She writes domestic noir and psychological thrillers, the latter starring Nashville Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson and medical examiner Dr. Samantha Owens.

Eight years later, while living in Nashville, Ellison was recuperating from a back injury when she first read the PREY series by John Sandford and rediscovered her love of storytelling.

To research her books, she has worked with the Metro Nashville Police Department and the FBI, as well as performing autopsies and studying survivalists.

The series continues with The Lost Key, The End Game, The Devil's Triangle and The Sixth Day; the newest installment is The Last Second.

Killer Year became the model for the International Thriller Writers debut author program, which Ellison helped develop.

Ellison also was one of the original members of, and a contributor to, the Anthony Award-nominated crime fiction blog, Murderati, which ran from 2006 to 2012 and is now an archive.

Ellison's books have been published in: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom.

[17] An amateur oenophile, Ellison occasionally posts to The Wine Vixen,[18] a blog dedicated to all things vino.