J T Ellison has sold millions of psychological thrillers all round the world in nearly 30 countries. Her latest book, Her Dark Lies, is a Gothic spine chiller featuring international billionaires and a mysterious first wife. Does that sound familiar? It should do because it’s a re-telling of Daphne du Maurier’s classic page-turner, Rebecca.

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and in Binge Reading today J.T. talks about writing Her Dark Lies, about the Nashville thriller series with homicide detective Taylor Jackson that made her name, and co-hosting an Emmy Award-winning books podcast.

Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

Moving from psychological thriller to domestic noirRe-telling RebeccaWhat it was like attending a Nashville post mortem Co-writing with the legendary Catherine CoulterWorking in the White HouseHot new authors she's reading now

Where to find J.T. Ellison: 

Website: https://www.jtellison.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JTEllison14/

 Twitter: @thrillerchick

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thrillerchick/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1311949.J_T_Ellison

What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

But now, here’s J.T.

Jenny Wheeler: Hello there J.T. and welcome to the show. It’s great to have you with us.

J. T. Ellison: Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.

Introducing J. T Ellison, author

Jenny Wheeler: J.T., you've sold or you've published millions of books in 28 countries, you've won awards, you’re share-hosting an Emmy Award-winning TV show about books – you sound as if you're on the top of the mountain.

Your chosen space is domestic noir and psychological thrillers, and I'm interested in how you differentiate between those two things and whether readers look for something specifically different in the two domestic noir and psychological thriller categories.

J. T. Ellison - Best selling thriller author

J. T. Ellison: This is such a fantastic question because yes, I think there is a difference between the two. I think they overlap very nicely but I think the domestic noir is exactly that – it is domestic.

It is something that is very personal and very individual. Imagine your neighbor – you chat in the street and then your neighbor goes inside their house and they close the door and you never really know what's happening behind those closed doors. That, to me, is the epitome of the domestic noir.

The psychological thriller is broader in my mind. I feel that encompasses more professionals in the field, whether it's a policeman or a private detective or anything along those lines that would bring in an element of law enforcement. I think that has a part to do with it, though that can obviously appear in domestic noir.

But the other thing is that it's probably a slightly bigger canvas. It's not necessarily just what's happening inside that house; it's what's happening inside that house that's affecting all the people around it, so it gets a little bit bigger, a little bit broader, it can be a little more twisted. You can bring in different points of view.

Flipping the script

More of the domestic noir is going to be in first person, a lot of them, it's going to be very personal. Psychological thrillers are going to have multiple points of view and it's going to be a little bit bigger. That's my theory. I may be completely wrong.

Jenny Wheeler: Could we say that initially your series books were more in the psychological thriller category, and now with these stand alones you've been working on – and we'll talk about your latest one, Her Dark Lies in a very short moment – they are more the domestic noir area. Is that right? You have moved a little bit from psychological thriller into the domestic noir.

J. T. Ellison - A Deeper Darkness, Samantha Owens series

J. T.