A Very Bad Thing, the latest thriller from Nashvillian J. T. Ellison, takes readers on a wild ride of secrets, lies, and hidden connections.
Columbia Jones may well be the Taylor Swift of authors. She is hugely popular, filling venues not usually associated with artists of the written word. In Nashville, she appears at the Ryman. She is revered by her fans, who feel she is speaking to each of them in her books:
They hang on every word. She is their god. Their rock star. Their favorite author of all time. Some have traveled hundreds of miles to see her tonight. Every night of the tour has been the same. Massive crowds of invested fans, readers who love Columbia’s work so much they tattoo themselves with her phrases and create art about her characters. There are fandoms, and then there are fandoms. Columbia Jones owns this world.
Of course, this image is carefully curated, from the traces of her British accent to her “jet-black hair cut in a severe bob” and her “red lip and winged eye liner.” Her daughter Darian is her publicist, and there is a team that monitors her online presence.
Her latest novel is already being made into a movie, and the last night of the book tour in Denver is as big a success as every other night of the tour. Then Columbia notices someone in the crowd and faints on stage. Claiming it was a case of fatigue and dehydration, she is discharged from the hospital and returns to the hotel. The next morning, she is found dead in her room.
The bedding around her is soaked in red, sheets white as snow except where they wedge against her body. If she were a crime writer, this would be the ultimate crime scene; as it is, Columbia is lost in a sea of white, a small crimson boat floating in the liquid clouds of pale sheets.
Columbia Jones has been murdered, and the illusion of her carefully curated life unravels.
The novel is conveyed through various points of view from people closely or tangentially connected to Columbia. Darian has had her life entwined with her mother’s career for as long as she can remember but now has a love of her own. Riley Carrington, a young journalist handpicked by Columbia, has spent the previous month on the book tour and hopes the subsequent article will kick her career to a new level. She is the one who discovers Columbia’s body and is the initial suspect — not quite the story she imagined. Kira Hutchinson is a fan whose husband bought her a ticket for a meet-and-greet and a night at the hotel where Columbia is staying. Detective Sutcliffe, who is specifically requested to investigate the crime, is determined to find out who the murderer is, despite the ever-changing stories and a possible connection to his own past.
Before long, things get more curious. Security cameras weren’t working the night of Columbia’s death. Riley’s boyfriend’s law firm has Columbia’s updated will, a will that neither her daughter or her lawyer knew existed. Rat poison is stolen from Kira’s farm. A stranger answers the phone when Darian calls her British grandmother to tell her the news of Columbia’s death. And what does all this have to do with an early story of Columbia’s that deals with a murder in Tennessee decades ago?
Riley returns to New York, only to find that she may be the murderer’s next target. Sutcliffe travels to Nashville where he once worked, and his reaction to downtown is something that all long-time residents will ruefully recognize:
Restaurants and hotels crowd each block, groups of bridesmaids in cowboy boots and tiaras, women in sky-high heels precariously perched on scooters darting across the street against the lights, the skunk scent of marijuana drifting through the air. The music, already rollicking, pouring out of every doorway.
“Damn. The river’s the only thing that hasn’t changed.”
Each location adds more layers to Columbia’s story and more connections among the characters. Each fresh clue pulls the characters closer together and puts them in more danger, and their final move to protect themselves may be the riskiest of all.
This is a novel that has plot twists until the very last page. Readers may not want to start A Very Bad Thing on a night when they have to be up early the next day.
Faye Jones, dean of learning resources at Nashville State Community College, writes the Jolly Librarian blog for the college’s Mayfield Library. She earned her doctorate in 19th-century literature at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Tagged: Book Reviews, Fiction
