Elle Grawl Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Elle Grawl
Elle Grawl is a lawyer by day and a writer by night. After she got her BA in English Literature, she took a detour into law before she returned to her love of writing.

Her lifelong interest in true crime along with her experiences as an attorney have provided plenty of material for her to pull on for her stories. She enjoys spending time and traveling with her husband and their two dogs.

When she was brainstorming the plot to “One of Those Faces”, it was instantly obvious to her that it had to take place in Chicago. It could have been set in any number of places, however Chicago is one of her absolute favorite cities and overall the vibe really stood out to her as a perfect setting for a twisty and trippy psychological suspense read. There are so many distinct neighborhoods in Chicago, so deciding where key scenes would be set was an interesting task for her.

Since Harper is an artist, Wicker Park instantly came to mind as the perfect place to start off the story. If you should ask a random Chicagoan what they associate with Wicker Park, the most common responses would likely be “tacos” and “hipsters”. Today Wicker Park has got a vibrant art scene and a number of eclectic (and often high-end) stores. And these lively vibes go late into the night. Buskers play on the street corners and the line at the by-the-slice pizza place just gets longer the closer you get to midnight.

The majority of the places mentioned in the novel are fictionalized versions inspired by some real places located in Wicker Park, like The Tipsy Paintbrush (where Harper works part-time) and the nameless bookstore with a cafe (which is just an amalgamation of all of the wonderful local bookstores in this area).

“One of Those Faces” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2022. From Elle Grawl, a debut author, comes this psychological thriller about this insomniac artist that learns a shocking truth about a recent series of murders in her city: each of the victims look exactly like her.

Harper Mallen, years after she escaped from her abusive childhood, has only ever known sleepless nights, or horrifying nightmares. She has been struggling to maintain an artist’s life in a hip Chicago neighborhood, getting by on the freelance gigs at a local painting studio, called The Tipsy Paintbrush, when she suffers another horrible shock.

This young woman is killed right outside of Harper’s apartment, a woman that bears a chilling resemblance to her. While Harper searches for further information about this victim, she finds some unsettling links to these two other murders. And then there is a third doppelganger, who is still alive. Harper’s life is not the only one that is hanging in the balance.

While her paranoia and obsession deepen, everybody’s a suspect: the owner of the painting studio, the handsome stranger in the cafe, and even the ghosts from her past. The closer that she gets to unraveling the truth behind these murders, the more Harper begins realizing that there’s nobody she is able to trust. Not even herself.

Readers found themselves being creeped out, feeling tense and unsettled, even downright scared at certain moments. They were just a bundle of nerves while they were getting to the end of the novel. The things that Harper is put through would make most normal people rock back and forth in the corner. But then she is one of the most toxic characters readers have stumbled on in quite a while. The book is a totally assured read that will send chills down your spine and keep you looking over your shoulder.

Elle Grawl delivers a mind fuck of an interesting read which focuses on exactly how trauma can truly mess with your perception. Right when you believe you’ve nailed down who the killer is, something will happen which compels you to believe that it is somebody else, and you later circle back.

This novel is such a compelling and wild ride that you won’t be able to look away until you’ve gotten to the very last sentence. This binge worthy and trippy thriller should be at the very top of everybody’s must read list. It’s a keep you up all night chilling debut novel which twists the narrative sharp like a knife and places you at the author’s mercy to give you those long anticipated answers, which won’t be at all what you were expecting.

The novel was selected by Amazon as a First Read pick for November of 2022.

“What Still Burns” is the second stand alone novel and was released in 2023. The haunting story about a young woman’s return home to confront her tragic past, the fire which killed her family, and what remains from the ashes, from the author of “One of Those Faces”.

Alexis “Lex” Blake swore that never would she return to the town where she had lost her family and her home in a devastating fire which she was the only survivor and can hardly remember. However when her aunt dies, leaving a mountain of debt behind, Lex has no choice but to go back to Northern California in order to settle her family’s estate.

This small town is very much the same as Lex left it: staunchly religious, tight knit, and wary of the Blakes, which is evidenced by the run-ins she has with the preacher, nosy locals, and the sheriff. The one saving grace she has is her old flame, however even Kael McPheron is not even enough to distract her from the bitterness of her past.

Getting her family’s property ready to be sold forces her to contend with some odd occurrences and these mysterious phone calls which start to unlock buried childhood memories. And when a corpse turns up, and then another one, she realizes that the mystery of that night is much deeper than she could have ever imagined, and the threat which already destroyed her life once is still burning.