Overview

In this extraordinary debut novel, Amy Brashear turns Truman Capote's classic In Cold Blood on its head, telling the story from the point of view of Nancy Clutter's friend and classmate, the fictional Carly Fleming. A young adult, fictional reimagining of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and the brutal murders that inspired it. Gripping and fast-paced, this meticulously researched historical fiction will reinvigorate a new generation to Capote. 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. This 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.

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9781616959340

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Praise for No Saints in Kansas Will appeal to readers struggling with social issues, including bullying, ostracism, and mortality. A good introduction to Capote's famous novel and true crime. --School Library Journal A fresh point of view. --The Tuscaloosa News A gruesome murder, the clues, the investigation, the culprits, the trial--all of these are part of this riveting, fast-paced novel. But intertwined with those are, for newly arrived Carly Fleming, even harder questions. She is indefatigable in her search for the truth, but the truth she searches for is also about her place in this new town, where she is defined as an outsider, and within her own family, which is splitting apart. The unity and urgency of those two searches is searing. --Gary D. Schmidt, author of Newbery and Printz honor book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy A very cool mix of history and fiction, of brutal true crime, and slightly less horrific high school life. --Steve Sheinkin, Award-winning and bestselling author of Bomb, The Port Chicago 50, and Most Dangerous

Author Information

Amy Brashear was born in Arkansas but spent her elementary school years in Garden City, Kansas, just six miles from Holcomb. Amy heard about the Clutter family murders from a childhood friend, though it wasn't until she read In Cold Blood that she finally understood their significance. No Saints in Kansas is her debut novel. She is also the author of the forthcoming YA book The Incredible Story of the Making of the Eve of Destruction.

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