Features Elle Marr

By John B. Valeri

Success isn’t a science. It’s a state of mind.

Elle Marr is living proof. A reader and storyteller from infancy, the Sacramento native (and current Oregonian) knew she wanted to devote her life to writing but still did the pragmatic thing and pursued a formal education in the Sciences. After graduating from UC San Diego, Marr packed her bags and moved to France, where she earned a master’s degree from Paris’s prestigious Sorbonne University. Papers in hand, she nevertheless came to an inescapable realization: No ordinary day job would fulfill her in the ways that writing could.

And so…acceptance.

It’s a necessary and often inevitable stepping stone along the path to (creative) contentment. Marr listened to that inner voice and took a leap of faith, trusting in her ability to marry passion with profession. It paid off with the publication of her debut suspense novel, 2021’s The Missing Sister; that book became a #1 Amazon bestseller, showcasing her affinity for compelling, character-forward crime stories that explore issues of identity. Lies We Bury, Strangers We Know, The Family Bones, and The Alone Time followed in rapid succession, garnering starred reviews, an enthusiastic readership, and coverage across forums from digital and print to television and radio.

This July, Marr returns with her first book for Hyperion Avenue, YOUR DARK SECRETS. The globetrotting story introduces Addison Stern, an aggressively ambitious publicist who finds herself the primary person of interest in a string of murders when her clients start dying. Made unexpectedly vulnerable by circumstances beyond her control, Addison has no choice but to join forces with disgraced private investigator Conor Windell, a one-time lover-turned-enemy who has his own reasons for sussing out the truth. With their lives on the line, can Addison and Conor learn to trust each other again? More to the point: Should they?

Elle Marr

Now, Elle Marr reveals YOUR DARK SECRETS and reflects on taking risks in the hopes of reaping rewards.

Your protagonist, Addison Stern, proves the point that a character doesn’t always have to be “likeable” to make for a compelling lead. What was your approach to balancing her more abrasive qualities with an underlying relatability? How does the development of her backstory play into this?

To your point, Addison is not a typical protagonist. I tried to provide her with complex and nuanced motivations that inform her take-no-prisoners approach to life, as off-putting as it might be. While I was writing, I found myself gleefully choosing her snarky replies and describing her single-minded efforts, reflecting on moments in my own life during which I would have loved to snap back with a biting retort. I think that’s what makes Addison such a fun and dynamic personality to follow—she says and does largely what we would all do if we didn’t have concerns about personal blowback. Her unusual backstory of growing up in trailer parks was essential to writing YOUR DARK SECRETS, both for grounding how Addison was shaped from childhood on, and for the reader to understand how that tough upbringing might have affected her.

Addison refers to Conor Windell—a disgraced PI who is also a sometimes lover (and co-narrator/investigator/murder suspect in YOUR DARK SECRETS)—as her “antagonist.” Tell us about the magnet-like attraction/repellant nature of their relationship. How does their unique dynamic create an element of unreliability while also revealing facets of their characters that might otherwise go unknown?

Addison and Connor are two sides of the same coin; therein lies their deep-seated attraction to one another. These two highly successful people understand each other in ways that no one else can, but they also see their own respective flaws and insecurities reflected in the other. Creating such a tumultuous dynamic between my lead characters allowed me to explore a theme that’s central to YOUR DARK SECRETS: the truth—who is wielding it and/or manipulating it for their own gain. The question for the reader then becomes—choosing between Addison and Connor—who should we trust? It might not be whom the reader initially suspects.

Addison is an unapologetically ambitious publicist whose job it is to spin the news in favor of her clients. What does this reveal about the power of storytelling vs. truth-telling—and how does her unique skill set lend itself to acting as an amateur sleuth of sorts as she attempts to clear her name?

I think Addison has always known that the loudest voice in the room, or the most persistent message, is the one carried into private conversations. Using this awareness, Addison infiltrates the elite circles of Hollywood and the greater Los Angeles area to uncover whose version of the truth—of the murders of her clients—is to be believed. She can detect a lie from miles off exactly because she is so skilled at massaging the truth herself.

