Book Review: Lights Out by Elise Hart Kipness
By John Valeri
December 13, 2023
Debut novelist Elise Hart Kipness has the kind of backstory that lends itself to a creative career transition. A graduate of Brown University, she worked as a reporter for New York’s WNBC-TV, News 12 Long Island, and the Associated Press and appeared on the Fox Sports Network, covering collegiate and professional events, from NCAA tournaments to the Olympics and the US Open. Now co-president of Sisters in Crime Connecticut and a proud member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers, Kipness has seen her dream (and years long pursuit) of publication realized with the release of November’s Lights Out.
The first in a series for Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer imprint, the book introduces sports reporter and former Olympian Kate Green, who is on the outs with her network after a verbal spat with a male athlete went viral. She finds herself at the center of a blockbuster story when her best friend Yvette’s husband, superstar basketball player Kurt Robbins, is gunned down in his Greenwich home. Yvette, as the spouse, quickly comes under police scrutiny—though her husband’s well-known infidelities suggest that their interest in her is more than a formality. Convinced that authorities are making a rush to judgment, Kate begins her own investigation into the crime in the hopes of exonerating Yvette (and perhaps salvaging her career in the process).
Given her background, Kate—a divorced mother of two high schoolers, one of whom is recovering from an accidental amphetamine overdose—is accustomed to being assertive and asking tough questions. But there are a few things the job hasn’t prepared her for. First, she is forced to confront her long-estranged father, NYPD detective Liam Murphy, who is called in to consult on the case (and who she may be more like than she ever imagined). Then, there’s Yvette’s uncustomary evasiveness, which leads Kate to believe she may have something(s) to hide; this concern is compounded by the theory that, despite a marital agreement to the contrary, Kurt might have been on the brink of leaving his family for another woman. It’s an untenable position for Kate to be in but one she can’t turn away from.
Kipness tells the story through Kate’s keenly inquisitive eyes, which fosters an immediate connection between the character and readers, who will relate to—or, at the very least, sympathize with—her struggles as a single parent, a working woman in (what is still largely) a man’s world, and an adult trying to make peace with childhood trauma. That the author herself lived Kate’s high adrenaline, high stakes job adds an essence of authenticity while the inclusion of pressing societal issues such as drug culture resonate, given the current climate of (ab)use/addiction and consequence. Such elements enhance rather than overwhelm the central mystery, which is both clever in its construct and cunning in its execution.
Lights Out is a notable debut from an exceptional new talent. In Kate Green, Elise Hart Kipness offers a complex, conflicted, and wholly compelling heroine whose strong convictions illuminate truth and justice in the face of darkness and duplicity. As an outsider in a world of wealth and privilege, she stands as the very conscience that negates the corrosiveness of crime and collusion. In other words, Kate is a beacon in a broken world that is not necessarily beyond repair. Here’s hoping we’ll see much more of her—and the author—in years to come.