Q&A with J.T. Ellison, author of HER DARK LIES
No one writes a “popcorn thriller” quite like J.T. Ellison. I’ve come to rely on J.T. to deliver irresistible, impossible-to-put-down suspense novels that can sweep me away in their gripping tales—and that’s exactly the kind of thriller that J.T. Ellison has given us with her brand-new release HER DARK LIES. This immersive, Gothic-tinged suspense story gives readers an exclusive invitation to the wedding of the year: the marriage between up-and-coming artist Claire Hunter and Jack Compton, one of the heirs to the vast Compton family fortune. Readers follow Claire and Jack as they travel to Italy for what’s sure to be a picture-perfect wedding… but, in true J.T. Ellison form, things soon take a dark and shocking turn (and then a few more dark, shocking turns after that). I devoured HER DARK LIES over the course of a very busy work week last month—my personal litmus test for a book’s ability to entertain and thrill, one which HER DARK LIES passed with flying colors. I’m so thrilled to be able to share with CBTB readers a Q&A with author J.T. Ellison, in which we explore everything from the inspiration behind HER DARK LIES to the book’s Gothic influences to a secret that J.T. has to share with us about the book’s setting! Huge thanks to J.T. Ellison for stopping by CBTB to share this glimpse into her newest release with us! Read on for a (spoiler-free!) discussion of J.T. Ellison’s HER DARK LIES.
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About HER DARK LIES by J.T. Ellison:
Fast-paced and brilliantly unpredictable, J.T. Ellison’s breathtaking new novel invites you to a wedding none will forget—and some won’t survive.
Jutting from sparkling turquoise waters off the Italian coast, Isle Isola is an idyllic setting for a wedding. In the majestic cliff-top villa owned by the wealthy Compton family, up-and-coming artist Claire Hunter will marry handsome, charming Jack Compton, surrounded by close family, intimate friends…and a host of dark secrets.
From the moment Claire sets foot on the island, something seems amiss. Skeletal remains have just been found. There are other, newer disturbances, too. Menacing texts. A ruined wedding dress. And one troubling shadow hanging over Claire’s otherwise blissful relationship—the strange mystery surrounding Jack’s first wife.
Then a raging storm descends, the power goes out—and the real terror begins…
From My Review:
If there’s one author I can always count on to deliver a binge-worthy “popcorn read,” it’s J.T. Ellison. The author of some of my personal favorite suspense novels including Good Girls Lie and Lie to Me returns today with her latest outing: HER DARK LIES, a darkly delicious concoction made of equal parts family drama, Gothic elements, and a wanderlust-worthy sense of place. In HER DARK LIES, readers meet Claire and Jack: a golden couple who are preparing for their wedding in the luxurious villa owned by Jack’s fabulously wealthy family. This villa, which sits perched atop a breathtaking island off the coast of Italy, is the perfect venue for what is sure to be the wedding of the year. But as Claire and Jack settle in for their big day, a series of inexplicable and increasingly sinister events begin to take place. And when a storm cuts off power to the island, Claire and Jack quickly realize these events aren’t just inconveniences—they’re a warning sign of greater dangers to come. Laced with elements of Gothic suspense and brimming with all the “popcorn thriller” entertainment value that I’ve come to expect in J.T. Ellison’s novels, HER DARK LIES is a deliciously readable and delightfully sinister suspense read. Pour yourself a glass of something sparkling and travel to Isle Isola for the wedding of the year—but watch your back, because not everyone is getting out of this wedding alive. | Continue Reading
About Author J.T. Ellison:
J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 25 novels, and the EMMY® award winning co-host of the literary TV show A WORD ON WORDS. With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim, prestigious awards, and has been published in 28 countries. Ellison lives in Nashville with her husband and twin kittens. Visit JT at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more insight into her wicked imagination.
