J.T. Ellison author of Her Dark Lies Joins SI Meeting Recap

 

Spoilers of Her Dark Lies ahead. Grab a glass of wine, read the book, and come back and join us for a discussion with J.T. Ellison. When you return, grab a pen to jot down book recommendations, because this author likes to name drop her faves, her inspirations, even her competition.

 

Due to catching Covid, we had to postpone our author chat a few weeks. Don’t worry; J.T. is on the mend, and she learned that the rumor that Covid recovery lasts as long as re-watching Game of Thrones is pretty on target. She made it through 6 ½ seasons. J.T. came to us slightly sniffly, but ready to talk about what went into Her Dark Lies.

 

The first thing I wanted to know, of course, is what would the Wine Vixen pair with reading Her Dark Lies. If you haven’t heard of the Wine Vixen, check out J.T. Elllison’s page at www.thewinevixen.com for wine reviews and recipes. Thrilled to be asked, J.T. recommends hearty dark red Nero d’Avola. I may just have to re-read the book with this wine pairing. Perhaps J.T. will pair more of her books with wine now, so keep an eye out on her website at www.jtellison.com, or on her twitter or Instagram (both @thrillerchick) for her recommendations; not that you need wine to enjoy her work, of course.

 

J.T. was at the end of a trip in Italy when she observed a huge yacht that had docked not far from her hotel unloading a rowdy wedding party. Partying hard on a remote island close by, J.T. watched the fireworks and merriment and her thriller minded soul began crafting. What could go wrong? How could the island superstitions (like all guests of the island needing to drink a specific coffee upon leaving to chase away evil spirits who may follow) play into a murder mystery within the wedding guests? And obviously, there was heavy influence from Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.

 

J.T. wanted to play with Rebecca in new ways. Her probing and questioning led to the story. What is the leading male character actually doing for work? And thus the spy element of the story was crafted. What would happen if Rebecca didn’t actually die? And thus Morgan’s twist came about. J.T. wanted suspense in this story over being a thriller, a differentiation she defines as the terror coming from within the house as suspense, and terror coming from outside the house as thriller. And to achieve the suspense, she needed intimacy, which is where the dynamic of Claire to all of the other characters come in.

 

But connecting with Claire, and writing this book, wasn’t easy for J.T. That intimacy took time and a lot of work to achieve. She wrote seven versions of the story, piecing together the final work from these seven versions as she wrote and drafted, and wrote and drafted, and wrote and drafted. Claire lived through four name changes. As it turns out, being too on the nose in homage to Rebecca is a literary no-no, as apparently Lisa Gabriele learned with her bewitching The Winters. Even being original proved difficult, as Lucy Foley’s The Guest List came out during J.T.’s drafting process, forcing her to change her opening scene and several details of the story.

 

We focus and follow Claire as both J.T. and Claire struggle to connect to who Claire is. She has a wild child past that gets changed by tragedy, guilt, and shame, and she is desperate to be seen and loved genuinely for who she is, even if she isn’t quite sure who she is. She changes herself to look and act like who she thinks Jack wants without stopping to think that Jack fell in love with her vibrant, not-so-squeaky-clean image, just as she was. As the story builds and rocks into the other characters, Claire begins to find herself and develops her own agency. By the end, she has the strength to still be Claire, but a Claire that can lead and protect and guide her family. She is to become Ana, but her version of Ana. The story is left open ended, leaving readers to wonder what will Claire and Jack do next.

 

If you thought the body count was high in this book, you should know that J.T.’s people pleasing, and appreciation for her fans’ wit, is to blame. She held a contest for her fans who wanted to die in the book, and she ended up having just too many fans who knew just how to make J.T. want to kill them. 

 

J.T. learned a lot from writing Her Dark Lies, especially about what not to do, but at least all that work and rewriting led to a compelling and intriguing story, even if we had to lose several characters. J.T. hated having to kill Claire’s best friend Katie, even though she knew Katie had to die (per the contest). She did, however, enjoy writing Claire killing Morgan, and having Claire shift and grow from that experience. We do have to wonder if Claire might be a situational serial killer; how many people has Claire killed, whether by accident or intention, by the end?

 

Along with the mystery and the twists, enjoy the composite island scenery and the mythology and art history woven into the story. J.T. has a big love for mythology, stemming back to her childhood. She loves it so much that as a child, her school gave her their library copy of Richard Patrick’s All Color Book of Greek Mythology because she, and she alone, checked it out so much during her school years there. She still has it today, sitting proudly among her rainbow bookcases.

 

Look out for J.T.’s book Masters of Shadow coming out in February 2023. We will have an ARC review of this book coming soon, so if you want a sneak peek, be sure to look for Brooke’s review when it comes out. Of course, wanting to be prepared for reading this book I had to ask: J.T.’s wine pairing for this one is a delicate and special Saint-Emilion. 

 

J.T. is currently reading Book Lovers by Emily Henry (I also highly recommend this cozy rom-com; look for my impending review) and an ARC for Julia Whaling’s Thank You for Listening coming out in August.

Posted by book lover: Jessie T.