Lexie Elliott Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Lexie Elliott
Lexie Elliott has been writing for as long as she can remember, however she really started focusing on it more seriously after losing her bank job in 2009 as a result of the Global Financial Crisis. After a bit of success in short story competitions, she started planning a novel. With a (new) job and two children, it took a bit of time for this novel to move out of her head to the page, however the result was “The French Girl”, her debut.

Lexie, when she is not busy writing, she can be found swimming, running, or cycling while she thinks about writing. She swam the English Channel solo, in 2007, but she won’t be doing that again. In 2015, she ran 100km, raising money for Alzheimer Scotland, which she won’t be doing again either. However the odd marathon or triathlon is not out of the question.

“The French Girl” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2018. There were 6 university students from Oxford, friends and sometimes more than just friends, all spending an idyllic week together in this French farmhouse. It was supposed to be the perfect summer getaway, until they meet the girl next door, Severine.

Severine was an unwelcome presence, for Kate Channing, her inscrutable beauty undermined the close-knit group’s loyalties amid some of the already simmering tensions. And after a rather huge altercation on the final night of the holiday, Kate knew that nothing would ever be the same again. There are just some things that you cannot forgive, and there are some people you just can’t forget, like Severine. Who nobody ever saw again.

Now, with a decade having passed, the case gets reopened once her body’s found in the well behind the farmhouse. Questioned along with the rest of her friends, Kate stands to lose everything that she has worked so hard for while suspicion continues to mount all around her. Desperate to resolve her own shifting memories and fearful that she’ll be bound forever to the woman whose presence has been haunting her this entire time, Kate finds herself being buried underneath layers and layers of deception without anybody to set her free.

“The Missing Years” is the second stand alone novel and was released in 2019. A spooky old Scottish manor out in the middle of nowhere, which is now hers. Ailsa Calder has just inherited half of a house. The other half belongs to a man that vanished without a trace 27 years prior, her dad.

Leaving London behind in order to settle the inheritance from her mom’s estate, she returns to her childhood home, which is nestled among the craggy peaks of the Scottish Highlands, and joined by the half-sister that is almost a stranger to her.

Ailsa is unable to escape from the claustrophobic feeling that this house is watching her, almost as though her past hungers to consume her. She also cannot ignore just how the neighborhood animals refuse to step foot inside the gates of the garden. The first nighttime intruder arrives, and Ailsa fears that this manor’s careless rugged beauty may just cost her everything.

“How to Kill Your Best Friend” is the third stand alone novel and was released in 2021. If you suspected your best friend, the one person that you were closest to in the whole world, was a killer, then what would you do? Would you confront her? Of keep her secret? Or would you start feeling afraid? And most importantly, why don’t you feel at all safe even now that she is dead?

Bronwyn, Georgie, and Lissa have been inseparable ever since they dominated their college swim team; swimming’s always been a great escape from their issues, however now their shared passion has become lethal. How can it possibly be true that the strongest swimmer they know, Lissa, has actually drowned? Granted, there is something odd about Kanu Cove, where Lissa was last seen, swimming off of the coast of the fabulous island resort that she owned with her husband.

All of Lissa’s closest friends gather together in order to honor her life, however Bron and Georgie cannot quite keep from looking over their shoulders. Danger is lurking underneath the surface of the crystal clear water, and even their luxurious private villas cannot help them feel any safer. While the weather gets ominous, trapping the funeral guests together on the island, no one knows who they are able to trust. Lissa’s death was just the start.

“Bright and Deadly Things” is the fourth stand alone novel and was released in 2023. An isolated back-to-basics mountaintop retreat in the French Alps becomes deadly while an Oxford fellow finds herself getting caught in the crosshairs of her dead husband’s dangerous secrets.

The Chalet des Anglais should really be the ideal locale for Emily, the recently widowed Oxford don, to start cutting through the fog of her grief. Without any running water, electricity, or access by car, this rustic chalet nestled right at the foot of the snow-topped and verdant Alps should really afford Emily both the space and time to heal. Joining her is going to be a collection of friends from the university, along with some other graduates, undergraduates, and fellows.

There’s something off, however, which just heightens Emily’s existing grief-induced anxiety. Before she can even make it to the airport, she is unnerved by a break-in at her home. Once she’s at the chalet, tension among the other guests is palpable. Her colleagues and friends are all behaving strangely, and the competition for a recently opened position has introduced a streak of meanness into this otherwise relaxing getaway.

Emily, while the hostilities continue growing, starts wondering if the chalet’s dark history has cast its shadow over this retreat. In the salon, this curious grandfather clock looms, the one piece of furniture that survived a lethal blaze over one hundred years ago. While its discordant bell starts invading everybody’s dreams, somebody incredibly real has been searching through Emily’s stuff and trying to hack into her computer.

Emily realizes, after a student goes missing, that she had better separate friend from foe, and real from imagined, or the next disappearance might just be her own.