Lights Out

Elise Hart Kipness is a former television sports reporter turned mystery/suspense writer. Lights Out is based on her experience in the high-pressure, adrenaline-pumping world of live TV. Like her protagonist, she chased marquee athletes through the tunnels of Madison Square Garden and stood before glaring lights, reporting to national audiences.In addition to reporting for Fox Sports Network, Elise was a reporter at New York’s WNBC-TV, News 12 Long Island, and the Associated Press. She is currently copresident of Sisters in Crime Connecticut, as well as a member of Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers. A graduate of Brown University, Kipness lives on a hobby farm in Stamford, Connecticut, with her family, three labradoodles, chickens, ducks, and one very cantankerous turkey.

“With a TV sports reporter protagonist, Lights Out blasts onto the thriller scene with something completely new and exciting for seasoned readers of the genre. The book is teeming with plausible suspects, each with a compelling motive and secrets they’d kill to keep, but always returns to the question of whether or not we truly know what those closest to us are capable of. This is fast-paced suspense you’ll want to read in just a couple of sittings, and with an ending that hints at more intriguing layers of our protagonist’s story to come, I can’t wait to see what Elise Hart Kipness delivers next! ” —Megan Collins, author of Thicker Than Water and The Family Plot“When a basketball superstar is murdered in his gated home, all eyes look to his wife and circle of insiders for possible suspects. Drawing on her experience as a national sports reporter and long-time resident of suburban Connecticut, Elise Hart Kipness takes us inside both worlds in this scandalous, page-turning thriller!” —Wendy Walker, international bestselling author“What a fantastic debut! A unique protagonist, an interesting setting, and a story that grabs you from the beginning and keeps on building. I couldn’t put this book down and read it in one sitting!” —Chad Zunker, Amazon Charts bestselling author of Family Money“Welcome to Connecticut’s Gold Coast, where celebrity athletes rub shoulders with the locals and marriage can be murder. When basketball star Kurt Robbins is found dead in his palatial Greenwich home, suspicion immediately falls on his wife, and it’s up to her best friend, disgraced sports reporter Kate Green, to unravel Kurt’s secrets and lies. Part posh domestic suspense, part puzzle box, Elise Hart Kipness’s Lights Out is a skillfully constructed story of female friendship, hidden truths, and the mysteries that can lurk in seemingly quiet neighborhoods. I devoured every page.” —Tessa Wegert, author of Death in the Family“Elise Hart Kipness’s debut novel Lights Out is the kind of gripping, tightly paced domestic suspense mystery sure to delight fans of the genre as well as general readers. Set in the high-stakes world of professional sports, the book pits an appealing female protagonist against an increasingly slippery killer who will stop at nothing to evade capture. Elise Hart Kipness is a writer we are sure to hear more from in the future!” —Carole Lawrence, acclaimed author of Cleopatra’s Dagger“Lights Out is a seminal triumph in mystery writing, as original as it is polished. Elise Hart Kipness’s sterling debut takes us inside the world of professional sports on the one hand and a female reporter cracking that particular glass ceiling on the other. A crime thriller of rare depth and societal implications, Lights Out shoots straight and hits the bull’s-eye dead center.” —Jon Land, USA Today bestselling author