Anatomy of an Alibi (2026) is a mystery thriller novel by Ashley Elston. It follows the braided narratives of Camille Bayliss and Aubrey Price as they entangle themselves in a web of lies surrounding Camille’s lawyer husband, Ben, and the tragic accident that changed the trajectory of Aubrey’s life. The novel examines The Precarious Process of Proving One’s Innocence, The Impact of Coercive Control Within Marriage, and The Relationship Between Class and Credibility in a Socially Stratified Community.

Elston is the author of six young adult (YA) novels, including her 2016 YA thriller This Is Our Story and her 2019 YA romance 10 Blind Dates. Elston’s debut adult novel, First Lie Wins (2024), is a Reese’s Book Club Pick and is in production at Universal for a television adaptation. Elston lives in Louisiana with her family; Louisiana features as the setting for her two adult novels, illustrating the location’s importance to her life and craft.

This guide uses the 2026 Headline Kindle Edition.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide discuss graphic violence, death, emotional abuse, cursing, and substance use.

Plot Summary

On Saturday, October 10, Aubrey Price is dressed as Camille Bayliss, the wife of prominent lawyer Ben Bayliss, in the small town of St. Francisville, Louisiana. Aubrey changes back into her own clothes at a gas station and then meets with Camille. She gives Camille back her possessions, and Camille admits that their plan is off to a rocky start. Aubrey knows Camille is hiding something from her, but Aubrey has her own secrets.

On Sunday, October 11, Ben’s law partner, Hank Landry, receives a frantic phone call from Camille and rushes over to the Bayliss house. Camille tells Hank that she came home from a weekend trip to St. Francisville to find Ben murdered in his office. Hank calls the police, and Detective Sullivan, or Sully, arrives with his officers. Sully questions Camille, and Camille produces the receipts from her weekend in St. Francisville that proves she wasn’t home when Ben died. Both Hank and Sully find her preparedness odd.

The novel moves back and forth in time, creating a nonlinear narrative. On Saturday, October 10, Camille leaves the house in her Range Rover and drives to St. Francisville while reflecting on her marriage to Ben. Ben tracks Camille’s every move, so she can’t escape Ben’s watchful eye. Ben and Camille were high school sweethearts, and though Camille’s powerful father, Randall Everett, initially opposed the match, they remained together. Randall runs Corbeau, the small town near Baton Rouge where Camille and Ben grew up. Camille feels trapped in the marriage, as she signed a prenuptial agreement that only financially benefits her if she divorces Ben after he exhibits bad behavior like physical abuse, infidelity, etc. Camille knows Randall and her family wouldn’t support her in a divorce.

Camille searches relentlessly for evidence of wrongdoing, and she finally finds it in early September after Ben comes home drunk one night and leaves his briefcase unlocked. She finds a napkin with the name “Aubrey Price” written on it, along with the woman’s address and phone number. Camille finds Aubrey at her job at Doug’s Tavern and asks her if she’s having an affair with Ben. Aubrey has never heard of Ben but finds out that he brought her housemates, Eddie and Shane, an old Mustang to fix up. Aubrey assumes Camille’s interest in her relates to Paul Granger’s case, and Camille seems stunned by Aubrey’s mention of Paul’s name. Aubrey and her other housemate, Deacon, return home, and Serenity, their other housemate and yoga instructor, tells Aubrey that Camille attended a couple of her yoga classes. Aubrey wants to get to the bottom of Camille and Ben’s interest in her life.

Aubrey’s parents died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver, and the police found a man named Paul Granger guilty. Paul frequently writes to Aubrey and assures her that he’s innocent, and Aubrey herself thinks the case doesn’t add up. Deacon, who works for his cousin, Chris, finds Ben’s private investigator, Vic. Vic has large gambling debts, and Chris buys the debts and forgives them in exchange for Vic telling Deacon and Aubrey everything that he’s doing for Ben. Meanwhile, Ben pressures Camille to go to St. Francisville for a weekend away, even though he plans to be out of the house at a conference with Hank, which makes Camille suspicious.

Aubrey contacts Camille again and they meet up. Aubrey tells Camille that she believes Ben played a role in the death of her parents, and she and Camille can prove it. They make a plan: Aubrey will impersonate Camille during her weekend in St. Francisville, and Camille will place cameras throughout her house and hide in the attic to catch Ben.

On October 10, Aubrey and Camille travel to St. Francisville and trade places. Aubrey veers off Camille’s plan for her to shop in boutiques and attend a festival. She meets Eddie, who takes Camille’s garage opener from the Range Rover and places a tracker on the car. Aubrey shops briefly and uses Camille’s credit card before meeting Deacon and Serenity. Serenity takes Camille’s phone and goes to the festival to make it appear that Camille is in St. Francisville while Deacon drives Aubrey to meet with Paul Granger at the state penitentiary. Paul tells Aubrey that a man told him that he had distinctive evidence of Paul’s innocence. Aubrey knows, thanks to Ben’s PI Vic, that the man is the now-deceased Kevin Foster, Corbeau’s former chief of police and Randall’s fixer, though she doesn’t tell Paul that Foster’s dead. Aubrey returns to St. Francisville and finishes creating Camille’s alibi.

