Her Dark Lies by J.T. Ellison

Her Dark Lies by J.T. Ellison

Published by MIRA ISBN 9780778331988

Hardcover, $28.99, 368 pages

In J.T. Ellison's newest thriller, Her Dark Lies, Eliza, an emerging artist from Nashville is about to marry Jack Compton, the scion of a wealthy industrialist family. From the beginning of the festivities, things go wrong.

When Jack takes Eliza home from their engagement party the night before they leave Nashville to go to his family's remote private Italian island for the wedding, they are attacked by a masked intruder. Eliza shoots the intruder dead, but Jack convinces her to lie to the police and say that Jack's bodyguard killed the man.

Eliza hopes that once they get to the island, everything will be fine. She is bowled over by the beauty of the island and can't wait to paint there, her future home with her beloved. After her beautiful wedding gown is discovered defaced with the word "whore" written in blood on it, Eliza begins to wonder if her wedding is jinxed.

There is a lot going on this story, and people are hiding secrets and lies. Jack and his family's successful computer business is not exactly what it seems. And what is the true story behind the death of Jack's first wife on their honeymoon? Jack's parents have a strange reaction whenever her name is brought up.

Eliza is no Cinderella either, plucked from obscurity by the handsome prince. She was involved with some bad people in her younger days, and her sister blames Eliza for a car accident that killed their father.

As Eliza's family and other guests arrive for the week-long wedding celebration, the bodies begin to pile up. It has become clear that someone desperately wants to stop this wedding, and there are so many suspects and motives. Ellison puts lots of red herrings in the story that will test even the most clever sleuth to figure out exactly who is behind this and why.

Her Dark Lies has a mysterious island, power outages at the wrong time, a grandfather with dementia who yells out cryptic accusations of murder, family dysfunction, and a brunch filled with such delicious descriptions of food it would make Downton Abbey jealous. If Rebecca and the 1980's TV show Dynasty had a baby, it would be Her Dark Lies. Thriller fans will enjoy trying to figure it all out.

Thanks to Harlequin Books for putting me on J.T. Ellison's tour.

Friday 5ive- March 5, 2021

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention this week. I cannot believe it is March 2021, it seems like yesterday it was March 2020.

1)  I saw Clinton Kelly on the Rachael Ray Show making a no-bake dessert that I knew my husband would enjoy- Banoffee Pie. It's a simple dessert, but one part is time consuming. You need dulce de leche, and since I couldn't find any premade in the four grocery stores I looked, I had to make my own. You take one can of sweetened condensed milk, place it in a large pot of boiling water (completely covering the can), bring it to a simmer for 2 1/2 hours. After letting it cool, (which I apparently did not do long enough because when I opened the can, caramel sauce sprayed my hair) it is ready to pour over a pretzel crust with sliced bananas on top. Top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. My husband loved it and we both decided it was worth the caramel sauce that I had to wash out of my hair. The recipe is here.

2)  We purchased a wine credenza from Wine Enthusiast to organize all of our wine accessories (glasses, knickknacks, too many wine bottles) and it arrived this week. It looks good in our foyer, and now I have much-needed cupboard space in my kitchen.

3)  I joined a fascinating book Zoom this week- William Morrow presented A Celebration of Women's History Month to launch Lauren Willig's new historical fiction Band of Sisters, based on the true story of a group of the all-women's Smith College alumni who went to France during WWI to aid French villagers displaced by the Germans. The book is fabulous, it will be one of my best of 2021 I can already tell (my review is here), and the Zoom was fantastic. Carol Fitzgerald from BookReporter.com moderated a panel of female historical fiction writers Lauren Willig, Vanessa Riley (her book The Island Queen will publish in July), Kristin Harmel (The Book of Lost Names), and Marie Benedict (The Mystery of Mrs. Christie) discussing determined women in history, and researching and writing historical fiction, and I could listen to them talk all night. 

4)  I'm watching reruns of 1990's sitcom Designing Women on Hulu on my Echo Show while I make dinner at night. (I guess that is appropriate for Women's History Month). I love that show! We used to watch it every week, back when you used to watch a show on TV once a week. I laugh all throughout dinner prep, and I every time Julia Sugarbaker goes off on one of her rants, I know them word for word. Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Jean Smart, Annie Potts and Meshach Taylor (as delivery man Anthony) were expertly cast. 

5) I started and finished one book and am halfway through another. J.T. Ellison's thriller Her Dark Lies. is set on an isolated island off the coast of Italy, where Eliza, an artist, is preparing for her wedding to Jack, a scion of one of the America's wealthiest families. From the beginning things go wrong, people are being killed, and clues are dropped about Jack's first wife,who died three weeks after her their wedding. There is a lot going on here, people are not who they seem to be. It's a cross between Rebecca and a soap opera. My full review publishes Tuesday. 

I'm a big fan of Kate Quinn's historical fiction books (The Alice Network, The Huntress), about women doing their part during war to serve their country, even putting themselves in jeopardy. Her latest, The Rose Code, is about three British women who work at Bletchley Park trying to break the German secret war communication codes. Set in two time periods, one in 1939, where three women- Mab, Osla, and Beth- work on the top secret project, and then seven years later when one of the women is locked away in a sanitarium because she knows there was a spy at Bletchley and seeks the assistance of the other two to prove it. It's vintage Kate Quinn, and I can't put it down. 

Stay safe, socially distant, wear a mask, wash your hands, get the vaccine when it's your turn, and we'll get through this sooner rather than later.

This post was shared with Marg at The Intrepid and Baker on her Weekend Cooking posts here.