In her most imaginative novel yet, #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jewell (None of This Is True) launches the Marvel Crime series of thriller books for adults with an original story starring the private detective Jessica Jones.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Lisa Jewell’s Breaking The Dark, which is out now.
Meet Jessica Jones: Retired super hero, private investigator, loner. She tried her best to be a shiny spandex crimefighter, but that life only led to unspeakable trauma. Now she avoids that world altogether and works on surviving day-to-day in Hell’s Kitchen, New York.
The morning a distraught mother comes into her office, Jessica would prefer to nurse her hangover and try to forget last night’s poor choices. But something about Amber Randall’s story strikes a chord with her. Amber is adamant that something happened to her teenage twins while they were visiting their father in the UK. The twins don’t act like themselves, and they now have flawless skin, have lost their distinctive tics and habits, and keep talking about a girl named Belle. Amber insists her children have been replaced by something horrible, something “perfect.”
Traveling to a small village in the British countryside, Jessica meets the mysterious Belle, who lives a curiously isolated life in an old farmhouse with a strange woman who claims to be her guardian. Can this unworldly teenager really be responsible for the Randall twins’ new personas? Why does the strange little village of Barton Wallop seem to harbor dark energies and mysteries in its tight-knit community?
A mother’s intuition is never wrong. And Jessica knows that nothing in life is perfect—not these kids, not her on-again, off-again relationship with Luke Cage, and certainly not Jessica herself. But even as she tries to buy into the idea that better days are ahead, Jessica Jones has seen all too clearly that behind every promise of perfection trails a dark, dangerous shadow.
Breaking the Dark, the first book in the brand-new Marvel Crime series, introduces fans to a grittier, street-level side of the Marvel Universe, and will continue with original novels featuring fan-favorite characters like Luke Cage, written by S.A. Cosby, and Daredevil, written by Alex Segura.
EXCERPT
THE SENSATION OF waking the next morning in Luke’s bed with a clear head and an unsullied memory of the night before is novel. She turns toward Luke and props her head on her hand. He’s lying on his back, looking at his phone, and his face opens up at the sight of her. He puts the phone down and turns so that he is facing her fully.
“Good morning, Jessica Jones.”
“Good morning, Luke Cage.”
“So this is what you look like in the mornings when you don’t have a stinking hangover.”
“Yeah. Pretty, huh?” She pulls a cheesy smile.
“Yeah,” says Luke, moving his face closer to hers. “So pretty.”
She pushes his face away from hers playfully. “What are you doing today?”
“Oh, you know, putting up shelves.”
“Putting up shelves? Seriously?”
“Yeah. Seriously. You might have noticed that I do not have any shelves. And I also have things that need to go on shelves. So I am putting up shelves.”
“And where are you going to get the shelves from?”
“I already have the shelves. I got them last weekend from IKEA.”
“You went to IKEA?”
“Er, yeah. Where else do you think I’d get shelves from?”
“I really can’t say I’ve ever thought about it. Maybe I just thought you’d hack down a tree and carve it into slices with your bare hands.”
“Really?” He laughs. “You think that?”
“No. I don’t think that. But you know, self-assembly hell, even you might need some help with that. Would you like my assistance? I could use one of those things with the thing in it?”
“One of those things with the thing in it?”
“Yeah. For straight lines. It has like a little blob of oil in the middle? I think?”
“A spirit level?”
“Yeah! A spirit level! I can do that if you need me to?”
Luke smiles lazily at her and finds her hands. He picks them up and squeezes them gently. “Jessica Jones. I would love to put up shelves with you today. Thank you.”
“No. Thank you. It’s nice to have someone to spend time with. I’ve just been feeling . . . since I gave up drinking . . . just so . . .”
“Bored?”
“Yeah. Bored. Time goes slowly, doesn’t it?”
Luke laughs. “It can.”
“Just so slowly. And rooms feel so . . . hollow. And my mind. It goes places. And plays tricks on me. And I keep seeing this girl. . . .”
She pauses, unsure for a moment, but then she glances up and sees Luke’s soft gaze on her, so she continues. “A little girl. She looks about five. And at first, I thought she was real? But now I’m not sure. And it feels like maybe my brain made her up? I can’t . . . I can’t explain it.”
“What makes you think she’s not real?”
“I don’t know. Because she sure as hell looks real to me. But whenever I see her, she is always alone, and what sort of five-year-old is always alone? Like no five-year-old, that’s who. I dunno. Maybe I’m losing my mind a little.”
“We’re all losing our minds a little.”
“Are you losing your mind, Luke?”
“Of course I am. Every minute of every day.”
“Like, right now?”
“No, not right now. But the rest of the time.”
“Why not right now?”
Luke rolls his eyes. “Duh,” he says. “Because you’re here.”
Jessica’s stomach reacts to this with a sickly sweet lurch. “Ha,” she says. “Interesting.”
“In what way interesting?”
“In the way that it sounds like you’re saying something nice to me.”
“And why wouldn’t I be saying something nice to you?”
“Because . . .”
She stops. She wants to say Because I’m a loser. But she feels for a moment like maybe she isn’t a loser, especially here, in Luke’s fragrant bed, with a clear head and a shaft of golden morning sun cutting through a gap in his drapes, with his eyes on her like that, like she is a good thing, not a bad thing, and the soft, shocking secret that may be growing inside her right now.
“No,” she says instead. “You’re right. I’m freaking amazing.”
“Well, I did not say that precisely,” he replies with a twinkle and Jessica rolls her eyes and play-pushes him before sighing and leaning back into the pillows.
“Do you ever think about the next ten years, Luke?”
“What aspect of the next ten years?”
“I don’t know, I guess the substance of it? What they’re going to be for? I mean, did you ever think about, I don’t know, having kids? With any of your exes?”
“Kids?” Luke lets out a small dry laugh. “No. No, I never did think about kids. I mean, what sort of a world is this to bring new life into? This shitty, disgusting world. No. It was never on the agenda.”
Jessica feels the playful mood dip and she stifles a sigh. “And now?”
“Well, I don’t see the world getting any better, do you?”
“So you don’t think a child’s world is what you make it?”
“Hey, I know I have super-powers, but I’m not sure they extend to ending poverty, racism, war, and disease.”
“But you can protect your children, can’t you? Surely?”
“I’m not sure you can. Especially a child of mine, whose skin would be the wrong color for this world. Maybe it would be unbreakable like mine, but damn sure everyone would try to test that. Every day would be an uphill battle. And I’m tired enough fighting for myself, let alone for a child that didn’t ask to be born.”
Jessica nods, mutely.
“What about you?” he asks. “You ever think about having a child?”
She smiles tightly. “Yeah, I mean sometimes, I guess. But then I think, what sort of mother would I be? You know. With all my issues.”
“Well, yeah, there’s that too. Not just the world that can mess up a kid. Moms and dads can do a pretty good job of that too.”
Jessica reels slightly at his words, not the words she expected, not what she was looking for—instead, confirmation of every doubt she’s ever had about herself and her place in this world. She feels tears spring hard behind her eyes and pushes them back down and then, thank God, her phone buzzes and Malcolm’s name appears on her screen.
“Sorry,” she says. “I have to take this. It’s work.”
