Save yourself some reading eye strain, go pop a big bag of corn and watch one of the eleventy trillion specials that have already been made about the JonBenet case. I don’t think the cases were similar to January’s case at all - but maybe that was the point I don’t know.

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. And back in 1994, on the night of January’s murder, I told Billy that I was the twins’ father and he was MAD. As Margot digs deeper, she begins to suspect that there is something truly sinister lurking in the small community: a secret that endangers the lives of everyone involved…including Margot. And where I could forgive all of that and still say this was a halfway decent first book attempt, what I can't get past is the non-ending. Thank you to Harper Collins UK, NetGalley and the author for an advanced copy for my honest opinion.True crime and podcast elements, tight knitted- conservative- nosy small town theme and two girls’ brutal murder investigations collide the past tragedies into present kind of intriguing plot line: were the strengths of this story!

Ashley is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of audiochuck, the award-winning, independent media and podcast production company known for its standout content and storytelling across different genres, including true crime, fiction, comedy, and more. 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. It tells the story of a journalist who uncovers her hometown’s dark secrets when she becomes obsessed with the unsolved murder of her childhood neighbor—and the disappearance of another girl twenty years later.She is closer to the story than ever and she is determined to find out what really happened to January no matter the cost. My biggest issue is they took the facts of the JonBenet Ramsey case and the theories surrounding it and even modeled the family members off of that family and they created their own story. I did like the alternative POVs from Krissy (January’s mum - back from when January was killed) and Margot (in the present day).

Both girls got lots of attention for participating in beauty pageants/dance recitals wearing makeup. the writing is repetitive and boring, the tropes are overused, the reveals are predictable, and the non-ending is the biggest offender of them all.The book has a timeline that spans twenty-five years, with major events happening in 1994, 2009 and 2019. 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 😆. I felt like something was left off, I actually turned back in my kindle to see if I accidentally skipped some pages, but no. This was a solid whodunnit thriller about the murder of a little girl named January, with clear inspiration drawn from the JonBenet Ramsey case. There is lots of TELLING to fill you in on the background of the January Jacobs case and plenty of interviews in the present day, similar to how a podcast unfolds.