Marissa Stapley
At a glance
The author of New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick Lucky returns with a spellbinding story of rock ‘n’ roll and star-crossed love—about grunge-era musician Jane Pyre’s journey to find out what really happened to her husband and partner in music, who abruptly disappeared years earlier
He was the troubled face of rock ‘n’ roll... until he suddenly disappeared without a trace.
Jane Pyre was once half of the famous rock ‘n’ roll duo, the Lightning Bottles. Years later, she’s perhaps the most hated—and least understood—woman in music. She was never as popular with fans as her bandmate (and soulmate), Elijah Hart—even if Jane was the one who wrote the songs that catapulted the Lightning Bottles to instant, dizzying fame, first in the Seattle grunge scene, then around the world.
But ever since Elijah disappeared five years earlier and the band’s meteoric rise to fame came crashing down, the public hatred of Jane has taken on new levels, and all she wants to do is retreat. What she doesn’t anticipate is the bombshell that awaits her at her new home in the German countryside: the sullen teenaged girl next door—a Lightning Bottles superfan—who claims to have proof that not only is Elijah still alive, he’s also been leaving secret messages for Jane. And they need to find them right away.
A cross-continent road trip about two misunderstood outsiders brought together by their shared love of music, The Lightning Bottles is both a love letter to the 90s and a searing portrait of the cost of fame.
"Both a page-turning mystery and a love letter to the grunge era. The set-up is simple and compelling: what if Courtney Love set out on a road trip across Europe with her internet sleuthing neighbor to uncover the real truth behind Kurt’s death? The parallels to Kurt and Courtney aren’t that exact… Still, we all know what we’re meant to be listening to while reading it."
- Lit Hub
"Fiercely visceral and exquisitely written, The Lightning Bottles is an ode to rock and roll, the 90s and the power of music to hurt and heal in equal measure. This one will satisfy readers looking for a tumultuous love story, as well as those in the mood for a twisty mystery. Be prepared for the wildly talented, charismatic duo that is The Lightning Bottles to take up permanent residence in your head and heart."
- People
"In this must-read for lovers of Daisy Jones and the Six and A Star is Born, a golden couple achieve a meteoric rise, only to find their dreams shattered by the price of fame. Stapley’s latest is a deep dive into the treatment of women in the music industry, as well as a delicious mystery featuring an international scavenger hunt. A wild ride of a novel that will leave you breathless."
- Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Spectacular
“Where were you when you found out rock legend Elijah Hart had disappeared? That the talented yet troubled musician had taken a rowboat into the stormy waters off Iceland’s south coast and never returned?”
The radio DJ’s voice rumbles through the air in seventeen-year-old Hen Vögel’s bedroom. “I was right here,” she says to her walls.
“Maybe you were returning home from work when you learned the front man of the multiplatinum-selling husband-and-wife duo the Lightning Bottles had been declared dead,” the DJ continues. “Maybe you were on a first date. Or a last date. Or driving in your car with the radio on.” Hen shakes her head; she has never done any of those things.
“How did you feel when you realized his miraculous voice had been silenced forever?”
DJ Grüber does this every year. In case the emotions are fading, he tries to stir them up. But Hen doesn’t need stirring. The difference be- tween thirteen years old and seventeen is supposed to be a caterpillar versus a butterfly. But Hen has remained stuck in her cocoon, trying to rewrite the story of her hero’s demise, since the day Elijah Hart disappeared five years earlier.
She stares up into his eyes gazing out from a poster tacked to the wall above her bed. There’s a permanent sunbeam stained across his T-shirt now. He’s tall and lean, his hair unkempt like he just woke up. One of his front incisors overlaps the other—Hen knows the details of Elijah Hart’s…
Addiction.
