Indiana Writer Reviewed - Mystery by Ashley Flowers

As I hope to encourage other Indiana writers, here is All Good People Here By Ashley Flowers | Reviewed By Janis Thornton

True crime aficionado and podcaster Ashley Flowers understands that small towns harbor secrets and that most of the people inhabiting those towns hide secrets of their own. Over time, however, tightly held secrets tend to dry up, turn to dust, and scatter to the distant corners of the locals’ diminishing collective memory, thus freeing them to resume their day-to-day, carefree lives. But what happens if one of the townspeople can’t forget? Can’t let go? Stirs up the past? Seeks the truth? 

These are the twists that drive Flowers’ recently released debut novel, All Good People Here. Set in the small town of Wakarusa in the northern area of Flowers’ home state of Indiana, the mystery/crime story unfolds in alternating flashbacks to 1994 and flashforwards to 2019. 

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Throughout the book, scenarios arise offering promising clues, while other situations contain revelations that could be the long-sought resolution. Still, a number of the expectations fall flat, exactly as they often do in real-life criminal investigations.  

In my own effort to document the 1965 unsolved murder of my high school classmate, I lacked a defining ending for the story. The killer’s secrets were likely too deeply buried to ever be uncovered. Such may be the reason for Flowers’ ambiguous conclusion of All Good People Here. Sometimes the truth is knowable to only the victim and the killer, and sometimes they both take the truth to their graves. 

All Good People Here is a page turner and an exciting introduction to Ashley Flowers’ promise as a mystery/crime author.

sch 2/27/23