J. T. Ellison Books In Order

All the Pretty Girls

When a local girl falls prey to a sad*istic serial killer, Nashville homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson and her lover, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, find themselves in a joint investigation pursuing a vicious murderer. The Southern Strangler is slaughtering his way through the Southeast, leaving a gruesome memento at each crime scene& 151;the prior victim’s severed hand.

Ambitious TV reporter Whitney Connolly is certain the Southern Strangler is her ticket out of Nashville; she s got a scoop that could break the case. She has no idea how close to this story she really is& 151;or what it will cost her.

As the killer spirals out of control, everyone involved must face a horrible truth that the purest evil is born of private lies.

14

Ten victims, each with pale skin and long dark hair. All have been slashed across the throat, the same red lipstick smeared across their lips. In the mid 1980s the Snow White Killer terrorized the streets of Nashville, Tennessee. Then suddenly the murders stopped. A letter from the killer to the police stated that his work was done. Now four more bodies are found, marked with his fatal signature. The residents of Nashville fear a madman has returned, decades later, to finish his sick fairy tale. Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson believes the killings are the work of a copycat killer who’s even more terrifying. For this monster is meticulously honing his craft as he mimics famous serial murders proving that the past is not to be forgotten.

Judas Kiss

Sex, lies and videotape.

It was a murder made for TV: a trail of tiny bloody footprints. An innocent toddler playing beside her mother’s bludgeoned body. Pretty young Corinne Wolff, seven months pregnant, brutally murdered in her own home.

Cameras and questions don’t usually phase Nashville Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson, but the media frenzy surrounding the Wolff case is particularly nasty…
and thorough. When the seemingly model mommy is linked to an amateur po*rn website with underage actresses and unwitting players, the sharks begin to circle.

The shock is magnified when an old adversary uses the sexy secret footage to implicate Taylor in a murder an accusation that threatens her career, her reputation and her relationship.

Both cases hinge on the evidence real or manufactured of crimes that go beyond passion, into the realm of obsessive vengeance and shocking betrayal. Just what the networks love.

The Cold Room

Homicide detective Taylor Jackson thinks she’s seen it all in Nashville – but she’s never seen anything as perverse as The Conductor. Once his victim is captured, he contains her in a glass coffin, slowly starving her to death. Only then does he give in to his attraction. Later, he creatively disposes of the body by reenacting scenes from famous paintings. Strangely, similar macabre works are being displayed in Europe. Taylor teams up with her fiance, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, and New Scotland Yard detective James ‘Memphis’ Highsmythe – a haunted man who has eyes only for Taylor – to put an end to The Conductor’s art collection. Has the killer gone international? Or are there dueling artists, competing to create the ultimate masterpiece? ‘Fusing gritty cop drama with dark psychological thriller, Ellison distinguishes herself with exceptional character development, consistently breakneck pacing and a sense of authenticity.’ – Chicago Tribune

The Immortals

It is Samhain – the Blood Harvest. Nonbelievers call it Hallowe’en. The night when eight Nashville teenagers are found dead, with occult symbols carved into their naked bodies. It’s a ritual the killers believe was blessed by Death himself. When children are victimized, emotions always run high, and this case has the public both outraged and terrified: a dangerous combination. Recently reinstated homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson knows she has to act quickly, but tread carefully. Exploring the baffling culture of mysticism and witchcraft, Taylor is immersed in a darkness that threatens to unbalance the order of her world, and learns how unchecked wrath can push a killer to his limits.

So Close the Hand of Death

It’s a hideous echo of a violent past. Across America, murders are being committed with all the twisted hallmarks of the Boston Strangler, the Zodiac Killer and Son of Sam. The media frenzy explodes and Nashville homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson knows instantly that The Pretender is back…and he’s got helpers. As The Pretender’s disciples perpetrate their sick homages – stretching police and FBI dangerously thin – Taylor tries desperately to prepare for their inevitable showdown. And she must do it alone. To be close to her is to be in mortal danger, and she won’t risk losing anyone she loves. But the isolation, the self-doubt and the rising body count are taking their toll – she’s beside herself and ready to snap. The brilliant psychopath who both adores and despises her is drawing close. Close enough to touch…

See Jane Die (By:Erica Spindler)

The low rumble of an outboard motor shatters the quiet of the lake. Treading water, fifteen year old Jane Killian waves her arms to alert the boater to her presence. But instead of veering off, he points his craft directly at her. The boat’s hull fills her vision. A scream rips past Jane’s lips, lost in the engine’s roar…

Now, seventeen years after the afternoon that changed her life forever, Jane has everything to live for. A series of reconstructive surgeries has restored her lovely face. She’s the toast of the Dallas art community, her edgy sculptures lauded as both disturbing and beautiful. She and her husband, renowned plastic surgeon Dr. Ian Westbrook, are completely in love and overjoyed that Jane is pregnant.