Despite his demise, Phinneas is a POV character through voice recordings that are interspersed throughout the story. Why did you choose this as a narrative technique, and how does it humanize the character beyond “victim”?

As a reader, I love learning more about What Happened from the victim’s perspective; there are so many questions for that character in any book, especially when they begin a story as recently deceased. As the author, it was an entertaining rollercoaster for me to sift through Phinneas’ antics, pre-mortem. The voice recordings allow Phinneas’ story to unfold through his own words—an immersive experience for the reader that I’m hoping causes them to be more invested in unraveling his mystery. In his case, Phinneas also needed to be humanized since he was one of the main cogs in the profit-driven wheel of the country as a pharma-bro.

This book takes place in Los Angeles, though there’s also a bit of globetrotting (Paris, the Amalfi Coast, Hong Kong)—a juxtaposition of grit and glamour. Talk about the importance of place to plot and the ways in which you use setting to enhance theme and tone.

Setting as a character is one of the common themes throughout my writing. I can’t resist choosing specific locations that speak to a story’s conflict or a character’s background when it makes sense within the plot. In choosing Paris, the Amalfi Coast, and Hong Kong as my international locations, I felt each setting elevated both the tension for my main characters and the intrigue surrounding just who was hiding within luxurious sight. Hopefully, the reader agrees since my goal in writing YOUR DARK SECRETS was always to provide a fun, energy-filled romp through the elite circles of Hollywood, with an eye toward the thrills and twists that I love exploring.

You explore Asian-American identity throughout your books to varying degrees and in varying contexts. For instance, Addison is aware that members of her own community make assumptions about her based on looks alone rather than familiarity. How has examining these issues helped to inform your own sense of self (assuming it has), and why is it important for all readers to not only see themselves represented within stories but also those whose experiences may differ?

Examining these issues on the page allows me to touch on moments I have experienced as an Asian-American or have seen in the greater public conversation. Imbuing my characters with reactions to real-adjacent events allows readers to, hopefully, couch my chapters in familiar terms. My goal is to provide the escapism we’re all searching for within the paragraphs of a new book while highlighting space for less commonly seen circumstances. After all, reading is the very best way to “walk in someone else’s shoes,” deliberately or not.

Writing isn’t exactly known for providing stability. Despite your formal studies—which some would consider more pragmatic—you still took that leap of faith in following your dream. To what do you credit the decision to do so, and how has that dream evolved now that your writing life involves multiple contracts and publishers?

I credit my sense of self in that I came to accept that a day job wouldn’t fulfill me—not in the way that writing does. (It took a long time and several sad attempts at the Sciences.) The fact that I was eventually able to secure publishing contracts and the partnership of literary agents is a happy result, as I realized years ago that my formal studies wouldn’t bring me the joy we all desire despite many hard conversations with myself regarding the importance of health insurance. Ultimately, I think the dream remains the same while allowing the objectives and definitions of success to shift; to celebrate the milestones as they come.

You may not have an MFA, but you’ve taken a lifelong masterclass in books. In what ways has your reading life informed your writing life, and, more generally, how have books shaped your being?

Entirely, in some ways. I think as writers we are initially attracted to content that we want to create. I’ve always been a fan of character-driven stories that don’t sacrifice plot or pacing and the unusual premise that grips me from the first page. As a writer, I’ve tried to harness each of those elements to create something worthwhile for readers to explore. Books are the best form of escapism, bar none, and they have brought me through difficult times and joyful periods. They’ve taught me things about myself and caused me to question previously unexamined themes in my own life. Everyone should be a reader!

Leave us with a teaser: What comes next?

I’m working on my next thriller, coming in 2025. I’m very happy to bring readers another story that dives deep into psychological themes, family dysfunction, and breakneck pacing. I hope to share more soon!

The Big Thrill Interviews Bestselling Author Elle Marr