The Missing Half

Ashley Flowers (born 1989) is an American author and podcaster. She is the creator and host of Crime Junkie, a true crime podcast that started in December of 2017. With her co-host, Brit Prawat, Flowers covers different murders, serial killers, and missing persons cases, uploading new episodes weekly. In 2022, Flowers published her debut novel, All Good People Here, which became a New York Times bestseller. She currently lives in Indiana with her husband and daughter.

Flowers’s experience as a true crime podcaster is reflected in the in-depth discussion and analysis of the crimes that occur in her novel. In The Missing Half, she discusses the police procedural side of the two kidnapped girls, as Nic and Jenna navigate both the failings and the “red tape” that comes with the detectives on the case. Similarly, in All Good People Here, Margot Davies returns to her hometown Wakarusa to report on a missing girl whose circumstances match that of a case from 25 years ago, when a young girl was found dead. In both novels, Flowers delves into the media surrounding the cases, the police, and the impact that it had on these small towns, just as Flowers does as she discusses cold cases on her podcast.

Even though Flowers is part of the media herself, she works to give voice to the victims of these crimes and their families while discussing nuances in the ideas of good and evil. As Flowers researches each of the crimes for her podcast, she is often seen “working 80 hours a week, sometimes arriving at the office at 4:30 a.m.” as she “navigates the pitfalls of engaging with a subject that, even if huge amounts of money weren’t sloshing around, would be morally fraught” (Langmuir, Molly. “The Queen of True Crime.” Elle, 11 Aug. 2022.). Despite the negative perception of media capitalizing on victims and their families in the true crime world, Flowers works to reinvigorate the conversation surrounding old crimes, giving voice to the victims and their families. This same nuance is reflected in her two novels, as she centers them not only on the crimes themselves—but also on the trauma and grief of the survivors, the effects on small-town America, and even the moral ambiguity of the perpetrators themselves.

Flowers joins other contemporary authors who have found success in the genre of psychological thrillers by examining the impact of major crimes like murder and abduction on everyday life. For example, Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects (2006) tells the story of Camille, a woman who returns to her hometown in Missouri to report on the disappearance of a young girl, the circumstances of which are eerily similar to a murder from her own childhood. Like Nic, Camille must navigate the lies and secrets of her hometown, while battling the implications of her old friends’ and family’s involvement in the crime. Similarly, Ruth Ware’s 2022 novel, The It Girl, explores the 10-year-old murder of Hannah’s college best friend April and the possibility that Hannah helped convict the wrong man. The story examines the trauma and survivor’s guilt that April faces, as well as the impact of the media and true crime fanatics who obsess over the case. Like April, Nic must try to uncover the truth while fighting these circumstances that surround the case, all while trying to navigate the deep impact the crime had on her.