Elise Hart Kipness is a USA Today bestselling author and former national TV sports reporter. She is known for the acclaimed Kate Green thriller series, Lights Out (2023), Dangerous Play (2024), and Close Call (2025), which has been optioned for television by Universal Television and Mary J. Blige’s Blue Butterfly.

Elise has earned worldwide recognition, including Men’s Journal’s Top 10 Books of the Year, a Woman’s Day Must-Read Selection, and a Scripps News Beach Read Pick and has been featured on CBS Mornings+, CBS New York’s Club Calvi, People Magazine, and Newsday.

Like her fearless protagonist, Elise chased marquee athletes at the US Open and stood beneath the blinding lights of Madison Square Garden, in her past life as a reporter for FOX Sports Network and WNBC-TV New York.

Elise is a writing instructor at Westport Writers’ Workshop and a board member of Friends of the Key West library. She is also the co-founder of the Connecticut chapter of Sisters in Crime. Elise and her husband split their time between Key West and Connecticut.