear Ashely’s thoughts on this.
Also, I did not enjoy the ending. Am I to assume Margot got away?? That Billy killed yet another person?? I don’t like it. For some reason, I wanted finality with Margot. Just as she seemingly was finally going to start taking care of her Uncle (like she should have been the whole time) she might be killed??
Also, I totally though about JBR as inspiration right away!
You may not have read my spoiler-free review of All Good People Here (totally fine) but I also really enjoyed this. It had an engaging plot with a lot of great reveals and I thought the past/present story line was done really well.
And yes, please Ashley, let us know that Margot is okay!
Way late (just finished the book for the second time) but I think there are plausible reasons for Luke not to bring up the conversation with Billy; he and his wife are dealing with infertility, which can be incredibly stressful, and he’s keeping the secret if the twins from Rebecca too, presumably. Also he might be concerned that he’d be suspected of January’s murder, since he just found out he’s their father.
Loved the book but was disappointed with the end.
I feel the same way. I enjoyed the book but leaving poor Margot hanging like that? No!
I really liked this book.
ashely flowers did a great job with her first book, and we better get a sequel!
I too connected JBR with little January as well.
I also feel with the ending, it was a tad bit like Verity by Colleen Hoover. I felt we get to decide in our minds if Margot lives or dies. With Verity, it’s the same. People are either team manuscript or letter. So I personally found those interesting.
I loved your breakdown and am so thankful I found this site.
Thanks, Britt. (I love that your name is Britt!) I liked the book too! And I have a Spoiler Discussion for Verity too – that was quite a book. Hope you’ll come back and discuss more books!
Overall I thought it was entertaining and I think Ashley is a good story teller, but there were some pretty glaring contrivances. Margo just happens to find the place Jace works in all of Chicago, because she remembers he likes art? Characters just tell her things when it seems like it would be in their best interest not to talk to her? And then of course Luke/Dave not saying anything about the heated conversation he had with Billy the night January died. And I’m pretty sure there would admissibility issues for evidence that was discovered as part of a break in. If they’re wasn’t enough evidence for a warrant before, I don’t think an anonymous tip is going to cut it.
Agree that it was a fun read!
I didn’t mention the finding Jace in Chicago thing but I was also like, “hmmmm that was really unlikely.”
As for the break-in, I forgot that Margot talked to Pete at length about the warrant and he told her there wasn’t enough evidence. And you’re right, they can’t exactly admit breaking into the unit and finding the evidence. She also calls the storage facility and says her name is Margot Wallace right before she uses bolt cutters to break in.
Okay, what if they broke into the storage unit, put the incriminating evidence right by the door of the unit and then called the police and reported the break-in. The police would then come and find the evidence.
This is the second review of yours that I’ve read, the first being The Retreat by Sarah Pearce. Thank goodness for you, it really helps to clear up all the questions I have at the books’ end.
consider me subscribed!
lol the Retreat! Still no answers about who was following Elin! I really appreciate the kind words and happy to have you here!
I couldn’t agree with you more, I was counting on Jodi or Luke in a moment of lucidity to come in and save Margot. Definitely did not care for that ending.
You brought up a good point, why did January feel like her dad was trying to hurt her? I’m glad I came across your site 🙂
Aw, poor Luke. If only he’d said something earlier! And glad to have you here!
Thanks for your article! It def explained a few questions I had. Overall, enjoyed the book, twists and turns, etc. However, I thought, in my opinion, it tried too hard to fit Ashley’s “woke” narrative that her podcast has undertones of. I love crime junkie podcast, but can easily pick up on her “cliche wokeness” that is subtly injected. For example, the small town police that don’t know how to do a good job, the close minded small town people that don’t know any better….
The girl on girl relationship for Krissy who longed to live in a big city, yet can’t tell anyone in this small town. It was all very expected in my opinion, not a big shock like she wanted it to be. All of these things are fine, I just feel like it was expected, because these are the topics she pushes in her podcast. I guessed a few things too, such as Jodi being the woman following her, and that Luke was probably the father of twins. There were only so many characters and Ashley said it would leave you guessing until the very end… well that gave it away for me that there would be a twist after it was so-called solved. Just wanted to share above thoughts. Maybe I’m the only one who noticed those things, but it took away from a book I expected to have much bigger twist and turns. It was predictable book taking place in a small town. One more thing… also had a lot of Sharp Objects (HBO) parallels. Such as, reporter going home to solve a small town murder. Def JBR parallels also. Wish it was more original. End of rant!
Thanks so much for your comment! My thoughts:
I don’t live in a small town but I always see it as that the people are trusting and that the police are well-meaning but just don’t have as much experience with homicide cases.
I definitely mentioned in my regular review (I do that separately so it is spoiler free) that the reporter going back to the small town is a big trope and you’re right, I hadn’t thought of it, but Sharp Objects made it much more popular.
What I thought was interesting (and the book definitely meant to do this because it’s what got Margot fired) was that she wasn’t really that interested in the new cases, just the January one. Or that she had tunnel vision that the cases were connected when in fact they weren’t. I also thought it was interesting that Margot was so young when January died. Her memories of January were so vague and distant. Usually in this trope the crime happened when the reporter was a teenager and they remember more. I also wonder why Jace never said anything to his mother about how his sister died before he left home, but it’s possible that he was traumatized or that Krissy shut the conversations down.
