JT Ellison | A VERY BAD THING Spoilers

Book spoilers ahead–if you haven’t yet read A Very Bad Thing, I suggest you turn back now.

The Reveal:

Riley, the journalist following Columbia on tour, begins investigating Columbia’s death when she gets a note that she’s named in her will. This was strange, as Riley had just met Columbia when she was hired to cover the tour. There’s also a stipulation in the will that it can’t be read until after Riley’s article is published.

Columbia had left Riley a flash drive of information including an unpublished manuscript that reads like a confession. Riley is also harrassed in public by a man with facial scarring.

Pages from the manuscript are then included between the chapters of A Very Bad Thing. The reader learns that Columbia was in an abusive relationship with Darian’s father. While still married to Darian’s father, David Mears, she fell in love with another man, Knox. They conspired to kill Columbia’s husband, and had a plan to get away with it. When the plan fell through, Columbia let Knox take the fall. She was imprisoned for a while and had twins in jail, but once she was released she disappeared and created a new identity for herself and Darian. She left Riley and Kira with their foster families. (These details are learned over time, this summary isn’t in order).

Riley’s boyfriend Oliver is murdered, presumably as a warning to Riley. Her ex Nate takes her away to a private island in Maine to protect her. We also learn that Kira, an attendee of the book conference, is also a beneficiary of the will.

Detective Sutcliffe is also investigating alongside Riley. He happened to be the one who arrested Knox Shephard for David Mears’ murder in 1995 (quite the coincidence that was never explained). He realized that Knox was at the tour stop where Columbia died, and obviously suspected him. The reader then learns that Knox was also named in the will.

Nate and Riley summon all the beneficiaries to Maine with them to have the will read there. There’s a red flag conversation between Darian and her boyfriend Mason, where Mason knew that people called her “Jonesy”, which made it super obvious he was a bad guy. The whole conversation was sooooo clunky and out of place–I wonder if it was added after the book was written to be like “hey look another twist”. At the time I thought it was a very awkward attempt at a red herring.

Sutcliffe discovers a hair at the crime scene belonging to Columbia’s tech guy, Liam Reeves. He assumes Liam is the killer. At the same time (ish), Darian is trying to get in touch with Liam but can’t reach him.

Once everyone is in Maine, Liam makes his attack (he had been tracking Riley’s location so knew where they were). He claims that he’s Knox’s son (Knox says he’s not). He’s mad that Columbia got away with killing her husband and blamed it on Knox while she got rich. He breaks the news to the girls that they’re all sisters.

Liam overpowers Sutcliffe and Nate, but Mason shoots and kills Liam, saving the day.

When Columbia’s will is finally read, back in NY after all the injuries from Maine are dealt with, she admits that she killed David Mears. She did let Knox take the blame–she didn’t explain why, other than wanting to get back to her daughters, but left him a lot of money to try to apologize.

The Ending:

In the epilogue, the bizarre conversation between Darian and Mason comes back around. We learn that Mason is really the half-brother, but he hired Liam to do his dirty work. Mason was Knox’s son, angry because Knox left his mother for Columbia (I think). He says his mother died of a broken heart. It is revealed that Liam’s hair from the crime scene isn’t a biological match for Knox.

In Mason’s POV at the end, we learn that Liam went a bit overboard–he wasn’t supposed to kill people other than Columbia. He’s also threatening Mason from beyond the grave with timed emails threatening to expose him. He must have guessed that Mason would double-cross him.

Darian and Mason are getting married, because Mason wants access to part of Columbia’s fortune.

A confusing ending with lots of conflicting information, for sure!

I hope these A Very Bad Thing spoilers were helpful.