Q&A with J.T. Ellison
Author of HER DARK LIES
CBTB: Thank you so much for stopping by Crime by the Book today to give us the inside scoop on your new suspense novel HER DARK LIES! First things first: in your own words, what is HER DARK LIES about?
JT: So thrilled to be here with you! This is the story of Claire Hunter and Jack Compton, a fabulous couple who are about to be married on Jack’s family Italian island. A home invasion goes bad, skeletal remains are found on the island, a crypt is discovered, threatening texts are sent, more frightening shenanigans ensue, and Claire starts to wonder just what secrets Jack is keeping about his dead wife, Morgan. All of this is set against the backdrop of the gorgeous, remote Isle Isola during a wicked weekend of terrible storms. This is the tale of secrets, lies, and murder—and not everyone who arrives on the island will be leaving. As the tag says, at the wedding of the year, a killer needs no invitation.
CBTB: Can you identify a particular moment or experience that sparked the idea for HER DARK LIES?
JT: Two moments, actually—one for the story and one for the setting. The story came from listening to the audiobook of REBECCA while researching another book, and a question about that story that came to me and that I knew I needed to answer. The setting came from a wonderful big birthday trip to Italy. We were staying on Lake Como, across from Isola Comacina. A yacht pulled up, a wedding party disembarked, and later that night, there were fireworks. I knew immediately I needed to marry my story to the setting—though I ended up bringing the legends surrounding Comacina to the cliffs of Capri, building an ancient fortress and grand villa on its cliffside, and moving the whole island out into the Tyrrhenian sea where it was very difficult to reach—and impossible during a storm.
CBTB: HER DARK LIES centers around golden couple Claire Hunter and Jack Compton. Tell us about these characters—how would you describe Claire and Jack to someone meeting them for the first time?
JT: Claire is an up-and-coming large format oil painter who’s met the man of her dreams and is still pinching herself that he wants to marry her. Jack is the son of a computer company magnate, a widower, and madly in love with Claire, who he sees not only as a muse but a forever partner. But the two are keeping deep, dark secrets from one another—a hard way to start a marriage.
CBTB: HER DARK LIES follows Claire and Jack as they travel to Italy for their wedding. What is it about a wedding that makes it such a perfect setting for a thriller?
JT: Is that’s wonderful push and pull—Will they? Won’t they? What’s going to go wrong that could put huge impediments into their path and derail their happiness? I love weddings, and I love how something always goes wrong, be it little or huge. It’s a dynamic that is so easily manipulated into life-threatening disasters. The juxtaposition of what’s supposed to be the happiest day of your life turning into a nightmare—yeah, I love it.
CBTB: We have to talk about this book’s setting. It was one of my favorite elements of the story! Tell us about Isle Isola, the beautiful and creepy island upon which HER DARK LIES is set. How would you describe Isle Isola? Is it based on a real place?
JT: I’ll tell you a secret. This is the first time I’ve ever created a setting. I have always used real places in my work, an element to keep the stories grounded and a way for me to experience the setting firsthand. But for Isle Isola, and Villa la Scogliera, I took elements from places I was familiar with that I mentioned earlier, but everything that you see on the page is imagined. The labyrinth, the artists’ colony, the villa, the terraces, the courtyards and stairways and gravel paths and tunnels... all from my head. It was incredibly hard for me to do; I ended up writing a faux magazine article as if it were a Condé Nast spread to get the history just right. I must admit, I’m a little drunk with the power of creating a totally new world from scratch.
CBTB: Readers will love the creepy, Gothic atmosphere of HER DARK LIES, which reminded me of a modern homage to novels like Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. How influential was classic Gothic literature on your new novel?
JT: Very. I’ve been in a Gothic stage for several books, a theme that started all the way back with the last Taylor Jackson novel, WHERE ALL THE DEAD LIE. There’s something so appealing about a more languorous story, one so atmospheric you can almost sit inside it and see the characters moving around you like a creeping fog. Especially now, when there’s a tendency toward relentlessly paced stories, I love that there’s a whole crop of female authors who have chosen to slow things down, who have taken the Gothic and breathed new life into it.
