Spoiler Review for A Very Bad Thing

I’ll say right off that A Very Bad Thing gave me some Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo vibes. And maybe I never had the occasion to mention this, but Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was VERY similar to this 2009 book about a famous movie star with four husbands who asks a journalist to help write her memoir. Both of these books have the exact same plot reveal that was also an obvious reveal in this book.

Then, I totally guessed the killer. I’m not sure why, and I’m not that person who says they always guess the killer (I don’t). But I did.

Plot Summary for A Very Bad Thing

Like I mentioned twice already, this book is LONG so I’m not going to do a complete summary, but I will run down the major events that follow Columbia’s mysterious death:

Immediately After Columbia’s Murder

• Riley, who discovered Columbia’s body, is arrested
• But Riley tells the police that Columbia and her daughter Darian had a big fight the night she was killed. Also that a man in the audience really upset Columbia.
• Darian emails Liam, her mom’s tech expert, for help going through her computer
• Columbia’s security guy Mason backs up Riley’s “just discovered the body” story, and the police release her.
• The police question Darian and ask her why her mother wore a dark wig over her naturally blond hair
• Riley runs into Kira, a fan from the book tour who attended a VIP event
• Someone steals Riley’s bag, which has her laptop and phone

Riley Decides to Investigate

• Darian calls her grandmother to tell her the sad news and her grandmother asks her for money.
• Riley finds a weird note in her belongings that says all her devices are compromised, with a phone number. She decides that since she’s a journalist, she will solve Columbia’s murder
• The police reveal that someone injected Columbia with an unknown substance. She was also possibly poisoned.
• After Riley flies home to New York, she learns that she’s in Columbia’s new will.
• Also that her boyfriend Oliver’s law firm handled the will, so he has to move out until the will gets probated.
• The will can not be read until Riley publishes her article.

Columbia has left Riley Some Clues

• The law firm also gives Riley a package that has a flash drive, a printed manuscript, and an old newspaper article about a murder of a man in 1995. The killer? Knox Shepherd. The victim? David Mears, a man with a pregnant wife, meaning that the baby would now be just short of 30. Like both Darian and Riley…
• Riley starts reading the manuscript, written from the POV of a woman whose husband has been murdered.
• Then Riley goes to the Museum of Modern Art, where a man in a red hat harrasses her.
• When she gets home, someone has searched her office

The Manuscript May Be Related to the 1995 Murder

• Back to the manuscript, the pregnant woman wakes up next to the dead body of her husband. He was abusive, and she had started up a romance with a guy she met at the store. Could this be connected to the murder in the newspaper article???
• Detective Sutcliffe, who is investigating Columbia’s murder, learns that the man from the book event who upset Columbia is … Knox Shephard.
• Riley fills in Nate, her boss and ex-lover. They realize someone is tracking her.

Things Start to Get Weird

• Darian realizes that her “grandmother” is a fake. On top of that, Darian also gets a notice that her mother changed her will. Uh-oh!
• Liam, Columbia’s IT guy, tells Darian where Riley is. He must be the one who’s tracking her.
• In the manuscript, the pregnant woman with the abusive husband gives birth in a closet. (Sorry to sound callous, but I will refer to this child as Closet Baby. There’s a reason.)
• Riley fights with Oliver, her boyfriend. Remember, he told her he had to move out temporarily, but now he wants to see her. She says no way.
• Oliver had a reason for this, which was that he was being held hostage by Red Hat Guy. When Oliver fails to summon Riley successfully, RHG kills him.

We Start to Sort Out All the Babies

• Darian is sleeping with Mason, the security guy. They learn that a) the man harassing Columbia at the book event was named Knox, and b) that someone is spreading internet rumors that Columbia was a fraud and a criminal.
• Kira (the pregnant book fan) learns that she is also a beneficiary of Columbia’s will. The plot thickens!
• Riley mentions to Nate that she was adopted. No kidding!
• We now suspect that Columbia is Devon Mears, the pregnant wife of the real murder victim. Knox Shepherd killed David Mears, her abusive husband. And one of the three women (Riley, Darian, or Kira) is Closet Baby.

We Learn How Columbia Died

• Det. Sutcliffe learns that some put rat poison in Columbia’s CBD oil.
• Kira’s parents tell her that yes, they adopted her. AND that Kira’s bio mom gave birth in PRISON. So now we have: Closet Baby and Prison Baby.
• Darian learns that Columbia wrote prior books as D.E. Shepard. (The last name of the guy convicted of killing her husband, David Mears, in 1995.)
• Det. Sutcliffe goes to Nashville, the site of the Mears murder.
• Knox Shephard (new POV) gets a letter that he is also in Columbia’s will.
• In the manuscript, the narrator tells the police that a man with a mask broke in and killed her husband.

Everyone Goes to Maine: BAD Idea

• Det. Sutcliffe calls Darian and says that he thinks he knows who killed her mother. Unfortunately, Riley convinces both Darian and Kira to come to Nate’s Maine compound for safety and the will reading. This will turn out to be a very bad idea.
• Riley tells Darian that Columbia was Devon Mears. That Darian is closet baby and that … Kira and Riley are TWIN Prison Babies. (This is 80s soap opera level stuff!)
• Sutcliffe finally identifies a hair from Columbia’s crime scene as belonging to William Reeves. Who is Liam, and probably Columbia’s killer. He also thinks Knox, not David, is Riley and Kira’s bio father. (David is Darian’s father.) And that Knox took all the blame for David’s murder because he knew Devon was pregnant.

Columbia’s Killer is Unmasked!

• Everyone is in Maine: Riley, Darian, Nate, Sutcliffe, Kira and her husband, and Knox. Who is also there? Red Cap Guy, who is Liam. Who is angry that Columbia conspired to kill her husband, got away with it, and got rich. Liam also claims to be the son of Knox, which Knox denies.
• Somehow Liam manages to lock Sutcliffe and Nate (who was shot by Liam) in an outbuilding, which he sets on fire. Back in the house, Mason, the security guy, shoots Liam.

What Was the Ending of A Very Bad Thing by J.T. Ellison?

• Columbia’s will is finally read. We learn that Devon (Columbia) is the one who killed David Mears. She let Knox take the blame and only served a three-year sentence, during which her three daughters were put in foster care. After her release, she got Darian back and Kira and Riley were adopted. She started writing.
• Columbia left Knox money to try to make up for his long prison sentence.
• Riley, Kira, and Darian scatter Columbia’s ashes.
• Darian and Mason get married, but in a FINAL TWIST we learn that Mason is actually Knox’s son. He and Liam were working together.
• It’s not entirely clear, but it seems like Liam poisoned the CBD oil, but didn’t use enough poison, so Mason did the injection.
• Liam was just a random nut job, but Mason was the mastermind. He was angry that Knox left his mother, fell in love with Devon/Columbia, and ended up in prison. Meanwhile, Columbia, the home wrecker, ended up rich.
• But Liam the IT whiz, has set up emails to be sent to Mason in the event of his death. He says that one day Kira and Riley will figure out that Mason is their half-brother. Maybe!