No Saints in Kansas

No Saints in Kansas

By Amy Brashear

SoHo Press

SoHo Teen

Published date:  Nov. 14, 2017

I received a copy of No Saints in Kansas from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Description from NetGalley.

A gripping reimagining of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and the brutal murders that inspired it

November is usually quiet in Holcomb, Kansas, but in 1959, the town is shattered by the quadruple murder of the Clutter family. Suspicion falls on Nancy Clutter’s boyfriend, Bobby Rupp, the last one to see them alive.

New Yorker Carly Fleming, new to the small Midwestern town, is an outsider. She tutored Nancy, and (in private, at least) they were close. Carly and Bobby were the only ones who saw that Nancy was always performing, and that she was cracking under the pressure of being Holcomb’s golden girl. The secret connected Carly and Bobby. Now that Bobby is an outsider, too, they’re bound closer than ever.

Determined to clear Bobby’s name, Carly dives into the murder investigation and ends up in trouble with the local authorities. But that’s nothing compared to the wrath she faces from Holcomb once the real perpetrators are caught. When her father is appointed to defend the killers of the Clutter family, the entire town labels the Flemings as traitors. Now Carly must fight for what she knows is right.

Review: I have to say, as soon as I read the description of this book on NetGalley, I knew I had to read this book.  When I started the book, I wasn’t sure if Amy Brashear was a genius or a fool.  I mean, attempting to go beyond Capote in telling the Clutter’s story seemed wrong.

The story starts with the murders, but after that, it goes off in a different direction.  A new character, Carly, is introduced into the story we all know so well.  Carley, a “friend” of Nancy’s that becomes obsessed with the murders and finding the killers.  She knows Bobby is innocent and sets out to prove it.  The book reads like a Nancy Drew version of the murder investigation.  Carley is Nancy Drew.  She goes places most girls of that time would never dream of going.  She questions the investigators, KBI detectives, and anyone else that will talk about the terrible events of November 15, 1959.

Brashear stays true to several of the real people involved in the story.  Truman Capote and Harper Lee are exactly how sources from the time described their attitudes, actions, and how the town’s people reacted to their presence.  There are no changes in the murders, Dick, Perry or the outcome of the story.  The book is true to those facts. These aspects of the book were well researched. I think the accuracy in these facts gives the fiction parts of the story a foundation and makes it more believable.  

I like the way the descriptions of the murders were handled.  There were no long, gory, descriptions of the murder scene and the Clutters bodies.  Everything was handled with respect and not glorified. I hold Brashers in high esteem for not taking liberties with these details to make the book more exciting.

The only down side I have with this book is sometimes Carly found the answers too easily: reports left desks, loud conversations with office doors open, free speaking KBI men, detectives, and law enforcement.  

No Saints in Kansas is definitely a book that I will recommend to anyone that wants a good historical fiction read.  This book will appeal to older readers as well as young adult readers. The Older generation of readers will compare it to In Cold Blood and enjoy the new perspective. The younger generation of readers will want to read In Cold Blood after finishing this book.

Now to answer the question I posed at the beginning of this review.  I think Amy Brashear was a brave genius to tackle this story.  I love the new spin she puts to these events.  No Saints in Kansas is her debut novel.  I can’t wait for her next work, The Incredible True Story Of The Making Of Eve Of Destruction, coming Fall 2018.