Then Jane’s happiness shatters. A woman with ties to Ian is found brutally slain. Unbelievably, the police focus their investigation on him, making him their prime suspect. Still in shock, Jane receives an anonymous message that reads simply, ‘I did it on purpose. To hear your screams.’

The police, including Jane’s estranged sister, Detective Stacy Killian, believe the message is from a crank, someone who’s become aware of Jane’s past through the media attention surrounding her controversial artwork.

But Jane knows better. It’s from him. The man who stole not only her face, but her sense of security. The man she has always believed deliberately hit her and got away with it. And now he’s found her again. Living with this terror, Jane digs into Ian’s past in an effort to prove him innocent. But each new clue she uncovers points not to Ian’s innocence but to his guilt. And as she struggles against doubt and suspicion, her stalker moves closer. His anonymous messages take a terrifyingly intimate turn, and no one close to Jane, it seems, is safe.

Fighting to save her husband and the life growing inside her, Jane must face a horrible truth: Her tormentor knows everything about her. Her likes. Her dislikes. Her daily routine. Most terrifying of all, he knows her fears. He feeds on them.

He will use them, until finally he can…
See Jane Die.

Killer Takes All (By:Erica Spindler)

‘The White Rabbit beckons you to follow him, down the rabbit hole, into his world. He’s a deceiver, a trickster. You won’t know what is truth and what is a lie. He aims to best you. Beat you. And when he does, you die.’ When a friend is found brutally murdered in her New Orleans apartment, former homicide detective Stacy Killian has reason to believe her death is related to the cultish fantasy role playing game White Rabbit. The game is dark, violent and addictive. As a former member of the Dallas police force, Stacy was exposed to more than her share of the horrors of crime. Moving to New Orleans was her attempt to pursue a quieter life. But her friend’s murder plunges her back into the role that she fled especially after she meets Spencer Malone, the homicide detective assigned to the murder case. Stacy doubts the overconfident rookie is up to the task and vows to track down the killer herself. Her investigation draws her into the privileged circle of White Rabbit’s brilliant creator, Leo Noble, a man with many dark secrets in his past…
a man whose life has the same frightening surreal quality of the game he invented. As the bodies mount and the game is taken to the next level, Stacy and Spencer are forced to work together. Soon they are trapped in the terrifying world of a game gone mad where Leo Noble and all the people around him are suspect, cryptic notes foretell the next victim and no one no one is safe. Because White Rabbit is more than a game. It’s more real than life and death. And anyone can die before the final moment when the game is over…
and the killer takes all.

Last Known Victim (By:Erica Spindler)

August 2005.
Amid death and destruction, hurricane savaged New Orleans has a new dark force to fear.

As the rescue efforts unfold, a grisly discovery is made at one of the massive refrigerator ‘graveyards.’ One of these metal hulks contains six human hands all female, all right hands. The press has dubbed the unknown perpetrator ‘The Handyman.’ But with no way to trace the origin of this refrigerator, and with the evidence lost to time and the elements, the case dead ends.

Captain Patti O’Shay is a straight arrow, by the book cop who is assigned to the case. Her tough, unflinching character is fractured when her husband and fellow police captain is found murdered surprised by looters taking advantage of the post storm chaos.

August 2007
Patti, still grieving and disillusioned, gets a call from homicide: skeletal remains have been unearthed in City Park. The unknown victim a female is missing her right hand. But for Patti, this grave holds something even more shocking. Found beside the victim’s bones is her husband’s police badge.

Casting aside the very ‘rule book’ by which she has lived her life, Patti is fearless but so is the killer. As he stalks her she is forced to question all she believes in, to doubt the code she has lived by…
because she knows that if she doesn’t find the Handyman first, she will become his last known victim.

Erica Spindler weaves a masterful tale of murder and suspense against the backdrop of a city transformed by disaster. It is a story you will not soon forget.

Watch Me Die (By:Erica Spindler)

Returning to the roots of her success, Spindler weaves a thrilling psychological drama with the story of a young woman driven by visions and fears Stained glass restoration artist Mira Gallier is on the verge of having it all again. The love of a good man. Professional success. And finally, after years of pain at the loss of her husband to Hurricane Katrina, peace and emotional stability. But a new nightmare begins when a strange man called The Preacher attacks her, and a terrifying chain of events is set in motion: the Preacher is found dead, the first of seven windows Mira restored after Katrina is vandalized, and her house is broken into. As Mira’s windows are targeted one by one, her personal life begins to shatter as well. She catches a glimpse of her dead husband in a crowd, then he s gone. She hears his voice on the phone, telling her something only he could know. She begins to doubt herself and the man she s falling in love with. When Mira s assistant is brutally murdered, her nude body found posed in the dappled colored light of Mira s prize restoration, she becomes the focus of the police s investigation. As evidence against her mounts and with no one to turn to, Mira races to prove she s neither a murderer nor losing her grip on sanity.