By Ashley Flowers

Being a ‘Crime Junkie’, I was very excited to read this book. Ashley Flowers is a likeable, smart, podcaster that I’ve been listening to for years. Unfortunately, this book was not for me.

There will be a big spoiler alert below, so don’t continue reading if you don’t want to get nearly the whole gist of this story.

*Spoiler Alert!* This book is basically the story of JonBenet Ramsey but fudged a little to make it slightly different. Yes, there are some side stories, characters, etc. that differ and it’s in a more rural community but it’s egregiously similar. There was a beautiful little girl who was pageant performer at the insistence of her mother (who was living vicariously through her daughter), a quiet, strange brother who everyone thinks did it, the parents that every suspects, the little girl was even killed in the basement and there was a ‘staged’ kidnapping! No ransom notes, but notes written on walls to distract police and point them in another direction. I mean, c’mon! Zero points for creativity!

Was this girl in one of the Final Destination movies?! It just so happened that if she hadn’t been mistaken for her mother and been pushed down the stairs, that a prolific serial killer would’ve murdered her basically the same day and already had his “I murdered this girl” box of goodies in his storage unit. The serial killer was ALREADY stalking her and had collected his ‘trophies’. WHAT?! *Yells at book in disbelief*

If you take away the fact that Flowers lacked originality because of a borrowed storyline, it’s got a lot of twists and turns. However, the story pointed to different people so rapidly, that it to me, (sorry Ashley) the book came off as amateur. This is not to say I hated the book. I didn’t. I read it quickly and I enjoyed myself while reading.

So let’s get to pros and cons:

Pro: Lots of twists and turns, keeps you guessing until the very end. The way it ended, could possibly be what happened in real life. Would make sense to me…

Con: It is not an original or unique story.

Pro: Good character development, draws a good picture. I really liked the mother’s character and the storyline of her life in the years after her daughter’s death.

Con: The pace of the book often leads you to think a character might be guilty and then jerks you into a different direction quickly, sometimes within the same page. It seems like amateur writing. (And yes, I know it’s her first book.)

I want to close that this is strictly my opinion and if you loved the book, that’s great. Please don’t come after me. I really like Ashley Flowers and I will most likely read any other books she released.

Overall rating: 5/10