J.T. Ellison’s ‘Her Dark Lies’ [EXCERPT]

We have always loved Gothic romantic suspense stories, and it sure seems like we’re not alone. J.T. Ellison’s forthcoming novel, Her Dark Lies, has all our favorite elements in one book: a luscious setting, a luxurious home, a fabulous wedding, and a mysterious first wife. Perhaps J.T. has taken a page from Daphne du Maurier for this one? Regardless where her inspiration came from, this sounds like one dandy of a book and we can’t wait to read it. We hope you enjoy this exclusive excerpt! —J&H

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EXCERPT

Jack takes my hand, gently kisses my knuckles.

“Oh, Claire. It’s so good to have you here. I love you, and I am so happy to be marrying you.”

“Me, too.” I watch him, eyes searching his, sensing there is more. He’s being so formal, so unlike the Jack I know. He looks away.

“Maybe now isn’t exactly the time.”

My heart stutters. Oh, no. He’s changed his mind. He doesn’t want to marry me. He’s figured me out. I’m being jilted. I tense, fighting my instincts. Run, Claire. Run. Get away, now!

“Not the time for what?”

“For this.” With a sly grin, he pulls a long flat box from his pocket and hands it to me. The black velvet is warm from where it was nestled against his body.

I hold my breath as I pry it open.

The pearls are so luminous they shine up from the velvet as if lit from within. They are graduated, smaller near the clasp, growing in size to the center pearl, which has to be the size of my thumbnail.

“Oh, Jack. They’re gorgeous.”

He looks very young in that moment. Though he is ten years my senior, he sometimes looks as vulnerable as a teen. His words are soft.

“They were my great-grandmother’s originally. Eliza wore them every day, and when she…died, they passed to my grand­mother, May, who also wore them until her death. I want you to have them. To wear them, always, like my grandmother and great-grandmother did.”

“I don’t know what to say.” I truly didn’t. I’d never owned anything fancy or beautiful before Jack. Now, thanks to a chance meeting a year ago, I’m being bedecked in bright diamonds and a dead woman’s pearls. You’ve come a long way, Claire.

“They can be your something old. If you like them.”

I swallow back the tears. “Jack, I love them. Thank you. I’m…so touched.”

He snakes the pearls around my neck. I feel them settle at the base of my throat like they were made for me, specifically mea­sured to fit into the sharp, hollowed notch between my collar­bones. Jack steps back and looks at me approvingly.

“They are perfect on you. I knew they would be.”

I touch them self-consciously. “I never thought I was a pearls kind of girl.”

“All women are made for pearls. And you most of all.”

He settles his mouth on mine, warm and soft, and in our ris­ing passion, the intense connection I feel to him whenever we touch, I am able to push away my traitorous thought.

Did Jack give his great-grandmother’s pearls to his first wife, too?

ABOUT HER DARK LIES

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…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J.T. Ellison writes standalone domestic noir and psychological thriller series, the latter starring Nashville Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson and medical examiner Dr. Samantha Owens, and pens the Nicholas Drummond series “A Brit in the FBI” with number one New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter.

Co-host of the Emmy Award-winning show, A Word on Words, Ellison lives in Nashville with her husband.

She invites readers to visit her at her home on the Web at JTEllison.com for more insight into her wicked imagination, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Instagram and Twitter.

HER DARK LIES
By J.T. Ellison
416 pp. Mira Books. $28.99

Pre-order Her Dark Lies direct from Jathan & Heather Books or from one of these fine online retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Half Price Books, Harlequin, Hudson Booksellers, IndieBound, Powell’s, Target, or Walmart.

Her Dark Lies is brought to you in association with TLC Book Tours.