Personally, I love Du Maurier, and I’ve started reading more Christie. Actually, I have you to thank for that, because—and this is probably sacrilegious to say—Poirot never did it for me, nor did Marple. But you recommended ENDLESS NIGHT which was so incredibly unsettling that I got hooked on Christie’s standalones. I adore Highsmith, too, and just love the way these authors married noir tones to the classic Gothic. I grew up on V.C. Andrews, so it’s a natural place for me to hang my hat. I just dig big old, crumbly houses with dark secrets and unsuspecting maidens around every corner.
CBTB: As HER DARK LIES progresses, readers follow Claire as she finds herself drawn ever deeper into the dark secrets of her soon-to-be husband’s family. The truths she uncovers, and the twists this story takes along the way, are genuinely shocking! When you began writing this book, did you already have the plot twists and reveals mapped out?
JT: Well... partly. I knew who the Comptons were from the beginning, and I knew what their secrets were—most of them, anyway. It was Claire who didn’t want to share hers with me. I just had to trust that when the moment was right, she’d reveal herself to me. I found out her deep, dark secret at the same time she reveals it in the story. I was genuinely shocked. I suspected it was something along those lines, but I didn’t know for sure until the words left her lips. So a little bit of both—organic and planned. As for the end...nope. That was all in the moment. That’s more fun for me, anyway, not knowing how things are going to end. Then I can go back onto the manuscript and tease out what I need to and subvert the parts that are too obvious. I do a lot of this work during revision, too.
CBTB: One of my favorite qualities of HER DARK LIES, and of your writing in general, is how page-turning your books are. They truly are the kinds of thrillers you want to devour in one or two sittings. When you’re writing, how consciously are you working to develop this pacing?
JT: I’ll be honest, I have a hard time writing books that don’t take place in a compressed time frame. I think it’s a natural offshoot of my early thriller days, keeping the action moving throughout the whole book. Most of my early books take place under a week, and I even have one that’s only 24 hours of physical time.
That said, I do a lot of thinking about where my “turns” are in a novel, and I use a different structure than the typical three acts, because I think that’s how middles end up lagging. With my structures, I find the pacing works more naturally to the stories I’m telling. I think that’s especially important in a Gothic, actually, because of its languorous nature, you must keep things moving or your reader will fall asleep to the dulcet tones of a raging storm. Gotta have that perfectly placed ghostly scream, right?
CBTB: When you’re not writing thrillers, do you enjoy reading thrillers, too? If so, could you share with us a few that you’ve recently read and loved?
JT: Oh, I do. Nothing makes me happier than a great thriller. I loved loved loved THE PUSH by Ashley Audrain, BEFORE SHE DISAPPEARED by Lisa Gardner, TELL NO LIES by Allison Brennan, THE SANATORIUM by Sarah Pearse, and I’m about to tuck into three highly anticipated books on my TBR: Kaira Rouda’s THE NEXT WIFE, Lisa Jewell’s INVISIBLE GIRL, and Adele Parks’s JUST MY LUCK.
CBTB: Any chance you can give us a sneak peek on what you’re working on next?
JT: I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. LOL. In all seriousness, the story of this next one is something I’ve preferred to keep private. I will say that it is a very personal story, one that’s been difficult to write, but I’m madly in love with my characters and look forward to seeing them every morning. It’s been hard, but very rewarding so far.
Huge thanks to J.T. Ellison for stopping by CBTB today to share this incredible Q&A with us! J.T.’s newest thriller, HER DARK LIES, is available now at your favorite bookseller.
Book Details:
Publisher : MIRA; Original edition (March 9, 2021)
Language : English
Paperback : 416 pages
ISBN-10 : 0778388301
ISBN-13 : 978-0778388302
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