Where All The Dead Lie

By J.T. Ellison

Where All the Dead Lie is J.T. Ellison’s seventh crime thriller featuring the exploits of Taylor Jackson, a homicide lieutenant in Nashville, Tennessee. When the story opens, Taylor is recovering from a bullet wound to the head, which caused her to lose her voice. She suffers from guilt for failing to prevent the torture of her best friend, Samantha, and the murder of Sam’s unborn child.With her return to the police force contingent upon professional counseling, Taylor accepts an offer from a London detective and widowed friend, “Memphis” Highsmythe, to visit his ancestral home in the Scottish Highlands.

Memphis tells her, “One of my dearest friends is a celebrated psychologist. You can stay at the estate, she can drop in for your visits, and you can get a break.” Taylor wants an escape from Nashville, to somewhere she “wouldn’t be expected to speak if she were alone. No one to look over her shoulder, check on her every movement, look at her with doubt.” But the romantic castle turns menacing as Taylor’s sense of isolation grows, and she doesn’t know whether she is haunted by ghosts or hunted by the living. Is the psychologist really the friend she seems to be? Is the housekeeper’s solicitousness genuine? Did Memphis’s wife actually commit suicide?

Unfortunately, much of Where All the Dead Lie is a rehash of Ellison’s previous novel, So Close the Hand of Death. The reader is forced to imagine Taylor’s showdown with a serial killer called The Pretender. The author introduces the backstory through Taylor’s thoughts: “…the hardwood floor, covered in dust that tickled her nose, the beating of her heart, so loud, so close, the blackness she knew was blood covering her eyes. Her blood. Baldwin screaming. Sam bleeding, the Pretender crumpled in a heap just inches from her, his eyes open, staring into hers as she struggled, and failed to maintain consciousness.”

Reading Where All the Dead Lie made me feel like coming in during the middle of the story. I spent the whole time trying to catch up on what I’d missed, with limited success. I’m not sure The Pretender actually died, or if he might reappear in a future book. There is also a flashback to an argument with Taylor’s fiancé, Baldwin, for lying to her about having a son. That resolution is probably the plot for later in the series. It’s a mere mention in this one. The current and past stories are told through the viewpoint of several characters, and the plot device of providing information through their thoughts gets old.

The Nashville setting is what attracted me several years ago to Ellison’s debut novel, All the Pretty Girls, where Taylor Jackson and her associates were introduced. I enjoyed that story and was disappointed to learn Where All the Dead Lie didn’t also take place in Nashville. The Scottish setting was, however, well researched and described. Ellison, who lives in Nashville and researches extensively with local law enforcement, made two trips to Scotland while writing this book.

I’d be willing to read Ellison’s next offering if it has a stand-alone plot and is set in Nashville. Or perhaps the Taylor Jackson story has run out of steam.