While this book didn't work for me, it won't stop me from recommending it.

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.

I couldn't get through this book. If you're going to touch something as iconic as In Cold Blood, it needs to at least be readable. The pacing was strange, the characters were flat, the writing was just bad.

I had a hard time getting into this book. The writing came across as very childish. Since I did not finish the book, I do not intend to publish a review.

I grew up 15 miles from the Clutter house and was excited for this YA reimagining. I enjoyed how the vernacular was clearly from SW Kansas, but the underdeveloped characters stopped me from loving the story itself. Also, the MC is constantly making very childish choices and is treated like a much younger child than she is. Even though she is meant to be in high school, I couldn't help but picture her as an elementary student rather than a teenager.