Columbia Jones is a celebrated novelist known around the world. While on tour, she speaks to huge crowds as her daughter Darian (who is also her publicist/personal assistant) and Riley Carrington (a journalist working on a major profile of the author) watch from the sidelines. When a man stands up in the crowd, catching Columbia’s eye, she falters for a moment before passing out on stage. Hours later she is dead—and J. T. Ellison’s A Very Bad Thing is off and running.
This is only the beginning of a complex and compelling novel which confirms J. T. Ellison’s status as one of the best domestic suspense writers working today. Using six or seven point-of-view characters, Ellison keeps readers on their toes, guessing and wondering where and when the next twist will occur. This results in A Very Bad Thing being a propulsive read even as Ellison is able to mine deeper psychological depths than is typical in novels with this type of thriller pacing.
Readers get to know each of the many characters intimately. There are the aforementioned daughter and journalist, but also Detective Sutcliffe (who is on the hunt for Columbia’s killer) and Kira Hutchinson (a massive fan whose loving husband gifted her a once-in-a-lifetime VIP experience with the author). The other POV choices are too much of a spoiler to include here, but trust me, when they are revealed, massive shifts in the narrative will rock the reader’s world.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, Columbia’s last will and testament bequeaths to one party an unknown short story the author wrote earlier in her career. J. T. Ellison cleverly intersperses this piece of writing throughout the novel—further elevating the suspense and anticipation of major revelations.
Fans of domestic suspense will no doubt have a handle on some of the secrets at play in A Very Bad Thing, but J. T. Ellison is a writer known for letting her novels unfurl organically—so even those correct guesses will be superseded by later, and larger, unexpected surprises. Right up and through the epilogue of the book.
A Very Bad Thing takes the characters—and the reader—from Denver to Nashville, from New York City to a private island off the coast of Maine. Ellison’s pacing through the narrative is perfect—at times unfolding like an epic melodrama, while other moments are boosted by action set-pieces that keep the reader furiously turning the pages in hopes that the right people survive.
This novel has some profound things to say about mother/daughter relationships, about the fan/artist dynamic, and about the price of keeping secrets buried. While some readers will consume A Very Bad Thing justifiably thinking it’s over-the-top and unbelievable at times, the author’s note at the end firmly grounds the story in some reality. Yes, the soap opera plot is meant to entertain—and wildly succeeds in doing so—but underlying it all are some real societal concerns that are more than worth examining. J. T. Ellison is an author who can merge these two styles seamlessly and that is why A Very Bad Thing should most definitely be on your reading list.
BUY LINKS: A Very Bad Thing by J. T. Ellison
Disclaimer: A print copy of this title was obtained via the Book Bazaar at Bouchercon. No promotion was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.
