The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Flowers, Ashley. All Good People Here. Bantam Books. 2022. Kindle.

A third-person past narrator tells the story of the novel. The narration switches back and forth between chapters with a focalization on either Krissy in 1994 or Margot in 2019. The epilogue presents Billy’s perspective in 1994. In the summer of 1994, six-year-old January Jacobs was reported missing from her house in Wakarusa, Indiana, and graffiti was left on her living room wall. Her parents, Krissy and Billy, called the police when they got out of bed. Krissy kept a close eye on January’s twin brother, Jace, all through the day. When the police arrived, they were exceptionally curious about all the provocative dance costumes that January had been photographed in. Krissy suggested that a man had possibly spotted January at one of her competitions and had attacked her. The police found this idea suspicious and started to believe that she was hiding something. Unbeknownst to them, she had actually discovered January’s body in the basement in the early hours of the morning. Jace, who had always been a troubled and violent child, was standing over her. Krissy believed that Jace had killed January by pushing her down the stairs, so she drove January’s body to a ditch and then spray-painted a creepy message on the wall to throw police off. In the morning, she pretended not to know anything, but the police could sense she was being dishonest. When the police finally took them to a hotel for the night, Billy grabbed Krissy’s arm hard and asked her why he had found her robe, covered in paint, in the laundry hamper. Billy convinced Krissy to do an interview on Headline in order to prove their innocence. However, the interview went badly and the whole nation became convinced that Krissy had killed January.

In 2019, January’s best friend from childhood, Margot, returned to Wakarusa. Margot had lived right across the street from January, and she had been traumatized by the murder. She moved away at 11 and had never returned for more than a day. As an adult, she worked as an investigative reporter for a small newspaper. However, when her beloved Uncle Luke lost his wife and then began to succumb to early-onset-dementia, Margot asked her boss if she could work remotely, left her apartment, and returned to Wakarusa. The next morning, Margot learned that a five-year-old girl named Natalie Clark had been kidnapped in Nappanee, a nearby town. Margot’s boss called her and asked her to cover the story. Margot agreed and said she wanted to connect the case to January’s case, but her boss told her not to get carried away like she did with the Polly Limon case. Margot felt ashamed of trying to tie the two murders together back when she was an amateur, but she could not get rid of the feeling that January was somehow tied to Natalie. She wrote an article about it and submitted it, but her boss called the next morning. She saw that someone had vandalized the Jacobs’ barn with graffiti that said: “She will not be the last” (73). Margot became more convinced than ever that the cases were connected, so she decided to give herself two weeks to investigate the case and win back her old job or she was going to get a new job to help her poor uncle pay the bills. Margot interviewed the townsfolk and talked to Billy. Krissy had committed suicide a decade prior, and Jace had left home at 17 and had never returned. Billy was open and kind to Margot. He said that Krissy had been a great mother and Jace had been a great kid. When Margot got outside, she found a note warning her that she was not safe in town. Margot went to the police station and talked to Officer Pete, who told her that Jace’s pajamas had been found with blood on them.

Margot found Jace in Chicago and interviewed him. He told her that he had believed his mother hated him after January was murdered, so he had left home. When he reached out to his mother as an adult, he realized she had staged the scene because she believed he had killed January. Jace had told her the truth—he had not killed January. Just days later, Krissy had killed herself. Before Margot left, she asked Jace who he thought had killed January. He said he did not know, but jokingly suggested her imaginary friend, Elephant Wallace. Margot realized that the name sounded very similar to “Elliott Wallace,” who had been a suspect in the Polly Limon class. She listened to her old interview with Elliott and realized that he had shut down the interview when she brought up January Jacobs. Convinced that Elliott had killed January and also Natalie, Margot went back home to take care of Luke, who was in even worse shape. She found a picture online of Elliott Wallace at one of January’s recitals online. To her horror, she also discovered Uncle Luke in the picture. She went into his office and discovered a secret collection of January’s dance competition pamphlets.

Back in 1994, Krissy spent years in a deep depression until falling in love with her friend, Jodie. When Krissy learned that Jace was innocent, Krissy told Jodie everything—including the fact that Billy was not the real father of the twins. Her friend Luke Davies was. Krissy decided to tell Luke that he was the father, though Jodie warned her against doing so. Krissy met with Luke and learned that he had known he was the father all along, and he had told Billy the truth on the night January was murdered. Krissy realized that this meant Billy had likely killed January. She tried to tell Jace, but Billy found out that she knew and killed her, then staged the scene as a suicide.

In 2019, Jodie tracked down Margot and told her the truth. Together, they went to Elliott Wallace’s secret storage shed and discovered 14 boxes containing photographs and possessions of young girls—seven of whom, including January, had been murdered. Margot called the police and told them about the shed, then wrote a breaking story that won her old job back. She delivered a copy of the story to Billy, but as they were speaking she realized that he was January’s killer. He realized she knew, and he dragged her to the basement.

In the epilogue, Billy’s perspective from the night January was murdered is given. He had been so blindsided and hurt by Luke’s confession that when he got home and heard Krissy in the basement, he had decided to hide behind the kitchen door and slam it shut in her face to scare her. However, he ended up pulling the stunt on January, who he adored. He ran to the basement to help her, and she was miraculously alive. However, she had accused him of hurting her, and she had looked so much like Luke as she did so, that he bashed her head against the cement floor. Then, he had left her there and returned to his bed so he could pretend to be surprised in the morning.