In a recent article, J.T. Ellison spoke about women finding their power in literature. More specifically, she focused on the role of the strong female character in mysteries and thrillers, such as THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, REBECCA and SHARP OBJECTS.

With her latest release, A VERY BAD THING, Ellison treats us to a number of these characters that begins and ends with Columbia Jones, who is killed off very early in the story. Columbia is one of the country’s most popular authors and is finishing up a month-long book tour in Colorado for The Ivory Lady. She is accompanied by her daughter, Darian, who manages her career. And invited to cover everything is Riley Carrington, a New York City magazine writer. These three women, along with additional characters, will converge to build a plot that is full of secrets and unexpected twists.

"A VERY BAD THING features J.T. Ellison at her most bewitching.... There are no red herrings here; instead, we have one clue and revelation after another that leads to a memorable finale."

The Prologue features a letter written from a mother to her daughter. In it, she indicates that she did a very bad thing many years ago. This clever novel eventually will reveal who the mother and daughter are, and they may not be who you expect. Then we are thrust into the last stop on the book tour. During the presentation at a local theater, Columbia is suddenly rendered speechless by a man in the audience who stands up and stares her down. He exits, and she faints on the stage.

Later, back at their hotel suite, Riley walks in on Columbia and Darian shouting at each other. It seems that Columbia has had a creepy online stalker for a while, and Darian and their IT partner have been trying to locate and stop him. Darian is particularly angry when she learns that Columbia had contacted him and invited him to the event.

In the morning, Riley comes to Columbia’s room to wrap up her article. What she finds is horrific: a lifeless Columbia is lying in a pool of blood. Darian walks in on them; believing that Riley killed Columbia, she has the police arrest her. Detective Sutcliffe is assigned to the case and refuses to make any call on the cause of death until the autopsy results are in. Riley is interviewed and eventually cleared. When the story about the alleged stalker is revealed, they immediately look at the hotel security tapes but are disappointed when they realize that someone erased them and replaced them with a loop tape running for the last 24 hours.

As Darian goes through her mother’s notes and laptop looking for answers, she comes across a story involving a mother telling her daughter about a man from the past who died violently and the family he left behind. This will not be the only thing she learns about her mother, whom she thought she knew so well.

Sutcliffe makes the official announcement that Columbia’s death is indeed a murder, and the cause was injection of a rodent poison into her bloodstream. He begins to pursue the stalker angle, and the name Knox Shepherd from Tennessee keeps popping up. Meanwhile, Riley receives an additional posthumous surprise from Columbia in the form of an envelope containing a locked zip drive and a 50-page short story addressed specifically to her. The story, while not exceptional, seems quite personal as it tells of a young woman with a small daughter who works with her new boyfriend to kill off her violent husband.

A VERY BAD THING features J.T. Ellison at her most bewitching. It is a lengthy novel that demands to be consumed in a single sitting. There are no red herrings here; instead, we have one clue and revelation after another that leads to a memorable finale. The suspense and tension surrounding what will be revealed at the reading of the will become nearly unbearable, which is exactly what Ellison wants in this exceedingly brilliant novel.