Meanwhile, Camille returns to her home and sets up the cameras before hiding in the attic. Ben comes home early, and he’s surprised by Eddie and Shane dropping off the fixed-up Mustang. After they leave, he watches a video of Aubrey asking Foster questions about Paul’s case. Margaret, Camille’s brother Silas’s wife, arrives and talks to Ben about the accident, revealing that Silas was the driver that killed Aubrey’s parents, and Ben served as his alibi to earn Randall’s approval. Ben threatens Margaret to stay quiet and plans to use the evidence that Foster kept in a gun safe in his house, which his PI Vic helped him obtain a key to. Ben receives a phone call from someone who then texts him a picture, and he leaves.

Camille sneaks back downstairs to collect the cameras, but Ben finds her. Ben received a photo from Vic of Aubrey posing as Camille in St. Francisville. Ben demands Camille give him all the cameras, and he destroys them. He claims that he lied for Silas to protect Camille from her father, but Camille doesn’t believe him. She calls Silas, who tells her the truth: He partied at Paul Granger’s house that fateful night and borrowed Paul’s truck with Margaret to get food, then crashed into the Prices before Margaret dragged him to Ben’s house. Ben called Randall and told him the truth, and Randall bribed Ben to serve as Silas’s alibi.

Silas tries to talk to Ben, but he tells Camille that Ben wasn’t home when he visited. Silas helps Camille commit to the rest of her alibi and keeps an eye on Aubrey to keep Aubrey safe from Ben or Randall. When Camille returns home on the morning of Sunday, October 11, she finds Ben dead, and calls Hank.

After Ben’s murder, Hank returns to Bayliss and Landry. Ben wanted to dissolve his partnership with Hank because Ben was a dirty lawyer, using Randall’s fixer, Foster, to intimidate witnesses and win his defense cases for his wealthy clients. Hank refuses to use dirty tactics, which angers some of Ben’s clients. Hank digs into Ben’s files and finds evidence of his corruption and his investigation into Paul Granger and Aubrey Price. Hank sees Aubrey and Camille talking at the Rosary service honoring Ben, which he thinks is odd. Hank serves as Camille’s defense attorney and helps her through Sully’s questioning, in which Sully reveals someone stabbed Ben to death with the decorative knife from his desk, a birthday present from Camille. Hank later confronts Aubrey at Doug’s Tavern. Aubrey tells him to talk to Camille.

Camille and Silas find Ben’s hidden key to Foster’s gun safe, but they find his safe empty. Deacon arrives at the same time, having tracked Camille’s car. Deacon leaves to tell Aubrey the safe is empty. Serenity throws a birthday party for her boyfriend, Frank, at the shared house, and Aubrey returns home from work. Aubrey finds the bloody knife in her pajama drawer, and Eddie and Shane destroy it and tell her to prepare for the police to arrive. The police search the house and find nothing. Aubrey calls Hank for help. Hank finds letters and leatherware gifts from Paul in Aubrey’s room, including a jewelry box with an unusually typed letter. Hank visits Paul in prison and asks him about the box, which Paul claims he gave as a gift to Foster, and which has a secret compartment. Hank calls Aubrey and tells her that Foster must’ve sent her the box. Aubrey opens the secret compartment and finds a USB drive. She destroyed her laptop to avoid the police finding her search history about Ben and Camille, so she asks Frank to borrow his. She gives Frank the drive before he goes to his truck to search for an adapter. Deacon returns home and tells Aubrey he saw Frank driving away.

Camille has lunch with her family, planning to tell them she won’t stay in Corbeau, but Silas asks to speak with her alone. Silas reveals that Frank works for him, and he has the USB drive. Camille and Silas watch the CCTV footage from the gas station near the accident. They realize that Margaret was the one driving that night, and she framed Silas. Silas plans to deal with Margaret, but before Camille leaves the shop, Margaret bludgeons her in the head. Hank finds Camille unconscious, and he, Silas, and Frank rush her to the hospital in Baton Rouge. Camille recovers, and Hank finally receives a full list of attendees from Paul Granger’s party. He sees a name he recognizes: Nathan Sullivan, or Sully.

Aubrey is home alone when Sully arrives and threatens her. She realizes that he killed Ben and tried to frame her. Sully strangles Aubrey before Deacon interrupts and fights him off. In the struggle, Sully’s gun discharges and kills him. Silas and Frank arrive. Silas concocts a plan to save Deacon from going to jail: Aubrey must say that Sully killed her parents and then killed Ben to keep the truth from coming out. Hank will corroborate the story to protect Camille. In reality, Sully was Foster’s nephew and worked alongside Foster to do Randall and Ben’s dirty work, and he killed Ben to prevent Ben revealing the truth of his involvement in the corruption. Aubrey agrees to lie, because Deacon is more important to her than the truth.

Aubrey works a shift at Doug’s Tavern. Silas arrives and orders a beer. He loudly tells Aubrey that he’s worried about Margaret’s drinking, and he then receives a phone call alerting him that Margaret just died in a lethal car accident. He leaves, and Aubrey realizes that Silas thinks he got justice for the Prices, but Aubrey isn’t sure how she feels about it. Aubrey also realizes that she is now Silas’s alibi if anyone asks him about his wife’s death.