I didn’t expect the Luke being the twins’ father twist at all. I suspected his dementia had some plot purpose, but not that!
It’s hard to write a mystery with no plotholes, and overall I did enjoy this and it did keep me guessing!
I’m not sure how the small town things would be considered ‘woke’, and there are definitely still places in this country (and especially in 2009) where two soccer mom types having a sexual relationship would be an issue. I graduated from high school in 1994, so just a little younger than Krissy and Billy, and no one in my small Iowa town was out and proud. It would have been worse for someone in an established family, especially when the town was already suspicious of her.
That is a good point – a lot has changed in LBGTQ acceptance over the past 15 years. Plus, this was a secret affair, which would have added to the shock factor.
I was reading so many reviews to see if anyone thought it had similarities to Sharp Objects too. The obvious small town journalist returning home in the wake of a missing girl, but what made it more similar was the self harm. She talked about digging her nails into her palms till she bled and running her fingers over the tiny scars.
I did enjoy the book but I don’t like unresolved endings.
The comparison to Sharp Objects didn’t occur to me, as there have been so many small town journalist returning home to investigate the case of a missing friend. And I didn’t notice the mention of the scars on her hands – thanks for pointing that out!
First off, I had the same questions thoughts as most of you; all of the answers are peeled back so that we get to see what happened in a play-by-play, but when it comes to the main character, Margot, it’s like, “And you’ll just have to guess at what happened to her…” What? Not a fan of that. Because of all the rest, it seemed so gimmicky.
And along with the questions about Dave/Luke not telling anyone, I found it just SOOO convenient that his nickname kept him from being revealed as the friend. When did he suddenly start going by Luke instead of Dave? And if the town noticed everything and gossiped about everything, would they not have suspected Dave/Luke could’ve been the dad?
But the biggest thing that bothered me was the implausibility of the whole murder and how it supposedly went down. I mean, first of all, how long was this night?! And what are the chances that none of them woke up when the any of the others were awake? I mean, I guess Krissy had taken a sleeping pill, but the sound of the etch a sketch woke her up but not the slamming of the door and the sound of her daughter falling down the stairs? And after Krissy finds Jase standing over January, she supposedly has enough time to get Jase back to bed (without asking him what happened, for some reason), get rid of the body, and spray paint the wall (again, why?), and get back to bed, all before 5am? And of course all of this was AFTER Billy had come home from hanging out with Dave/Luke for who knows how long, killed his daughter, cleaned up, and gone to bed himself. And remember, Billy didn’t even call Dave/Luke until almost midnight. So all of this happened in 5 hours?! Yeah, I’m not buying it.
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.
All this aside, the storyline was captivating enough that it kept me going. Ashley always has been a good storyteller. I just didn’t buy the story in the end. To me, it was a lot more believable that the Wallace guy had done it. Having Billy be the killer seemed like it was just a tactic to catch the reader off-guard– a gotcha moment. I would rather have had Wallace be January’s killer and Billy be Krissy’s. Really, I would have believed almost any motive for Billy to kill Krissy– he found out he wasn’t the father of Jase and January, he believed her to be January’s killer all those years and then just snapped, he found out that she was having an affair with a woman–except for the one that was given.
Ultimately, I found myself disappointed at the end of this book. 🙁
Also, this is a nitpicky thing, but if the book said, “he hitched a shoulder” one more time, I thought I might scream! lol
Hi Vanae and welcome!
You make such a good point about the timeline. In true crime it is ALL about establishing the timeline. I did think about the implausibility of each one of them waking up one by one like that and ending up in the basement. First January, then her dad knocks her down the stairs, then kills her. Then Jace. Then Krissy, who – you’re right, has to get her son back to bed and then stage the scene and move the body. It’s a lot to go down in one night.
I also thought it was convenient that no one ever talked to anyone about anything (I know there are families that are like that, though.) Jace never talked to his parents about the night his sister died, Billy never talked to Krissy about her staging the scene or not telling him he wasn’t the twins father, Dave/Luke never talked to anyone about anything: Krissy about being the father of the twins, ANYONE about January’s murder happening on a night Billy was furious with Krissy, Krissy’s death. Though Krissy at least told Jodie a bunch of stuff!
Even so, I thought the solution was clever – layer on layer of coverups. And Wallace and his stuff was just to distract us and wasn’t really a big part of the story.
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Or how about the fact that Billy had Krissy’s pajamas that had the spray paint on them and didn’t turn them over. Why would he keep those secret and not try to fully implicate Krissy who he meant to kill instead of his daughter. Why wouldn’t he try to put her in jail for this?
That is a great point. Maybe he was afraid of what Jace might have heard/seen and decided it was better to have January found outside the house.
Oh my gosh, Vanae – your comments are on point! You voiced all of my thoughts but when you mentioned the “hitched a shoulder” thing, I laughed out loud! That was driving me crazy throughout – that phrase is even on two facing pages!
I enjoyed it enough to want to know how things turned out, so I stuck with it to the end – and then there wasn’t an end. It didn’t have to be tied up with a pretty bow, but it was like she just got bored of writing, and abruptly ended the book. Im not a fan of that either. Also, there are over 2.5 million people in Chicago and probably dozens of “Sip and Paint” places – and she sees a picture of Jace working at one? She also easily finds a recital photo with Elliott and Luke identifiable in the audience? Just silly.
I did not notice the shoulder thing but the ending was a very odd choice!