⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Gonna need ya’ to define “good” here.

⏰ 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫: Another girl has disappeared and only reporter Margot Davies sees a connection. 20 years prior, her childhood friend January was taken and murdered. Now – another girl taken, a new haunting message on a wall, clandestine warnings – all pulling Margot deeper into the story. But Margot has problems – she’s losing everything, including her uncle with early dementia and she keeps seeing a strange red-haired woman everywhere, all while Margot is side-eyeing everyone she knows from this small town, including those closest to her.

💡𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬: The title of the book elicits the memory of “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor (Southern gothic yo!) where yup – everyone focuses on the outward appearance of being GOOD, not ACTUALLY being good people (Pfft… who wants that?), which is more important than truth and honesty in this neck of the woods. Flowers embraces this small twisted-town spirit and runs with it in this novel with a Jon Benet Ramsey-ish nod from the 90’s. Dead pageant-loving daughter, parents and brother survive, fingers pointed firmly at all of them at one time. All sketch.

Here’s the skinny – this is a quick read and written with adroit “beach-read” fast pacing and Flowers excels with this first novel – she kept my attention, didn’t irk me with a stupid female protagonist, and provided twists and a few turns which is tough to do to a reviewer who reads ALL the mysteries.

𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗺𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆𝗠𝗮𝗴𝘀.𝗰𝗼𝗺 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

📚𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Mystery/Small-town

😍𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: Great end of summer read… get this last one in.

🙅‍♀️ 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨: Can’t think of a specific group unless you find a Jon-Benet type situation too tough to read.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and Random House – Ballantine for my advanced copy in exchange for my always-honest review and for making this city girl… proud to be a city girl 😆.