Maybe find a weapon.Ī branch snaps and she halts, breathless. The furious roar of the water smashing its frustration against the rocks rises from her left, echoing against the cliffside. Ellison weaves the old and the new, art and history, mystery and love story into one stunning tapestry of a novel. Lisa Unger, New York Times bestselling author of Confessions on the 7:45 Fast-paced and brilliantly unpredictable, J.T. There are no birds, no creatures, no buzzing or cries, just her ragged, heavyīreath and the scree shuffling underfoot as she climbs. Elegant, propulsive, and utterly unputdownable The work of one of our most talented thriller writers at the very top of her game. If she can reach its doors, she will be safe. The Villa is on the hill, on the northwest promontory of the island. She feels it in her calves and hopes again she is going the right way. Now the path is moving upward, the grade increasing. The stuccoed walls loom, the bell tower hidden behind the overgrown foliage. There it is, a flash of white through the trees. In the majestic cliff-top villa owned by the wealthy Compton family, up-and-coming. A gamble that he makes it before the storm is upon them. Off the Italian coast, Isle Isola is an idyllic setting for a wedding. A crack of lightning, and she sees the silhouette of the captain in the pilothouse, looking out to the turbulent seas ahead. From what she remembers, they are between the church and the artists’ colony, the four cottages cowering on the hillside, empty and waiting.Ī horn shrieks, and she realizes the ferry is pulling away. In her panic, she barely notices the pain.

Her hair has come loose from its braid, flies unbound behind her like gossamer wings. A deep cut blooms red along her thigh, and the blood runs down her calf.

The hem catches on a branch a large rend in the fabric slashes open, exposing her leg. The white dress, long and filmy, hampers her effort to run.

Her Dark Lies by J.T. Ellison